All right, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, be looking
at verse 30 tonight. And if you want to, go ahead
and take your Bibles and turn in another place in Joshua chapter
6, because this is the fulfillment of this text in Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 30. I've entitled this message, The
Faith That Conquered Jericho. The faith that conquered Jericho. The scripture here tells us,
by faith, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they
were compassed about seven days. Now, in our past study, we've
been dealing with Moses, the faith of Moses. We saw how Moses
was an example of all true faith, how Moses rejected Egypt. He rejected the sin and pleasures
of Egypt and counted the riches of Christ and the suffering of
God's people greater treasure. That's a picture of all of us
who believe in Christ. We, by grace through faith, have
rejected our old ways, our sin. We abandoned our self-righteousness. And as a result of this, we gladly
suffer with the people of God than enjoying the pleasures of
sin for a season. And like faith, we observe the
Passover, not ceremonially, not ritualistically, but by faith
we observe this, that Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb. Don't you
see that your faith is the same as Moses' faith? He looked to
Christ when he had that lamb and slew that lamb in the midst
of the congregation. He had his eye to Christ, and
so do we have our eye to Christ. He is our Passover lamb. And
just as Israel, by faith, crossed the Red Sea, even so too, God,
like Israel, has shut us in to our sins and self. God has caused
us to be pursued by Satan, our enemy. The justice of God being
represented by the sea is before us. Our mountains of sin on either
side of us. There was no escape. There was
no escape. But remember the gospel message
that he gave the people of Israel was what? Stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. Isn't that the message you heard?
Stop working. Stop trying to earn your salvation. And what? Behold the Lamb of
God. Behold Christ. Behold the salvation
of the Lord. And what did His salvation do?
It parted the sea of God's justice and we walked through on dry
ground. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is
sinking sand. And so we see that their faith
is our faith. Now, I want you to see there's
a transition in our text now. We see it's transitioning from,
in verse 29, talking about Moses going across the Red Sea, but
in verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. And look
and see the transition from Moses to Joshua. It wasn't Moses that
led them to Jericho, it was Joshua. The Apostle turns from Moses
as an example of our faith to Joshua and Israel at Jericho. And I believe the Holy Spirit
has something in this for us to learn. I think that the Holy
Spirit, by the transition of Joshua and Moses, we can clearly
see this, that we're not to put our trust in men. We're not to
set up the men of God too highly. We see in this text Moses was
taken from Israel. He was a great prophet, performed
great miracles. But Moses, that great prophet,
had run his course. He had run his race. And Moses,
like all men of God, when they run their race, it is time for
them to Go to glory. He went to glory. But behold this, He did not leave
Israel without a man, a witness, a leader, did He? He did not
leave them to themselves. He gave them Joshua to declare
the gospel to them. Now believer, we all know that
some of God's men are used greatly. And some are more used than others. Some are more used of God than
others. Their difference in gifts and
ministries, they may minister to multitudes. And I'll tell
you this, those men who labor in the gospel, we rejoice in
their labor, don't we? I have massive amounts of books
in my study. And I rejoice in the labor of
those men who put themselves, were gifted of God and they wrote
wonderful works, and we rejoice in their labors. But we are so prone as servants
of God to set up men and think of them more highly than we ought
to. Somehow we think that when God
takes one of His men home to glory that somehow the Word of
God suffers. And somehow the gospel suffers
loss because God has taken His man out of this earth. And we,
like Israel, weep and mourn for God's gifted preachers. But how
many have set some preachers so high that they have refused
to sit under another one? I've known people like that.
They've sat under a great man for many years. And yet, when
some other man were to come in, they said, well, I just came
to sit under that man. What have they done? They have set that
other man too high. They've set him too high. Let us not ever be so proud and
foolish that when God takes His man to think that the gospel
will somehow fail. When God took Moses, did the
gospel fail? No. No, it didn't. God kept going. God's gospel kept being declared,
didn't it? And so it is. God never leaves
himself without a witness. You know that? Have you found
that true in Scripture? When Joshua was gone, what happened?
He had the judges, didn't he? When the judges were gone, we
had kings. When we had kings, we had prophets. God always had
not left himself without a message. So when God takes a man, he will
raise up another. He will raise up another. and
maybe not the same gifts and ability, may not seem to preach
to the same multitudes. And I was thinking as I was recounting
this, Brother Cody Gruber, a very dear friend of mine, was a great
missionary in Mexico. And the Lord took him at a very
early age. And we felt great loss. But I'll tell you what, that
work's still going. That work was not dependent on Cody Gruber.
It was dependent on God. God was doing the work. Brother
Don Fortner, when Brother Don Fortner was taken from us and
left this earth, do you suppose that the gospel suffered loss
because he's gone? No. No. God's men are still preaching. God's gospel is still going forward. God's preachers are still being
called and His people are still being saved and fed. So this
transition, we ought to think about that. And when God takes
men, we should not feel as though the gospel will somehow disappear. Now, something happened and say
this church, I'd be gone, so this church, this fan, go where
there's a gospel preacher. You don't have to stay right
here. Go where there's a gospel preacher and hear him. Now, the second thing, the main
thing this night, I want to see this faith that conquered Jericho.
The faith that conquered Jericho. Now, after Moses' death, The
Lord appointed Joshua to be the leader of Israel, and the picture of this should
not be missed. Why was it that Moses was not allowed to go and
lead Israel into the promised land? Simply because of this. Moses was to be a picture of
the law. Now, you remember the instance
in which Moses was denied entrance, right? The people of Israel were
out in the desert, and they were without water. And God provided
this rock in the middle of the desert. And God told Moses, Go
and strike the rock. And when he struck the rock,
water poured out, and all Israel was saved. They were able to drink. And
water flowed from that. Now what is that a picture of?
It's a picture of Christ, isn't it? Remember, Christ is that
rock. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians
10, verse 4. He said, that rock that followed
them was Christ. So you're not mistaken as to
what that rock was. But what was Moses? Moses was
a picture of the law. It was the law, the justice of
God that struck Christ, that smote him. and out of him flowed the rivers
of living water by which we drink and live." But you remember the
second time that happened, they were thirsty, and God provided
that rock. I like that when Paul said that.
He said, this rock followed them. Isn't that something? This rock followed them. So that
rock was the same rock. So He had provided the rock again. And He told Moses this, speak
to the rock. But you remember what Moses did.
Moses was so angry, he struck the rock a second time. And because
he defiled the picture, the picture was Christ. Christ was slain
once, not twice, once. And so it is when we speak to
Christ, what happens? We're refreshed. We pray to Him
and He pours out grace upon us. That was to be the picture. But
Moses struck the rock and he was not allowed. This is because
Moses was a picture of the law. Because all the law can do is
strike. The law cannot speak comfort. The law cannot speak grace. The law can only condemn. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
Cursed. That's all the law can say. Cursed.
Cursed. You want to be under the law?
Anybody want to be under the law in any measure? Because all
it can say is cursed. That's all it can say. It can
only strike you. It cannot speak. It cannot pour out grace. And
so this is why Moses was not allowed. But you remember who
was allowed into the promised land. Of that generation of people,
there were only two, right, that were allowed into the Promised
Land. One was Joshua, who was called to lead them, and the
second one was what? Caleb. Remember old Caleb? These
are the two men that believed God, and these are the only two
men that were above 20 years of age that were allowed to enter
the Promised Land. Guess who they pictured? Well, Caleb pictures
you. You know what Caleb's name means?
Dog. Isn't that us? Is that not our
confession? What was Mephibosheth? When Mephibosheth
went before David, what did he say? He said, what is thy servant
that you would look upon a dead dog? That Canaanite woman, the Lord
said, is it meat to give children's bread to dogs? What'd she say? Truth, Lord,
you're right. Oh, but the crumbs, Father, the
crumbs, even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table.
Isn't this a picture of all God's people, poor dogs? Our religious
world don't like to be called that, do they? I take my place. I take my place. I'm like Caleb. But you know
this, that Joshua, Joshua was a greater picture in that he
was a picture of Christ. He was a picture of Christ. As
a matter of fact, his name in the New Testament sometimes is
translated Jesus. Same name. Joshua. Jesus. Jehovah saves. That's what it means. Jehovah
saves. And so in this picture in our
text here, this one by faith, The walls of Jericho fell down.
We know it's by Joshua. Joshua led the people of Israel.
How much more, then, is he a picture of Jesus Christ, who is the captain
of our salvation? Now, go over to that text in
Joshua. And I believe Joshua 5, verse
13, is where Joshua 6 should begin. You remember Joshua here,
he meets this man. He sees this man who has a sword
in his hand. And Joshua comes up to this man
and he says, Are you for us or against us? And the man says,
No, I'm not either for you or against them. He said this, I
am the captain. I am the captain of the Lord's
host. The captain of the Lord's host.
And he said to Joshua, Loose thy shoes from off thy foot,
for the place wherein thou standest is holy. Does that sound familiar?
Isn't that exactly the burning bush when Moses met Christ there? What did he say? Take off your
shoes. This is the Lord speaking. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking here. And Joshua, this man, is going
to represent the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation.
What does that mean? That means this, that the captain
of our salvation has made our salvation perfect. Perfect. He's made it perfect in that
he's accomplished all our righteousness, all our redemption, all our sanctification,
and all our wisdom. Isn't that what the scripture
says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1? For God has made him to be
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. All our salvation
is Jesus Christ. Now, look here in Joshua chapter
6. We have the inspired commentary on our text. Now, the Lord here,
the people of Israel, has brought the people of Israel by Joshua
across the River Jordan. Moses was not allowed to enter,
but He had brought them across the River Jordan into the borders
of Canaan. Right? Now, you can study this
later. I don't have time. As the red
sees a picture of our salvation, the crossing of Jordan is a picture
of our baptism. Because most people think that
crossing Jordan is, you know, going into heaven. When they
crossed Jordan, did they go into heaven or they go to war? They
went to war. What happened after you were
baptized? You went to war. That's right. It's a picture
of our baptism. And so they're now at the border of the promised
land. But I want you to see as they
come across Jordan, there's something big in the way. Jericho. There's something standing in
between them and the promised land. It was Jericho. Jericho
was the gateway to Canaan. You could not go into the land
of Canaan except through Jericho. You had to go by this way. And as they come to Jericho,
they see these great walls. I've heard different numbers
on these walls and measurements. But I believe the best number
is somewhere around anywhere from 36 to 41 feet high. About four stories high. These
walls were two walls, actually, and some said you could ride
a chariot in between the walls. You could, 13 feet wide. They
were thick, big walls. A fortress. And inside this were
mighty men of valor. Look at that in verse two when
he's the Lord said that this is the captain of Lord of Hosts
speaking. He said, I have given in thine hand Jericho and the
king and the mighty men of valor. These these people were not novice
soldiers. They were a warrior group of
people. And so this city was surrounded
by walls But if Israel was to possess the land of Canaan, they
must go through Jericho. Now I want you to consider the
impossibility set before this. The utter impossibility. Israel
was not a warrior people. Forty years ago, they were slaves. The only battle that they really
had was God fighting for them. I think the arms that He held
up, Moses' arms, and they fought that one battle. And was all
the Lord doing their battle for them? They were not a warrior
people. They had no artillery. They had
no weapons. They couldn't shoot the walls
down. They couldn't pull the walls down. They couldn't break
the walls down. It was impossible. But behold, in the text in Hebrews,
how then did the walls come down? By faith. The walls of Jericho
fell down by faith, the scripture says. All they did. Was believe and
obey the word of God. That's all they did. They believe
the word of God and they obeyed the word of God, which was contrary
to all human wisdom. No military general ever said,
march around a city once a day for six days and on the seventh
day, march around seven times and blow trumpets. Never has
a general in the history of the world ever said that to a military
mind. Never. It was against human wisdom. Yet by faith, they marched around
this city because God said so. Simple. It's not complicated.
Why are we marching? God said so. You believe it's
going to come down? I sure do. Because God said so. Can you give me an illustration
of this anywhere in military history? No. But God said so. Or you're an idiot. That's okay.
But God said so. You see what faith does? It doesn't
have to depend on human wisdom. It depends simply on this. God
said so. And God said, march around this
city for six days. Look at this. He said in verse
three, you shall compass the city, all your men of war go
around the city once and you do this six days. One time a
day for six days. And then on the seventh day,
he said, you take seven priests and you bear that ark, seven
trumpets of ram's horns. And the seventh day you're going
to compass the city seven times and the priests shall blow the
trumpets and it shall come to pass when they make a long blast
with the ram's horn And you hear the sound of the trumpet that
all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of
the city shall fall down flat and the people shall ascend every
man straight before you. There's the plan. There's the
great military strategy of our Lord God. And they did so. And what happened? We know what happened. The walls
fell flat, just like God said. Every man ascended straight for
them, just like God said, and they destroyed the city, just
like God said. By faith, then, the walls fell. By faith, not by skill of the
flesh, not by the might or wisdom of
man, but by faith they destroyed Jericho, even as God promised. Now then, I want you to see this,
that true faith, first of all, all true faith is shut out by
the world. All true faith is rejected. Like
I said, that strategy is rejected by everyone. If anybody heard
you say that before it happened, they would see you crazy. It
doesn't matter what they think. All true faith is shut out. Now,
this city, as I said, is a gateway to Canaan. It was a large, prosperous
city. It was well fortified. But it
was years before this, God already cursed this city. In Exodus chapter
23, I'll read this for you. I don't have time to flip through.
But Exodus chapter 23, verse 27 and 28, listen to what God
said. He said, I will send my fear
before thee. and will destroy all the people
to whom thou shalt come. And I will make all thine enemies
turn their backs unto thee, and I will send hornets before thee,
and they shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the
Hittite from before thee." You see, years before they ever stood
foot in Jericho, God already condemned that city. He already
cursed it. He already promised that it would
be destroyed. But there they are standing outside
of Jericho, it looks pretty prosperous. Walls look pretty thick. Though they work, they played,
they labored, they set themselves to amuse their flesh, to follow
their lusts and serve their gods, they lived in comfort and luxury
in that city, and yet all the while they were willfully ignorant
of the curse that God had placed upon them. They were ignorant of the curse.
They did not realize their days were numbered, that they would
soon be destroyed forever and the wrath of God would consume
them. Does this not really picture
the lost of this world? They live, they work, they play,
they satisfy the lust of their flesh. They have no interest
in the things of God. They have no idea that they are
under the condemnation of God. The lost natural man is concerned
with only one thing, his flesh. He's only concerned with the
carnal things of life. The lost man is taken up with
his labor in this life, the pleasures and comforts and entertainments
of his mind and body, and has little or no concern for eternity. Now, you who are believers, you
understand what I just said because we were just like that. We were no different. We were
no different. We are believers in Christ. We
know what it is to be lost. We know what it is to be spiritually
dead. For the Word of God testifies
of our experience, doesn't it? Go to Ephesians chapter 2. Read
your experience. Tell me if you can't identify
with Jericho. Scripture says, "...and you hath
he quickened, What was your condition when
you came into this world? Dead. Dead in trespasses and sin. Now,
what's the evidence of your spiritual death? Because you walked according
to the course of this world. According to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disabilities, among whom we all had our conversation in time
past. "...in the lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature haters of God, even as others." That's what that
means, children of wrath. It doesn't mean you were children
under the wrath of God. It means you were wrathful children,
haters of God, even as others. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And
so, like Jericho, we all worship the God of our imagination. Like
Jericho, we by nature were full of false gods and sin, haters
of God and rebels. We, like all lost men, like all
lost men, we went about to establish our own righteousness. We all did. Like lost men, we went about
to establish our own righteousness, but we were ignorant of the righteousness
of God. You know who goes about to establish
their own righteousness? Someone who is ignorant of God's
righteousness. They don't have any idea what the righteousness
of God is. We didn't either. And I want you to know this,
if you still in some measure, if there's anyone listening to
me, and you still believe that you can please God by your works.
If you still believe that somehow by your sacrifices, by your religious
ceremonies, you think that salvation is some kind of cooperative effort
between you and Jesus. Listen, you're in Jericho. You're lost. I don't care how
religious you are, and I don't care how moral you are. You're
lost. There's no difference between
the most moral and religious man and the most abased prostitute
in the world. None. By nature, they're both
defiled. If you think you can save yourself
by some cooperative effort of your free will and Jesus' work,
you're ignorant of God's righteousness. You're a citizen of Jericho.
You're under the curse of God. And sure destruction hangs over
your head. And as soon as this nation of
Israel reached Jericho, I want you to notice the response of
Jericho. They were cursed. They were condemned. But notice
the response. Look at verse 1 of chapter 6.
What is the response of the world is the response of Jericho. Here
it is. And Jericho was straightly shut
up because of the children of Israel. No one went out and no
one came in. When you hear of your natural
condition, of your depravity, of your ignorance of God's righteousness,
of your useless religion, your vain works to please God. Do you straightly shut me out? When you tell men that, do they
straightly shut you out? Do they like a fool plug their
ears and refuse to hear? The Word of God is plain. I love the Word of God because
it is so plain. There is none righteous. No, not one. Now who could misunderstand that? There is none that understand
it. Well, I'm a pretty smart guy. No, there is none that understand
it. Well, I believe that if we just
preach a gospel and invite men to come to Christ, they'll seek
God. There is none that seeketh after God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. Do you shut that out? Do you shut out the truth that
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified? Well,
I think the laws are a good rule of life. Well, you just shut
out the gospel. You just shut out the truth.
Why? You're still in Jericho, still
under the curse of God. Mark it down, no matter how much
men shut out the truth, no matter how much they plug their ears,
close their eyes, and run screaming, pulling their hair, trying to
kill you, it doesn't matter. God will destroy them. It didn't
matter how tightly Jericho shut its doors, the walls were coming
down. God already had cursed them.
When God comes in judgment, when the last trump shall sound, and
Jesus shall descend from heaven with a shout, then all the works
of their flesh will fall flat. What they thought to be thick,
big blocks of righteousness, they will all crumble when Christ
comes. You remember those goats when
Christ said to those goats, depart from me, you that work iniquity,
I never knew you. But Lord, we did this for you. We did that
for you. He said, you work iniquity. On that day of judgment, that's
what they'll hear. Now, Jericho was not ignorant
of God's power, nor were they ignorant of God's promises. They
knew God promised that God's people would inherit Canaan. They knew that. They heard that.
They heard about what He did to Egypt. Why do you think they
were shut up? Why do you think they were shut
up? They heard God was going to conquer
them and yet, instead of surrendering, They shut themselves in. They shut themselves up to the
only hope of salvation. Are you like Jericho? Are you
still refused to surrender and sue God for mercy? Then listen,
you will be like Jericho and you will be destroyed. The second thing, true faith
marches around Jericho. This marching of Israel. I want
you to understand this. It is a picture of preaching
the gospel. It is a picture of preaching the gospel. And verses
2 through 5, we see the plan of God's victory. They were to
march around Jericho once a day for six days. On the seventh
day, seven times on the seventh day. And each day, these Israelites
were to carry the Ark of the Covenant in the center of the
procession. The men of war were to go in
the front. In the center were the priest
and the ark, and the rearward were the people, the rest of
the people. And as they were to go around,
the priest were to blow these ram's horns, these ram's horns. Now, during this procession,
the people, all of the people were to be silent until that
last day. Joshua told them, he said, I
don't want you to make a sound. I want you to make a sound. But
on that last day, when they heard those trumpets put out a long
blast, those people shouted with a great shout, and the walls
of the city fell flat. You see that in verse 20 of Joshua
6. He said, so the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpet.
And it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the
trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell
flat. So the people went up into the
city, every man straight before Him, and they took the city. Now behold the picture here. The children of Israel are a
picture of all believers in Christ. We have been chosen, we have
been redeemed by the Passover Lamb, we have by the death of the Lamb
passed through the judgment of God, and now here we are, Tonight,
on the borders of Canaan, we have Jesus Christ as our Joshua
to lead us, the captain of our salvation, and He has commanded
us to march around the city. And by this, I mean preach the
gospel. Isn't this the command of our
captain? Go you into all the world, and
what? What is your marching order?
Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. There's going to be a result
to this preaching. Here it is. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. This is our marching order. The
work of the church is simply this. to bear the ark before
Jericho and blow the trumpet. Is that not simple? The priests
were to blow the trumpet and bear the ark. What are we doing
tonight? We are lifting up Christ and
we are blowing the sound of the trumpet. We are blowing the gospel
sound. Even now we believe on Christ
are bearing him the covenant of his grace before the eyes
of the world. And then believer, This is our
work, our responsibility to preach this gospel. Our work is not to chip away
at the walls of Jericho. We have a song we listened to
for a long time. It was some song about Jericho.
It got a good beat, got a good tune. I started to listen to
words of that, and he started talking about chipping away at
the walls. I said, what a load of crap. I didn't listen to that
song again. He didn't tell you to chip away
at the walls. We're not to chip away at the walls of Jericho.
Our work is not to change the culture. That's not our business. We're not here to change the
culture of Jericho. Our labor is not to stage a coup
in the government. You see these so-called Christians
running around trying to change the government. How's that working? How's it working? It only gets
worse, doesn't it? When they start meddling with
the government, it only gets worse. That's not our business. Ours
is simply to bear the ark and blow the trumpet. Present Christ
and declare the truth. And as these people in the back,
they did not speak. This is to show us that our work
is not debate or human reason. I'm not here to debate this gospel
with you. That's not my point. I am here
to declare this gospel to you. Why don't believe it? OK, go
on. Go on, I can't make you believe
it. Not trying to make you believe it. If I make you believe it,
somebody else come along, make you unbelieve it. If God speaks to you, you'll
believe it. And if he don't, you won't. You
won't. So our work is simply to declare
the gospel, not with debate or human reasoning, but as the priest
blew this trumpet, even so we are to make a clear, distinct
sound. You know, one thing about ram's
horns is they only make one note. He didn't give us a trombone,
we make a whole bunch of notes. He gave us a ram's horn, only
makes one note. Friends, I only have one note.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's the only message I have. It's the only message the sinner
needs. It's the only message God's people
want. Now, I know of this. There's
a church now having struggles with trying to get a new pastor. They want a pastor so bad that
they're trying to just get anybody, And one lady said this, she said,
well, you know, I believe in the doctrines of grace, but man,
I just don't want to hear it all the time. Now what she's talking about
is five points of Calvinism. Listen to me. The doctrines of
grace is the gospel. You just said you don't want
to hear the gospel all the time. How foolish. God's people don't want anything
else. And listen, if you want something
else here, you're going to have to go someplace else. I got one
note on this ram's horn. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's all we preach. I believe it's in Colossians
3, verse 11. Listen to this. Christ is all. When He spoke to His disciples,
He said He began at Moses and all the prophets and expounded
unto them and all the Scriptures the things concerning what? Himself. Is there anything else? If there
is, you need to stop. If I preach anything else, leave
me. Don't say around here if I preach
anything else. When they watched around, the people were silent,
and there was only one thing being heard, that ram's horn,
blowing constantly. It was a warning to who? Jericho. This gospel is a warning
to you who are outside of Christ. You're outside of Christ, the
walls are coming down. But to us, what do you think
that sound was to Rahab? She had that little scarlet thread
thrown out her window. That was a sound of victory.
It was a sound of freedom. It was a sound of triumph to
her and all her house. They had a promise that they
were going to be delivered. But to Jericho, it was a warning. To you outside of Christ, the
gospel of Christ is a warning. So I tell you, come to Christ.
Get into Rahab's house. Come in. Get in. Come through
the door. Christ is the door. Come in.
And I like this. You know what? Nobody in Jericho
could see that red thread, could they? Who's the only ones that
needed to see that thread? Joshua. He was the only one that
needed to see it. Who's the only one that needs
to see that red thread hanging out your heart? Christ. Joshua said to them, he said,
when these walls come down, you go in and you get Rahab and everyone
out of her house and you bring them down into the camp. Difference, isn't it? How does
this gospel sound to you? How does it sound that Jesus
Christ bore all your sins in His own body? How does it sound
that God said that's enough and raised Him from the dead, set
Him on the throne? You and your wickedness and depravity
would have continued in Jericho all your days and went to hell
had He not in grace come to you, had He not called you. And He
called you, didn't He? He hasn't stopped calling you,
has he? You who believe, you still believe,
don't you? Why don't you quit? Being a Christian's
hard, isn't it? A lot of pain being a Christian. Why don't you just leave? Where am I going to go? I ain't got no place else to
go. And there ain't no place I want
to go. But crutched. Lastly, I better go. I keep moving. How long did they march around? They did this six times once
a day for six days, and on the seventh day they did it seven
times. Seven is the number of completion. What's our message?
What's our message? Is our message due or done? Done. Finished. Completion. Christ
has completed our salvation. He has accomplished our salvation. That's our message, isn't it?
That's what it meant when they marched around seven times on
the seventh day. Our message is done. How long will we continue to
blow this trumpet? Until it's done. Until all the
saints of God are brought into the fold, we're going to keep
preaching this message. This message will continue. Don't
worry. We don't look at numbers, we
don't look at at worldly signs and things like that. We don't
judge the success of this gospel based on worldly things. That's
how religion judges success. We've got about 100,000 people
sitting in our church. Who cares? Do you preach Christ? If you don't, then you've got
100,000 goats sitting there. All of them going to hell. We don't judge by that. And so
therefore, we don't quit. Kathy, if you were the only one
sitting here, I'd still preach to you. I don't care. I don't measure success by how
many people are sitting there. I remember that man out in China
30, 40 years, missionary, Burma. He came back to England, and
they asked him, how many converts did you have in all those years?
He said, one. He said, if I had it all to do
over again, one. I'd do it all over again. Why? Because that's success,
isn't it? Christ is going to be successful. He is going to call all His people,
and none of them will be lost. How many were lost in Rahab's
house? When those walls fell down... Now, they built their
houses inside the wall. That's where their houses were.
These walls were so thick and so wide, they put their houses
in them. I guarantee you there's one section of that wall that
did not fall. It was Rahab's house. and all who were in there
were safe. Listen, you're in Christ. I want
you to grab a hold of this with both hands. You're safe. You're safe. Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe in His gentle breast. They were safe. I pray God bless
this to you. Let's stand and be dismissed.
I got plenty more, but I can't go. I can't keep going. Somebody
fall out of the loft and die. So I pray God will keep this with
us, that this faith that brought down the walls of Jericho is
true faith. We're marching around the city, this lost world, preaching
Christ. And God's going to call his people.
Our gracious Father, I pray you'd bless the word according to your
grace. I pray you'd touch the hearts
of everyone with the power of your spirit. I pray you'd forgive the preacher
and forgive those that hear of anything that we have missaid
or misheard. That Father Christ should be magnified and honored
and lifted up. that his word should go out.
Give us strength and boldness to declare Christ and him crucified
constantly so that you may call your people by this means. I
pray you do it in Christ's name.