Joshua chapter 5. We'll begin
reading in verse 13 and read down to verse 15. 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 saith 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. Brethren, you and I who have
been chosen, redeemed, and regenerated by God have been saved from sin
and death and enlisted in Christ's army. We're in His army. By His work of grace in our hearts. That's what He's done. He's made
us each spiritual men of war. Christ is our captain. And we're
His foot soldiers. That's our subject. Christ is
our captain. Now our war is a true holy war. It's a true holy war. The end
purpose of this war is that Christ is going to conquer all His enemies.
The Lord said, sit here till I make thine enemies thy footstool
and all His enemies shall be conquered. Those who are enemies
in their minds by wicked works and yet are the elect of God
who He's chosen to save freely by His grace, they're going to
be conquered and they're going to be brought to His foot. And
those who are just Christ's enemies, They're going to be made to bow
too and confess that he's king of kings and lord of lords and
then cast out into outer darkness. But every knee shall bow. Every tongue's going to confess.
Everyone's going to be conquered and come to his footstool. Now
the weapons of our warfare in this battle are not carnal. They're
not carnal. Our Lord has sent us forth with
a simple charge. And it's very simple, really.
This is it. Believe on Christ, love one another,
and declare Christ person and mighty works. That's our charge. Our one weapon in this warfare
is the gospel. The word of God. That's our one
weapon in this warfare. And the scripture says, and our
weapon is mighty through Christ our captain. It's mighty to the
pulling down of strongholds. If you go on and read chapter
6, they circled Jericho with a gospel trumpet, blowing a trumpet,
and holding up an ark. And as they blew that trumpet
and held up that ark, the walls of Jericho fell down flat. That's
a picture of this weapon we have, this gospel. It's mighty to the
pulling down of strongholds. by Christ our captain, by his
power. And this warfare is unlike any
other because we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. I want
everybody to listen to me here real quick. I'm not against you
and nobody's against you. Whenever you perceive that men,
flesh and blood, are against you, I want you to understand
something. It's not men that are against
you. It's the wiles of the devil. That's what the Ephesians says.
Ephesians 4, I believe, says it's the wiles of the devil.
We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against
powers and principalities and rulers of the darkness of this
world, spiritual wickedness and high places. That's unseen devices,
wiles of Satan. That's who we're wrestling against.
He's who puts it in your mind that the world's against you
and everybody's against you. He's who puts it in your mind
that nobody's suffering like you're suffering. That's what,
read Peter. He says, be sober because the
devil goes about seeking whom he may devour and know that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren. He makes us
to think, I'm the only one suffering what I'm suffering. No, we're
not. No, you're not. And it's not men that are against
you. It's him. It's him. We're soldiers and
this is too how this warfare is unlike any other. We're soldiers
that have no power in ourselves. Now whoever heard of such a warfare
that has enemies so mighty and yet the soldiers in this warfare
have no power in themselves. Well that's how the captain of
our salvation manifests that all the powers of him. Because
he uses babies. Babies. to preach his gospel. Whoever's heard of sending babies
forth into war? That's who we are. We're just
babes in Christ that he sends forth into war. And he says,
and out of their mouth will go this gospel. And through it,
he's the power that accomplishes the work. That's our subject.
Captain, Christ is our captain. Christ is our captain. First
of all, we need to be watchful ever watchful, because our enemy
is too mighty for us. Look at verse 13. It came to
pass when Joshua was by Jericho, Joshua was by Jericho, after
Christ had made the whole camp obedient, circumcised them, made
them partake of Christ their Passover, while all his brethren
were resting, Joshua made his rounds in the night watching. May God give us grace to be watchmen. be always watching. God's pastors
are watchmen. Habakkuk 2.1 says, I will stand
upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to
see what He will say unto me, what God will say unto me, and
what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord said,
He answered me, and He said this, Write the vision, Now that he
was writing the scriptures, you know how he answers his preachers
today? He says, preach the vision, preach the gospel, preach it.
And he says, and make it plain upon tables that he may run that
readeth it. To us, he says, make it plain
that he that hears it may run with it. He'll run with it. And
he says, and wait to the appointed time, because it shall speak. It shall come to pass, though
it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will
not tarry. That is, Christ who is the subject
of the gospel. He will come. He will not tarry. Just wait. He's coming. And every
saint is to be watching. This is what scripture says.
You're all the children of light. and the children of the day.
We're not of the night nor of darkness. And he says, therefore
let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. He says, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love for our helmet, the hope of salvation. Christ
said, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit
truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. It's weak. And we need
to be watchful because that enemy is so great. Joshua drew near
to Jericho. Now they've crossed the river
Jordan. And they're camped out in Gilgal. And about a mile from
Gilgal is a mighty city. It's a mighty city called Jericho.
And that city, Jericho, is going to be the first city that they
encounter in this warfare that they come in contact with. Now
why are they going to do battle against Jericho? God had one
elect child in that city. One elect child named Rahab.
She was a harlot. If you'd have looked at her,
you'd have thought, oh, she's not a child of God. Can't be.
She's a harlot. But she was a child of God. God
had chosen her to save her. Every chosen child of God, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, shall be called out of darkness into
Christ's marvelous light. Listen to the scriptures. Listen
to the scriptures. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. They're going to be called. They
shall be called. They shall be called. In the
old world, God called Noah. In Irk, God called Abraham. In
Sodom, God called Lot. In Jericho, he called Rahab. If he's got one elect left, he
will not destroy this place till he brought that one out. God
is not willing that any of those he chose and put in Christ should
perish, but that every one of them shall come to repentance. So you can count that the long-suffering
of God is salvation. He'll do it. He'll do it. But
Jericho's walls were high. They were high. And the gates
were locked up tight in that place to prevent any attack from
God's people. Look at Joshua 6.1. It says,
Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel.
None went out and none came in. Now, get the picture. God's elect
children who are not yet delivered are like Rahab. They're locked
tight behind the gates of hell. That's where they're locked up.
The people of Jericho heard, they heard what the Lord did
for His children in bringing them across the river. But instead
of seeking mercy from God, they locked up those gates tight and
they put armed guards on those walls and they said, don't let
anybody go out and don't let them come in, whatever you do.
Dead sinners hear the gospel. But instead of bowing to God
and asking mercy from God, they shut up the gates of their ears
and the gates of their heart, tight as they can shut them up.
Satan and the hosts of hell surround them. He uses family, he uses
friends, and he uses their enemies. He uses them all. And he whispers
in their ear, and he tries to keep those gates shut. He whispers
a word contrary to the gospel. He whispers a word against the
preacher. He whispers a word against the people. He's trying
to turn their hearts against hearing the gospel of God. Whatever he can do. Whatever
he can do. And he'll use any means he can.
He'll urge men. Urge men. And sound so like an
angel of light when he's doing it. And say, you need to go to
one of these other churches of Christ. which is in reality a
synagogue of Satan that's preaching works, that's preaching his gospel,
Satan's gospel, salvation by the work of man's hand. And it
sounds good, but it's just Satan locking up the gates that much
tighter. Well, how in the world then,
you just picture Joshua, he's looking, I picture him standing
there, and there's this big old city, and if you could look at
it from a distance, here's little old bitty Joshua standing there,
and here's these mighty walls of this big city, surrounding
this city. How in the world, can't you just
picture him standing there just astonished and thinking, How
in the world are we going to conquer this city? We can't even
get past the walls of this city. How are we going to conquer this
city? Brethren, our hearts ache for our sons and daughters. They
ache. And I can tell you this, when
you pastor people, you're praying for them, you're striving to
get a message for them and praying, God, please bless it to them,
please bless it to them. And you can't help it. You're
as helpless as you can be. And often they think you are
their worst enemy and treat you like it. And you can't do anything
about it. You can't break those walls down.
And the same is true of our children, our loved ones, our nearest loved
ones. You cannot break those walls down. How are we going
to get in then? How are we going to be as triumphant
in this charge that Christ has given to us? Christ promises
us the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. If
Christ has just one elect child held tight behind such gates,
be assured that His church with His gospel shall prevail to penetrate
those gates for Christ said, all power in heaven and earth
is given unto me. And it's Christ's glory as the
head of His church to fill each and every one of those lost sheep
with a new heart and a new spirit and putting His spirit in them.
It's His glory to do it. And the Scripture says, He filleth
all in all. And the Scripture says, He shall
not fail till He has set judgment in the earth. He's going to do
it. He's going to do it. Here's the
second thing. We're sure of victory because
where Christ has assembled his people, Christ is present. Look
at verse 13. Joshua lifted up his eyes, and
he looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him.
This man is a pre-incarnate appearance of the God-man mediator, Jesus
Christ. This man speaks in Joshua 6,
2. This man right here speaks in Joshua 6, 2. And it says,
And the LORD said, capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah, God. And this Jehovah
God appeared in the form of a man. This is the God-man. That's who it is. That's who
it is. It's obvious from the way that Joshua worshipped him
and called him Lord and owned himself to be his servant. I
read to you from Revelation, whenever John fell down at the
feet of the angel, the angel said, Get up! I'm one of you.
Don't worship me. This man didn't do that. Joshua
fell down and it's obvious he's the God man because Joshua called
him Lord and said I'm your servant and he didn't correct him. And
it's obvious because his name is the the Lord of God's hosts. That's who He is. That's who
He is. Our Lord Jesus promises He will be present where He has
assembled His people just as He was with Joshua and the children
of Israel right here. He won't be present bodily in
bodily form so that we see Him like that. But He's present.
And sometimes we see Him through faith just almost as real as
if we see Him in bodily presence. His churches are described as
the seven golden candlesticks. And Revelation 2.1 says, Christ
is He who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
We saw last Sunday, when He sent them forth to preach, He said,
Lo, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the earth.
Now Christ in our midst was Paul's argument for how we ought to
behave ourselves toward one another in this world over there in Philippians. Go back over there to Philippians
2. We were there this morning. This was Paul's argument for
how we ought to behave ourselves in the church of God because
he said, God's in your midst. Christ is in our midst. Look
here, Philippians 2.12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Brethren,
Christ is here. He's here. Listen, if we could
see Him standing here, you think we'd be flippant and irreverent? Or do you think we would be fearful
and irreverent? What did happen when Joshua saw
him? Joshua hit his face and worshipped him. That's what will
happen when he gives us faith to behold his presence. We won't
be flipping irreverent anymore. We'll hit our face and we'll
reverence him in fear and trembling. Look at verse 14. Do all things
without murmuring and disputing. This is what he means when he
says work out your salvation. He's not talking about your eternal
salvation. He's talking about the things
you have to do amongst one another on a day-to-day basis. Do all
things without murmurings and disputing. Do you reckon if Christ
was standing here in person, you reckon we would murmur about
our life? Reckon we'd complain about our lot in life? When He
gives us boldness to see that He's with us, He's present, we
stop murmuring and complaining to Him about Him controlling
everything He's doing in our life and moving us and directing
us even though we suffer. Do you reckon that if we could
see Him standing here we would dispute with men when we teach
the gospel to them? Or would we just tell them plainly
the gospel and trust Christ to do the work? When you behold
His presence in faith, you can stop disputing with men about
the gospel and trying to force them by your clever arguments
to understand the gospel and just declare it and trust, my
master's going to make it effectual. If it's going to be made effectual,
He's going to do it. And when we dispute with one another,
we say, Lord, He's your servant. You can make Him stand. I believe
that's what we'd do if we knew He was standing right here. Well,
He is. He is. Verse 15, He says, "...that you
may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you
shine as lights in the world." If we could see Christ standing
beside us in our day-to-day, in everything we're doing every
hour of the day, do you think that we would be like this crooked
world, or do you think we'd shine as lights in the world? Children,
which is it? When your dad's around, do you
walk a more straight line? Most children today don't, unfortunately,
but you do. When your dad's around, you walk
a straight line. When he's not, that's when you
step out of line. If he gives us faith to see he's
with us, his love's what constrains us to walk as lights in this
world. Look at verse 16. Holding forth
the word of life. that I may rejoice in the day
of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain."
If we could see Christ standing here with us, do you think we
would be more bold to hold forth the gospel and not be afraid
of the gates of hell? His presence, seeing His presence
through faith is what gives us boldness to declare His gospel
even before the gates of hell. Go back now to our text and I
want you to notice one detail. Why is it he gives us this boldness?
Look back here at Joshua 5 and look at verse 13. Joshua beheld
this man, Christ the Lord, and look what he beheld. He stood
there with his sword drawn in his hand. He had his sword drawn
in his hand. The Word of God, the Gospel that
we proclaim, is the only sword in this warfare. It's the only
weapon in this warfare. Listen to Hebrews 4.12. This would be worthy to turn
to. Hebrews 4.12. The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. It can split the
soul and spirit. And of the joints and marrow. And is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. That's what it means. This word
is going to get right down to where you live. It's going to
get right down into our hearts, right where we live. And it's
going to discern what our real thoughts and intentions are.
It's going to make us to either bow to God like Joshua did or
it's going to make us try to run from Him and blame everybody
in the process. But if we're God's, you know,
it says He spread heaven out with a span. That's that much.
That's how big His hand is. Just speaking with putting a
bodily hand on God. He don't have hands. But let's
say His hand's that big. That's a big hand to spread out
the heavens with a span like that. So you can run all you
want to run. He won't have any problem bringing
you back. He won't have any problem taking care of you. That's who
He is. But this Word is going to get
right down to where you are. It's going to get right to where
you live. And He's going to deal with you. And when He starts
doing this, it's painful work. It makes you see that I'm the
sinner. And we won't confess that until he, I told the children
Friday night, until he hangs us by a spider's web over a hill
and says, you got one alternative. That's to confess to me what
you are. That's when we'll confess to him what we are. That's when
we'll say, Lord, I had nothing good in me. Nothing good in me. You know what? I have never done
one good thing. I've never, I've never done one
good thing. Every sermon I've ever preached
in and of itself has got enough sin in it to send everybody here
to hell. And you have never done one good
thing. You cannot approach God, not in yourself. But look here,
this power, this is what he's saying, the power's not of us,
the power's of God. It's of Christ with His sword
drawn in His hand. This is the word of the Lord
unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, not by power, not by
my might, not by your might, not by my power, not by your
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. We who believe
have experienced this power. We've experienced it. If you
want to look at 2 Corinthians 4.1, I'm going to go kind of
quickly here, but 2 Corinthians 4.1, we've experienced this power,
and so we faint not. We don't faint. We don't faint
from waiting on this power. Now listen, Paul in 2 Corinthians
4.1, he says, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Now how
did Paul receive mercy? He said, as we have received
mercy, we faint not. How did he receive mercy? Look
down at verse 6. God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's how he received mercy.
So as he received mercy by that same power, It made Paul not
to faint. Instead, look back at verse 1.
It made him faint not, but it made him renounce the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Look down at verse 7. It made him to know we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. That's what it meant. That's
why he did not turn away from preaching the gospel and waiting
on the power of God. The preaching of Christ crucified
is foolishness to them that perish. It is. How could it not be, brethren? Think about it. We come here
week in and week out. And you are powerless sinners
who sit down to watch another powerless sinner just like you
stand up and declare God's Word to you. I mean, who wouldn't
look at this and say, why in the world do they do that? That's
foolishness. You know, the Gospel makes you
sit there. When I'm talking to you personally,
You know, everybody wants to talk. Let's talk about it. Let's
discuss it. Well, when we're discussing it, you're not listening
to what I'm saying, and I'm not listening to what you're saying.
We're thinking about what we're going to say next. But when you're
listening to the gospel, you have to sit there with your mouth
shut, and I have to do all the talking. It makes me feel pretty
low, and it makes you feel low. But this is what God chose. And you know what happens? It's
foolishness to them that perish. But this is the power of God
unto salvation to us who are called, because Christ is that
power who called us. Listen, unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. So if you've experienced that power, if we've experienced
that power with the sword in His hand, then we know we shall
be given the victory in this holy war over our own sinful
flesh and over all our enemies by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So
we've got to feed upon this Word ourselves to be strengthened
in Him ourselves to not turn away from Him. And this is how
he strengthens us. The wisdom of God is amazing
in assembling a people and doing this work through the gospel.
It's amazing. It's more amazing than the skeleton and all the
muscles and the body and the physical body. It's more amazing
than that. It's described as that. It's more amazing than
that because we all got wills to do what we want to do. Our
bodies all work in the same thing. We all got fleshly wills to go
this way and that way and that way and this way and do this
thing and yet God in his power puts us together like a skeleton
and works in each one of us what the other one needs and supplies
to you what you need and to you what you need and to you what
you need so that he's using each of us to provide for each other
through the gospel. That's amazing. And all the while
that he's feeding us doing it, he's calling out other Rahabs
out of Jericho. That's amazing. Alright, thirdly. Christ is present with us, brethren.
That's the thing. We've got a mighty enemy, but
we've got Christ present with us. Now here's the third thing.
We'll be victorious because of who Christ is. Look here in verse
13. Joshua 5, 13. It says there,
Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Are thou for us or
for our adversaries? And he said, No, but as captain
of the host of the Lord am I now come. This had to be a huge relief
to Joshua. I've got to think that while
all the rest of the camp... I know something about what Joshua
was going through. While all the rest of the camp
was home asleep, Joshua was thinking about, Lord, I've got no power
to do this. I've got no power to lead these
people. I've got no power to lead them against this big Jericho. But first of all, this is how
it was relieved. Christ said, I'm not for your
adversary. No. I'm not for your adversary. He said, but for you who are
the Lord's host. That's who I'm for. Now you think
about that, brethren. That's the first thing that gives
us great relief in this warfare. Christ is for you. Christ is
present with you. Christ is for you. And Christ
is against your adversaries. Paul said, if God be for us,
who can be against us? Now this is so. This is so. Now secondly, Christ has come
as captain over the Lord's host. Captain over the Lord's host.
God has a people no man can number. They're called His hosts. His
hosts. Because of the number of them.
The sheer number of them. They've been a remnant in every
generation. But you put them all together and it's a host
of people. And Christ is the captain of that host. God our
Father elected each member of that host unto salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. That's
what the scripture said. And then the Lord's host. And the Lord God entrusted that
host to Christ. He gave it to him. And as captain
of the host of the Lord is he now come. First of all, He came
and He took our flesh and He took our place as the Holy One
under the law and He fulfilled it and established it perfectly
in obedience for every elect child of God. And then He came
and He took our sins and He took our place under the fierce anger
of divine justice and He perfectly satisfied divine justice against
us by His death on Calvary's tree. And now Christ has come
for you who know Him and believe Him, and He's filled us with
His Spirit, making us one with Him. He's our head, and we His
body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. That's a
great mystery. But we're members of His body,
of His flesh, and of His bones. That's how one He's made us with
Him. And it says, Hebrews 2.10 says,
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." And here's what that means. For
both Christ that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all
of one. For which cause He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. Isn't that amazing? He's made
us His brethren. He's made us one with Him. And
so now He's come in our presence to finish the will of God. You
know what the rest is that He promised God He'd finish? You
know what remains to be done that He promised God He would
finish? This is the Father's will which hath sent me, He said,
that of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up again at the last day. Now, brethren, has
he failed in any of that work that he's done already for us?
He won't fail in that work either. He will raise us up at the last
day. He'll keep us and he'll carry us right on to the end.
Now, another reason this was such a relief to Joshua was,
and it's a relief to me and you, is this. Now we know that the
burden of being the captain of this army is not on us. It's
not on us. The government was not on Joshua's
shoulders, it was on the shoulders of Joshua's captain. Let me read
this to you. This is from Isaiah 9.6. The
same word that's translated captain in our text, in Isaiah 9.6 it's
translated prince. Now listen to this. Unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given. The government shall
be upon his shoulder. And His name should be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, the Captain of Peace. He's the Captain of
our salvation. He's the Captain of Peace. And
by Captain, it means the government is all on His shoulder. The government
of the world, the government of His house, His church, and
the government of every single individual child that makes up
His body. The government is entirely on
His shoulder to bring them all to God. That's right. I'm thankful
for this, brethren. You and I are called to be witnesses
of Christ. That's what we're called for.
We're called into this army. But as I said to you, we're foot
soldiers in it. Neither one of us, none of us,
are the captain. He's the captain. He's the captain.
The government's not on my shoulder. The government's not on your
shoulder. It's on Christ's shoulder. What does that mean? You don't
need me to counsel you. His name's the counselor. Go
to Him. Go to Him. You don't need me
to pray for you. He's the mediator between God
and man. He's the intercessor. Go to Him.
He says you got access. Go to Him. You don't need a man
to stand between you and God. You got access to Him. He's the
captain, the advocate, the ruler, the governor. He's the one. Go
to Him. And that also means, brethren,
when you see your brethren, overtaken in a fault and maybe you're looking
at them and you're thinking, man, they're judging me and they
don't love me like they ought to and they do all this thing.
You know what you can do? You can just keep on loving them.
You can just keep on loving them. Because the government's on his
shoulder and he'll make them stand. He'll make them stand.
When you have the opportunity to say something to them, don't
whip them. Take the opportunity to love them and tell them about
Christ. Try to tell them to point them back to Him. Back to Him. Alright, I read you that vision
in Revelation. That's the captain. Alright,
now look at this. Now let me end by asking you this. What
will a sinner do? Here's why all the relief, here's
why we have this great relief that victory is going to be ours.
What happens When Christ, our captain, enters into the heart
of a man and makes his presence known within that man, what's
going to happen? Art, you were in the military.
It didn't matter what you was doing when the commander-in-chief
walked into the room, in charge, whoever was in charge, when he
walked in, what did you do? Snap to attention, didn't you?
He's the captain. And you know what's going to
happen when he enters in? We're going to snap to attention. They're
going to snap to attention. Look at verse 14. And when he
said who he was, this is what happened. Joshua fell on his
face to the earth and did worship. He did worship. Now listen to
me. God says the reason he saves through preaching is because
no flesh shall glory in his presence. And when that gospel is going
forth, and Christ all of a sudden enters into your heart, and He
makes Himself manifest, that He is present, you know what
happens? You bow, you stop glorying in yourself. You bow. and you
worship, you start glorying in him. And that's why he said,
he says through the gospel, that no flesh shall glory in his presence,
but he that glories, a glory in the Lord. That's what it means
when it says Joshua hit his face and he worshipped him. He quit
glorying in himself, he gloryed in God. He gloryed in God. That's what's going to happen.
Every time that's what's going to happen. That's why this is
our only weapon. That's why we don't craft our
words and try to, you know, Carloman thinks, well, if you just had
a little more sugar in your message, it would make people like it.
I don't want you to like it because I put sugar in it. I don't want
that. I want you to hear the gospel.
And I want you, I don't want to craft my words so that your
faith stands in my power. I want you to stand in His power.
This is why we preach Christ to reprove, to exhort, and to
rebuke. Right here. Right here. This
is why we don't lord over men. It's why we don't have to be
masters over men to discipline them. But instead, we preach
Christ and Him crucified. And the government's on His shoulder
and He does the work. He does the work. Because when
he makes his presence known, he makes his child willing to
obey. Look at verse 14. And Joshua said unto him, The
Lord just told him who he was. And Joshua hid his face and worshipped
him. Now look at this willingness.
Joshua said, What saith my Lord unto his servant? Joshua took
it upon himself to just say, Lord, what would you have me
to do? You see, we'll be made willing in the day of his power.
That's what you see there. Now Art, that commanding officer,
he says, clean your gun and shine your belt buckle. And you get
to thinking to yourself, and you say, well, cleaning my gun
is really important, but I don't see shining my belt buckle as
all that important, so I'm just going to clean my gun, but I'm
not going to shine my belt buckle. What's that commanding officer
going to do? Is he going to like that? He's not going to like
that. Because it's not a matter of
what seems more important or less important. Now listen to
me. It's not a matter of what seems more important or less
important. It's not even a matter of what you think, period. But this is what I think. It
don't matter what you think. And this is what I think. It
don't matter what you think. Maybe it'd be good to enlist
in an earthly army. And learn a little discipline.
Find out it don't matter what you think. It don't matter what
you think. Maybe it'd be good if a few daddies
would start busting some behinds. It don't matter what you think. Every word Christ our captain
commands is a necessity, not because we deem it as major or
minor, simply because our commander in chief commands it. Simply
because he commands it. What does He command? This is
His commandment. That you believe on the name
of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave the
commandment. And this is the other thing He
said, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. Don't water it down, don't change it, just preach
it. And He said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
he that believeth not shall be damned. But when He makes His
presence known, He makes his child obey his command. He made
Joshua hit his face. He made Joshua quit glorying
in himself. He made Joshua worship him. He gave him all his reverence
and started glorying in him. He made him willing. Joshua said,
Lord, what would you have your servant to do? And when he spoke,
he made him do what he commanded. Watch this, 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. And Joshua
said, Let's talk about it. No, no, no. Joshua did so. Joshua did so. Alright, turn
to Ephesians 6. That is what Paul meant when
he said, I preach the gospel so that your faith should not
stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. That's the
power of Christ right there. Look here now at Ephesians 6.
So what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Now
he told us this. Believe on Christ. Christ is our salvation. Love
your brethren. as Christ loved you. How did
Christ love His people? When they were beating Him in
the face with their fist, He still loved them. Preach Christ
and Him crucified. And do all in the strength of
Christ, because He's our only strength, He's the captain of
our salvation. Now here's what He tells us, Ephesians 6, 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Be strong in the
Lord. and in the power of His might.
Verse 11. We're in a warfare now. Put on
the whole armor, and whose armor is it? Of God. Put on His armor. Put it on. That you may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil. Alright, what is that
armor? Look at verse 14. Stand therefore having your loins,
your inner man, girt about with the truth. Who's the truth? Christ
is. And having on the breastplate
of righteousness, who's our righteousness? Christ is. In your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace, who's the gospel of
peace? Christ is. Above all, taking the shield
of faith, who's the object of our faith? Christ is. Wherewith
you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation, who's our salvation? Christ is. And the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God. Who's the Word of God? Christ
is. That's what he means up there
when he says, put on the whole armor of God. Put on Christ. Put on Christ. He's our only
strength. And as you do so, verse 18 says, praying always, with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, because you're asking
Him to do it all. And He's the only one that can
do it all. watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me
that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of
the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein
I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. And just believe we're
going to be victorious because Christ is our captain and He's
in our midst. Amen.