The verse begins and it says,
Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel.
None went out, none came in. Jericho is like this world. It was a large, populated, rich
city. The people that worked there
worked hard and they played harder. They had comfort, they had pleasure.
They went about their day-to-day. Everybody in that city, if you
ask them, they would tell you how God saves, they would tell
you that they were saved, they would tell you that they believed
they were alright with God. And every one of them was worshipping
the gods of their imagination. They were worshipping the gods
they had thought up in their minds, the works of their own
hands. And God had devoted that entire
city to destruction and they had no idea. This world is under
the curse. God has devoted this world to
destruction. Everything in it is marked for
destruction. And right now, everybody who is not trusting Christ is
one with this world and as far as anybody can tell, you are
marked for destruction. Perhaps you are an elect child
of God. God did have an elect child in Jericho. Her name was
Rahab. And she was no different than
the rest of them. She was a harlot. But God chose her. And God would bring her out of
Jericho. And He would bring all her family
out. A picture of God bringing out all the church and family
of God out of this world. He will lose none. He will bring
them out. Bring them out. So Christ our
head, Christ our captain, the one spoken of there we saw in
Joshua 5, who Joshua saw, he assembled Joshua and all the
children of Israel. And he told them, I have given
you the victory. He said, I've given you the victory
over Jericho. Look here in verse 2. And the
Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given to thy hand Jericho, and
the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. Christ has told
us, He said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He's overcome the
world and He's given, He's overcome Satan. the prince of this world,
and just as he said, I've given you the king of Jericho. He's
subdued him, he's put him, he's crushed his head, that is his
power, his headship, when he triumphed over him on the cross
and made a show of him openly. Triumphing over all powers and
principalities. And he's given us the mighty
men of valor, that is those of his elect children who think
they're strong and able to fight and able to overcome and they
won't. I'm not going to hear the gospel. Yes, you are if God's
marked you as His child. He's going to subdue you. He's
going to conquer you. And He's promised us that. He's
promised you and I, believer, that. So as we go forth, He's
promised us victory. But God's ways are not our ways,
are they? They're not our ways. In the
wisdom of God, God chose the foolishness of preaching to call
out His lost sheep. And so after promising Israel
and Joshua this victory, Christ sent them forth in a manner that
typifies preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at verse
3. You shall 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 shall you encompass the city
seven times. And the priests shall blow 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 straightway before him." God's appointed
Six days, he's appointed a time. He's appointed a specific time
that his gospel is going to be preached in this world. It's
like a six-day work week. And it's going to be preached,
and we just sing it, till all the rest of the church of God
be saved to sin no more. And that's when the jubilee trumpet
will blow, that long blast, and the walls will fall down, and
every man will ascend straightway up before Him. But until that
happens, we have six days that God's appointed, not a literal
six days, but an appointed time to preach this gospel. They were
to go forth carrying the ark as seven priests blew trumpets
made out of ram's horns. That's a picture of, it typifies
Christ and Him crucified being preached by you and I who Christ
has made priests unto God. We're to go forth, just like
they were to go around Jericho, we're to go around this world
preaching the gospel. And he said, cry aloud, spare
not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions. He said, I set watchmen over
you saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. That's what the
gospel is. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion and
sound an alarm in my holy mountain. That's what we're doing here
today. Paul said, and if the trumpet give an uncertain sound,
who shall prepare himself to the battle? Who's going to prepare
for this battle if the trumpet's not giving an off sound? Well,
they were to bear the ark. I said to you early in the first
hour, that ark pictures Christ. That ark was made of shidom wood. made out of wood. Christ was
a man. His people were flesh. He was
made flesh that He might bear our sins in His body on the tree
and answer to the penalty of sin as a man and put away our
sin as a man. But that ark was overlaid inside
and out with pure gold. Christ is God too. And because
He's God, everything He accomplished is eternal. He accomplished eternal
redemption, eternal justification. And in the ark was the law of
the covenant. That law written on God's heart was the law that
God made with Him, that covenant God made with Him before the
foundation of the world to come and be made a curse for His people
and redeem them from the curse of the law. And God promised,
and I'll send forth the spirit of adoption into their hearts
and they'll cry, Abba Father, and they'll come to Me through
You and I'll give them access into My presence. And so Christ
came forth. and have fulfilled everything.
He's that mercy seat, that propitiation. Justice is satisfied by Christ.
God is just and justifier of all those He'll call to faith
in Christ. And then we see here there was
an armed guard that went before, and there was an armed guard
that came up in the rear, to the rear guard. And we've been
taught through the scriptures that Christ is with us always.
He is our armory. He is our armor. He goes before
us, He comes up from behind, and He protects His people. Seven
is the number of perfection. The number of perfection. There
were sevens all through this. Blow seven trumpets. Accomplish
the city seven times. On the seventh day do it seven
times. All these sevens. Now that's the number of perfection.
The number of people that are assembled in this body, the number
of believers that are assembled in this body for this work is
a perfect number. You know why? Christ is added
to this church daily such as should be saved. It's the perfect
number that should be here right now. Right now. And we're going
forth and we're declaring a perfect Redeemer who's accomplished perfect
redemption and made His people perfect. And we're going to do
this until He's perfectly fulfilled the work and called out every
elect child. And they use ram's horns. You know, a ram's horn
is not a silver horn. It's not a gold horn. It's not
a pretty horn. We used to go hunting when I
was back home and we had horns made out of bull horns. It was
kind of like a ram's horn. It's just an old ugly horn, what
it is. And that horn, that ram's horn,
as opposed to being a silver horn, a beautiful horn, it expresses
both the foolishness of preaching as well as the nothingness of
us who God uses to preach. Can't you just picture whenever
they first began to go around Jericho blowing these trumpets?
Can't you just picture the people up on the wall looking out there
and they watched them go around? Fellas, y'all gotta come here
and look at this. What are these dummies doing? They're just walking
around blowing a trumpet. They're just walking around the
city blowing a trumpet. It was foolishness to them. Well,
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, things
which are nothing, to bring to nothing things that are, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. And yet eventually
the sound of that trumpet did two things. Eventually the sound
of that trumpet did two things. One, it struck fear in the hearts
of God's enemies. And two, it gave great confidence,
and it gave the victory in the hearts of God's people. And that's
what our gospel does. Paul said, unto the one we're
the saver of death unto death, and unto the other the saver
of life unto life. Isn't that amazing? Some people
are hearing this gospel right now this minute, and they're
thinking, this sounds like death to me, and it's going to... it's
just... I don't want anything to do with
it. And some people are hearing it and saying, this sounds like
life to me. Isn't that amazing? That's what the gospel is. So
this is what God has sent them for. And He was going to call
out that elect child Rahab. This was the chief purpose. Well, one of the purposes. It
wasn't the chief purpose. The chief purpose was to glorify
Him. He was going to call out Rahab. But there was another
reason. Another reason for assembling them and giving them this commission.
And that's what I want to look at today. Here's the point. God uses the means of the gospel
not only to call out his sheep but to teach us who he has already
called to believe more upon Christ who shall give us this victory
through faith in him. That's why he's assembled us.
I've titled this overcoming the world. First of all, the way
in which sinners overcome the world is through faith in Christ,
which is proven by obeying Christ's commands. Christ said here in
verse 2, He said, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho.
Now, in order for them to see that, this was not carnal sight
He's talking about. They're going to have to see
this by faith. They're going to have to see this by faith.
Christ gave them the victory. Christ gives us faith. And he
says, when he's given you faith, he says, now you see, I've given
you the victory. And faith sees. Not as the carnal
sight sees. Faith is evidence of things not
seen. We see Christ has given us the victory. And then, but
that faith is going to be proven. It's going to be proven. You
see, This city, Jericho, this is one of those cities when the
spies went forth, you know, and they spied it out 40 years earlier.
They came back. This is one of those cities that
they said the cities were walled and very great. They didn't have
any faith, so they came back and they said there's no way
we can take these cities. Their walls go all the way up
to heaven. That's what they saw with Carlos Saint. So now Christ,
He's telling them, I've given you this city. And they believed
Christ. And to prove their faith in Christ,
to prove their faith in Christ, Christ commanded them to take
this city by marching around it and blowing a trumpet. True
faith is going to be proven by trial. It's going to be proven
by trial. Whenever they crossed the Jordan,
they just crossed the Jordan, that required faith. And that
faith was tried as well. The Lord told them exactly how
He was going to divide that Jordan River and they were going to
cross. But He didn't divide that river until their faith was proven. They took up the ark and they
walked and they stood in the edge of that river. And when
they stood in the edge of that river, they proved they believed
Him. And then God did the work. God
did the work. Christ made the waters go back,
but not until faith had been proven and not until they stood
in the brink of those waters. Well, that's how it was here
at Jericho. The captain of the Lord's host, Christ Jesus, declared
he had given the city into their hands. But he didn't make the
walls fall down. And he didn't make the gates
open. And he didn't make the people come walking out and bow
down and saying, we surrender. He didn't do any of that. Christ's
people would have to go forth with the ark blowing the trumpets. They'd have to do that. You see,
that's the same with us, brethren. The scripture says, as the body
without the spirit is dead, as a body without a spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also. But they're not the works
that this vainly religious world imagines they are. They're not. They're not. Christ only calls
on His people to do what is an utter impossibility for us to
do. But these are the works that
prove. Abraham was an example. Abraham
was told to offer his son Isaac. And he did so trusting God was
able to raise him from the dead. Abel wasn't able to. I mean,
Abraham wasn't able to. Rahab's another example of faith.
She trusted God was able to deliver them and she hid those spies.
She was not able to do that. And now you hear, you have Joshua
and Israel and he's told them, I've given this city into your
hand. These walls are going to fall down. But they were not
able to make that happen. They had to walk around that
city blowing a trumpet and carrying holding up that ark like God
said. You see, our faith is proven. He's given us faith, He's called
us, and He's made us to believe the gospel. And we do by His
power. But brethren, now He's proving
our faith by sending us forth to preach this gospel to dead,
walled up, fortified sinners using no other means whatsoever.
That's a work that proves faith to be genuine. No gimmicks, no
scheming, No high-pressure tactics, no flesh-pleasing sales pitches. We're just supposed to preach
Christ. Believe that Christ will give life where there is none.
Believe that Christ will break down all the walls of defense.
Believe that Christ will make His child willing to be delivered
on God's terms. That's what we're to do. To trust
Him. This is one way that Christ proves
that His child has been given true faith. by sending us forth
to simply do as He commands. To believe Christ and preach
Him. And I'll tell you something else.
Because the Gospel is so vital to each one of our brethren,
and to lost sinners, because the Gospel is so vital, supporting
the Gospel of Christ is the chief way we love our brethren. It's
the chief way. It's the chief way. So Joshua
proved he believed Christ. How did he prove it? First of
all, he preached to his brethren what Christ commanded. Look at
verse 6. Christ had told him the gospel,
and then he said this, verse 6, And Joshua the son of Nun
called the priests, and he said unto them. He told them just
what Christ told him. Told them what Christ told him.
Now you picture that scene, brethren. Try to picture that. Here's the
children of Israel and they're waiting on Joshua to come and
tell them what kind of grand tactical surprise they're going
to put on Jericho. Are we going to tunnel under
the walls? Are we going to starve them out?
Are we going to make a Trojan horse? How are we going to attack
them? And Joshua feared God more than
he feared men. He reverenced God more than he
reverenced men. His heart was made humble toward
Christ more than towards men. And so you know what he did?
Joshua came forth and he didn't fear the congregation that they
were going to persecute him. He came forth, he didn't ask
the priests and the elders to give him their opinions. Christ
called Joshua to lead them. He called Joshua to lead them.
And so Joshua led Christ's people by bowing to Christ rather than
by bowing to the opinions of his brethren. That's what he
did. Why do preachers not declare that sinners are dead and trespassers
in sin? Why don't they just say it plainly,
truthfully, so everybody can hear it? Why don't they say salvation
is not by works? Why don't they say you can't
make yourself be born again? You can't come to God by your
will. You can't be saved by your works. Why don't men tell that?
Why do they scrape and bow before their congregations? Paul said
they constrain you to a moral life, they constrain you to law,
they constrain you to many benevolent works, only lest they should
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. You know what it is?
They don't believe Him. They don't believe Him. They
fear men more than they fear God. You can candy coat it and
call it anything you want to, that's the truth. That's the
truth. Joshua believed Christ. Joshua was a man humbled before
God by God's grace. He proved it by preaching what
Christ commanded, boldly leading those souls that Christ had entrusted
to his care. And you know, brethren, when
God's preacher does this, when God's given him a heart to bow
to Christ and he boldly leads the men and he will not listen
to what men say, obstinate men, who want to be in charge, they
consider that. They'll accuse God's preacher
of not being humble. They'll say, he's not humble,
that man's not humble. Look at Korah and all the hosts he led. They stood up and said, we're
just as holy as you are. What are you doing taking all
this on yourself? You know what Moses did? He hid
his face before God. And then he stood up and told
them, boys, y'all fix and go to hell. And God said, he's the
meekest man on the earth. He stood up to those fellows
because he bowed to God. That's true humility. That's
true meekness. That's what true meekness is.
There's very few people in this world that believe the gospel
is a work of faith. Very few. Very few that believe
it's true love. Very few. And it's not a work
of faith to just simply preach now and again, to fill in now
and again. That's not necessarily a work
of faith. I could go to a place for seven years I went to preach.
I went to places and preached. I didn't know the troubles going
on. I didn't know what was happening. I could walk in there, preach
the gospel, get on an airplane and fly out of there and never
have to be concerned about it at all. But to be in the trenches,
to be there and to know the troubles and to be there and to know the
fickleness that we are, brethren, To be there and to know there's
men who hate the gospel and are giving you the stink eye the
whole time you're preaching? To be there and to see money
walk away? To watch money walk away, to
watch numbers diminish and yet just keep on preaching the gospel?
Just keep on preaching the truth? God has to give you faith to
do that. There's nobody sufficient for this. God gives you faith
to do that. And then, here's the second thing.
It takes faith in the congregation to do this. Look here. We see
that here. Those to whom Joshua preached,
they believed Christ and they proved it the same way by obeying
the word that was delivered to them. Look here in verse 8. And
it came to pass when Joshua had spoken unto the people, the seven
priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns passed on before
the Lord, and blew with the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of
the Lord followed them. Those carrying the ark, they followed
them. The armed men went before the priest that blew the trumpets.
The rear ward came after the ark. The priest going on and
blowing with the trumpets. And look at this, look at this,
look at this obedience. Joshua had commanded the people
saying, You shall not shout nor make any noise with your voice. Neither shall any word proceed
out of your mouth until the day I bid you shout and you shall
shout. We're not talking about just a few people here. We're
talking about a host in the camp and then we're talking about
a host of folks going around this city. A host of people. We don't know how many was in
that front guard and that rear guard. But there was a host of
folks going around this city. Don't open your mouth. Don't
make a sound with your voice. Don't murmur. Don't complain.
Don't say a word. And they did everything God told
them to do. That's what they did. They didn't
object. They didn't offer their opinions.
One didn't complain about his task and desire the other's job.
They didn't doubt Christ's ability to do as He said. They believed
Christ and they proved it by each of them doing what Christ
commanded for them each to do without a word, without murmuring
in reverence to God. That's what they did. How do I know what God would
have me to do? How do I know what part of this
work God would have me to do? He's put us different members
in the body, given us different talents and different gifts to
use. How do I know what He would have
me to do? By what He's given us to do. What's He given you to do? Do
it. Do it with all your heart. And
do it for the furtherance of the gospel. And if God would
have you to do more, God will open the door and make you realize,
I've got something else for you to do. I've got something else
for you to do. Art and Scott used to sit right
here and right here. Now they're sitting back there.
God opened the door and says, here, I've got something else
for you to do. You do it. Do it. Alright, so that's the
first thing, we're overcome by faith. Trust in Christ and His
faith is going to be proven. It's going to be proven. But
here's the second thing now. We overcome this world by persevering
in faith. Don't just start and stop, we
continue. Look at verse 11. So the ark of the Lord come past
the city, going about it once, and they came into the camp and
lodged in the camp. And then Joshua rose early in
the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord,
and seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before
the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets. And
the armed men went before them, but the rear ward came after
the ark of the Lord, and the priests going on and blowing
with the trumpets. And the second day they compassed
the city once, and they returned into the camp. And so they did
six days. They just kept doing this. First
of all, Day after day, you think about this, day after day, they're
going around that city, they have not seen the first stone
loosened. Not the first stone loosened
in that wall. It'd be easy to say, Joshua, Now listen, we have not been
around this city three times. We are not talking about a little
city, we are talking about a big city. We have not been all around this
city three times, we have not even seen a rock fall out of
these stones. Don't you think it's time we
adjusted and did something a little differently? Don't you think
we ought to use another tactic than this? Nope, they kept doing
exactly what the Lord told them to do. kept doing exactly. We
declare the gospel. We preach the gospel. And you
know, time goes by and you don't see anybody added to the church. And worse, sometimes you go through
stretches where you see folks leave the church. You know what
I'm thankful for? There's a lot of congregations.
When they see the congregation diminish, there's a lot of congregations
that'll call for a business meeting. And they'll get the preacher
and they'll say, now, we think you need to change up what you're
preaching. This ain't working. You got to
tone it down a little bit. Preach on something else besides
what you're preaching on so that we can get some folks in here. Let's get a ball game. Let's
get a ball team. We get them in here with a ball
team and then we can trap them with the gospel. And they do
all these things, all these things, and add all these programs, and
then all that stuff costs money. And if you start preaching the
gospel, those people are going to leave. And so now you end
up just having to preach nothing to keep them there to pay for
all your junk. You're in a trap. You're in a
trap. You'll never preach the gospel.
Never do. But you know what you do when
we hit those rough patches? You know what you've done when
we've hit those places where people are saying things against
me, and they're saying things against us, and they're going
away, walking away? You know what you've done? It's
amazing, really. You've said, keep on preaching
what you're preaching. Keep doing what you're doing.
Don't stop. Keep preaching what you're preaching. I can't tell
you how thankful I am for that. I cannot tell you how encouraging
that is. It lets me know God's working
a work of grace in your hearts and that my preaching is not
in vain. Alright, look here. Our charge is not to make converts. You know, that's not our charge.
Our charge is to declare the glory of God in Christ Jesus.
Christ just told them, blow the trumpet. Hold up the ark, blow
the trumpet. That's all he told them to do.
Walk around this city blowing the trumpet. This is what scripture
says. Deuteronomy 4.2 says, Preach
the preaching that I bid thee. That's it. Ezekiel 3.11 says,
Speak unto them and tell them whether they will hear or whether
they will forbear. That's our mission. It's not to make converts, it's
to declare the glory of God. We're a success by just preaching
the gospel, whether God calls anybody or not. Notice this too. Each day they circled that city
together. They went around it together.
It would have been easy for one of them to say, you know, they
won't miss me today if I'm not there. I'm just going to go and
stay home today. Far from it. Far from it. Each
step. Now listen to this now. Hear
me now. Each step that each took together spoke to their brethren
right beside them. Every step that took, this one
brother starts growing faint, and the steps of that brother
that's persevering beside him says to him, Brother, be of good
cheer, I believe God that it should be even as it was told
me. Brethren, we continue together. Christ uses each one of us to
cheer each other's heart and strengthen each other to persevere. Look at Ephesians 4.16. Let me
show you that. I hear men talking about, you
know, I don't need to be sitting under the sound of the gospel,
I don't need to be... All men do is reveal their ignorance. Look at the wisdom of God right
here. Ephesians 4, verse 16. He's talking about how when He
ascended, He gave them preachers and He assembled the body together
for the perfecting of the saints, for the calling out of His people
till we all become one body, all elect children into one body
in Christ. Now look at verse 16. And as
we're going forth preaching, he says, from Christ, the whole
body, it's been fitly joined together, he's put it together,
and compacted. Now look how it's fitly joined
and compacted. By that which every joint supplies. Every joint here means every
believing member. which every joint supplies. According,
it's not just that you and me do it to one another, it's not
just, I'm not talking about just sentimental encouragement here,
I'm talking about this, look, according to the effectual working
of Christ in the measure of every part, according as Christ works
in you, and in you, and in you, and in you, and in you, He, through
one another, makes us to encourage the other brother and makes,
look, this is what happens. He makes increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love. Brethren, that's the wisdom
of God. That's the wisdom of God in saving
through the gospel. That's the wisdom of putting
brethren together with brethren in a body so that he edifies
us using each other to do so. That's wisdom. That's wisdom.
And then look here, here's another thing. Look at 1 Corinthians
12. 1 Corinthians 12. It would have
been easy. 1 Corinthians 12. I'm going to let you get there
because I want you to hear this. It would have been easy at any
time as they're going around this city for those that are
bearing the ark to say, you know the trumpet blower don't need
us. He don't need us. It would have been easy at any
time for the guard to say, I'm not bearing the ark, I'm not
blowing the trumpet, they don't need me here. No. Look here, 1 Corinthians
12, 15. If the foot shall say, because
I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body? And if the ear shall say, because
I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of
the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where would be the hearing? And if the whole were hearing,
where would be the smelling? But now hath God set the members,
every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him. Verse
27. Now you are the body of Christ
and members in particular. Just like you have your members
of your earthly body. And they're all helping out every
other member. And they all form one body. And
just because my eye is not my hand, that doesn't mean I don't
need it. And if everything was hearing, I wouldn't be able to
smell. And so he's put all the members in the body. That's what
he's done in his body. Christ has done in his body,
his church. He's put the members there just like he would have
them be there and given them the abilities he's given each
one to do what he'd have them to do. And so Paul says, let
me tell you a better way. Rather than saying, you know,
because I'm not blowing a trumpet, they don't need me there. Rather
than saying, you know, because I'm not working the audio equipment,
they don't need me there. Rather than saying that, Paul
says, let me tell you a better way. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. How's that? By continuing together,
supporting each other with the gospel, using whatever God has
given you to use, however He's using you. That's right. That's
what He's done here. And notice this too. Every day
they went around that camp, they went around that city, they went
back to the camp. They went back to the camp. They went around that city and
then they went back to that camp. Now that took some perseverance.
to do that in faith because the enemy knew full well they were
in that camp. Once they started blowing those
trumpets and going around that city, the enemy knew right where
they were. And so when they went back to that camp, spent the
night in that camp, I mean at any time those gates could come
open and here could come a flood of soldiers out there and just
taking them down in that camp. But in that camp, they went back
in that camp, they ate, They went back to that camp, they
rested. They went back to that camp, they encouraged one another.
Boys, we've been around it five times now. Seventh day is almost
here. It's almost here. And not one
enemy was allowed by Christ to come and harm them while they
were in that camp. Not one. Now brethren, We're
in this camp right here. He's called us into this camp
and we continue in this camp. We go out, we circle the world
and we come back to the camp. And we eat of this bread. And
Christ strengthens us. And Christ encourages us through
one another. And He does not allow His enemies
to separate one of His children from Him in His camp. He just
doesn't. Now, look over at Hebrews 10,
verse 23. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.
Believe Christ. Keep believing Christ. He's faithful.
He's promised. He's going to fulfill His promise.
Now, look what's connected with this faith. and let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good works." How are we
going to do that? Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another and so much to more as you see the day approaching.
You notice here the opposite of forsaking the assembling of
ourselves is to exhort one another. is to provoke one another to
good works. That's the opposite of forsaking the assembling together.
And so, assembling together means we're exhorting one another.
Just by coming together, you're exhorting one another. That's
right. I'm thankful for the live broadcast. I am thankful for that. Because
some just cannot be here on a mid-week service. And I'm thankful you
can watch the service. But if you can be here, be here.
I, for one, need you. I need you here. What if everybody
said, we'll just watch tonight from home, nobody else. Nobody
else. It won't bother anybody. It'd just be me and Scott and
Art here. I mean, we'd have service anyway, but I'd be a whole lot
more encouraged to see everybody. You see what I'm saying? This is the wisdom of God to
put his people together in a local body and send us forth this gospel.
It's not only for the calling out of His sheep, it's for our
own edification by His grace. And for the edification of our
fellow brethren. Don't ever imagine, don't ever
imagine that your presence with God's sheep is not needed. It
most certainly is. That's God's will. That's God's
will. Now thirdly, faith that believes and obeys Christ and
perseveres shall behold Christ perform exactly what He promised. Look at verse 15. It came to
pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning
of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven
times. Only on that day they compassed
the city seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh
time when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto
the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city. Look
at verse 20. 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. You mean
they did that with trumpets? They sure did do it with trumpets.
God only calls us to do that which is impossible for me and
you to do. That's all He calls us to do.
He does not call us to do anything that's possible for you to do
in your own power. He calls us to only do that which
is impossible for us to do. Why? Not only to prove our faith
in Him, not only to prove we're trusting Him, but to prove to
our faith that with God all things are possible. That's why he does
it. The Lord said, If thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. That's
right. You remember the blind men? The blind men came to him and
Jesus said unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? And they said unto him, Yes,
Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith. According to your faith. be it
unto you." And their eyes were opened. Their eyes were opened. He told Martha, if thou wouldst
believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God. You want to see
the glory of God? Believe Him. Believe Him. Brethren,
believe in Christ and obey in Him and persevere to the end
in faith, depending upon Him to sustain our faith, to keep
us We shall see that with God all things are possible. We shall
see His glory. What kind of things are possible?
How are we going to see His glory? Hebrews 11.30 says, By faith
the walls of Jericho fell down after they were passed about
seven days. By faith. It says, By faith the
harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she
had received the spies with peace. And by faith, brethren, we shall
overcome this world. Christ said, Whosoever, whatsoever
is born of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Trust in Christ, the
object of our faith. Because with Him, all things
are possible. With us, nothing is possible. But trust in Him.
He's justified us of our sins. He's robed us in His righteousness. He's birthed us into a living,
eternal life with God. He's given us access with the
Father. He's assembled us together in His body. He's ministering
to each of us through one another, through His gospel in His body,
and He's calling out His sheep at the same time. Every now and
then, brethren, every now and then, this gospel goes forth
and that jubilee trumpet blows. That's what this word, this horn
means, jubilee. Every now and then, that jubilee
trumpet, he blows that blast and when he does, the walls fall
down in one of his elect centers and he creates them anew and
he brings them to faith in Christ and we stand amazed that he did
that because we know it's a miracle of grace. And we keep going,
and we keep preaching, and we keep gathering together, we keep
assembling together, because one of these days, when it's
the seventh day, and the work is seven completed, it's in perfect
completion, He's going to blow with that long blast. He's going
to blow with that final jubilee trumpet. And when He does, the
walls of this world are going to fall down flat, and every
elect child of God will have been called by His grace, and
every one of us are going to ascend up before Him into glory,
and we're going to take heavenly Jerusalem. That's right. Paul said, I'm speaking a mystery
to you. We're not going to all die, but
we're going to all be changed. In a twinkling of an eye, the
last trumpet's going to sound. And when it sounds, He said,
those that are dead already, they're going to rise first.
And then we the remain, we're going to be caught up in the
air with Him. And we're going to enter into the presence of
our Lord. And then it's going to be brought
to pass the saying, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh,
grave, where's your sting? Sin, where's your sting? Sting
of death is sin. Christ has put away the sin and
he's given us life, brethren. And so we're going to enter in
and we're going to rejoice in our God. You know what the very
next words Paul said was? Therefore, brethren, be steadfast,
immovable, always continuing in the work of the Lord. Because
your work is not in vain. It's not in vain. Keep on supporting
the gospel. Keep sending this gospel forth.
But sinner, listen to this now. Listen. Jericho was destroyed. And everything in it was destroyed.
Rahab was saved. All Joshua and all the children
of Israel were spared. They overcame. But everybody
else in that city died. They died. Sinner believe on
Christ. Unite with His people. Persevere
in faith with us by His grace. There is no church where I live. If there was no job where you
live, what would you do? Because you think your job is
your life. When Christ is your life, I tell you what you'll
do. You'll get where you can hear the life. That's true now. He has to give us grace to do
it, but that's what we'll do. May God give you grace not to
shut yourself up in this cursed Jericho. And believer, may God
give us grace to continue trusting in Christ, to continue loving
our brethren, and obeying Christ by preaching His gospel. What
wisdom of God to save us this way. Amen.