You go to Joshua 6, I'm going to read two verses from Hebrews 11. In verse 30 it says, By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were encompassed about seven days. Now writing to the Hebrews they knew exactly what he was talking about, they knew the story. And by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, and she had received the spies with peace. After reading those two verses I had to go back over here to where the event happened for us, I think, to really get a good insight to those two verses. I'm not going to do completely the verse on Rahab, that's for the next one. The scarlet line and but that's that's for the next message, but I'm gonna touch on it We'll see I may touch on it too much, but we'll see I Titled this the conqueror and the conqueror I Could have titled it the taking of Mansoul John Bunyan Wrote a book called the holy war And it has to do with the taking of man's soul, man. And I read that years ago. And this has piqued my interest again. So I think I'll refresh my memory of it and read it again. But let's look at this tonight. Now here in Hebrews 11, faith is highlighted as we have seen over the past several weeks, FAITH IS HIGHLIGHTED AND NOT WORKS. They were having a real problem with going back under the law of works, some of them were. But we also know here and it is made evident that the FAITH THAT IS OF GOD WORKS. FAITH THAT IS GENUINELY OF GOD ACTS, it's not dormant. James said, Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. That's how it's made evident. And each person mentioned here in Hebrews 11 believed God first. They believed God first, then obeyed in faith. And the Apostle reaches back to the Old Testament for illustrations. illustrations that were known to the Hebrews to show how salvation has always been it always has been by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we have been given many pictures and types and shadows in the Old Testament demonstrating this truth. Now we're going to see here a contrast between the conqueror THE LORD! Jehovah! Jehovah! He's the one who's going to bring the walls down. He's going to do it. Nobody's going to draw a sword. Cannons are not going to be fired. To the world, it looks like a very odd way to defeat a city. One of the strongest cities in Canaan, in the Promised Land WE ARE GOING TO SEE THE CONQUEROR, THE LORD, AND THE CONQUEROR, JERICHO! WE WILL SEE THAT OUR LORD IS THE MIGHTY, MIGHTY CONQUEROR! HE DID DEFEAT DIABOLUS, AS IT IS CALLED IN THE HOLY WAR, SATAN! HE DEFEATED SATAN, HE HAS DEFEATED OUR SINS, HE HAS DEFEATED THE GRAVE, HE HAS DEFEATED DEATH, HE IS THE MIGHTY CONQUEROR! Now Jericho, and I thought about this for a few days, it takes me sometimes a few days to get on track. It does, it takes me, I have to read it and I have to just go away and think about it. Read it, go away and think about it. And then it starts to develop. But Jericho here is a good picture of humanity. A good picture of humanity. It says, Now Jericho was straightly shut up. Nobody went in, nobody came out. It was shut up and it was sealed off. And Jericho is a picture of the natural man shut up in sin and walled off from God. No God. That's what they said over in the Psalms. The fool has said in his heart, No God. No God for me. I'll be my own God. That's what natural man wants. He literally wants to be his own God, his own sovereign, his own sovereign. That's why when you preach sovereign grace, God saves whom He will, when He will, and whom He will, He'll harden, and that upsets. It upsets the natural man, especially the religious man. It upsets him because God's the sovereign. Not me, not you, not anyone else. God's sovereign. He's the sovereign. But here's a good picture of natural man. He is shut up in sin and walled off from God. Humanity is closed off from the Lord Jesus Christ. You were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise. You realize that for 4,000 years, our ancestors, the Gentiles, lived in darkness for the most part. The Word of God, the types of pictures were given to that little nation called Israel, and the rest of the world walked in darkness. They did, they walked in darkness. Now they had the light of creation which is enough for any sensible person to say, THERE MUST BE A GOD, THERE MUST BE ONE WHO CREATED ALL THIS, HE MUST BE ONE OF POWER AND WISDOM TO DO THIS! But no, no, in darkness they go after false gods and dance around the fire, and they WHIT ONE OUT OF WOOD, and what's left of it they burn in the fire, not even realizing Isaiah said what they just did. They WHIT THEM A GOD SETTLED ON THE SHELF AND THEN TOOK THE RESIDUE OF IT AND BURN IT! BURN IT! That's man for you, there's none good, no, not one. There's none that seeks after God, none that seeketh after God. If God doesn't call us, if He doesn't call us and bring us to Himself, if He does not save us, we will not seek Him. We will not seek Him. He's got to save us for us to seek Him. He's got to give us an INTEREST, He's got to give us a HEART to seek Him because that old heart is not going to seek Him. That old heart is like Jericho, it's walled up! It's walled up against God. And there's a real hardness against the Lord Jesus Christ, the Greater Joshua. There's a real hardness against Him. Now I've mentioned this here a few times in the past that this Jesus that's going around now is pretty popular, but not this one. Not the Jesus Christ of this Bible. Not the greater Joshua. He's not popular. No, Jericho shut all the doors and they said, nobody's coming in and nobody's going out. We don't want you. Get out of here. And just as Jericho resisted Joshua, so men resist the Lord Jesus Christ. They despised him. When He came, He said, we'll not have this man reign over us. He was despised and rejected of men, including us. At one time, we did too. We did too. We were just as guilty of it. But here the conquest belongs to the Lord, Joshua. Joshua, that's the Hebrew name. The Greek name for Joshua is Jesus. Jesus But notice here in verse 2 The Lord says I have given into thine hand Jericho. I have this is past tense. I Have given Jericho to you It's yours You see Christ owns the victory He owns the victory. God gave the city and He gave this whole world to the Lord Jesus Christ, not by negotiation, but by declaration. It's yours, it belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. All things have been turned over to Him. All things have been given into His hands. God said, I've given it into I've given Jericho to you. I've given it to you. It's mine and I've given it to you. Everyone whom God saved, everyone for whom Jesus Christ died for was given to Him. You were given to Him. If you believe on Christ, you were given to Him. And He's going to conquer you. Well, some of He's already conquered. He's going to conquer everyone given to Him. Christ isn't this, and I want you to notice this too, Joshua does not beg them to open the door and let him in. He does not try to negotiate with them. Jesus Christ is not, He's not begging to enter the hearts. He's not begging for us to open our hearts and let Him in. No, He's Lord of all. He said in Ezekiel 18 verse 4, All souls are mine. THEY CAN WALL THE CITY UP IF THEY WANT TO, THEY CAN SHUT THE DOOR, BUT EVERYONE IN THAT CITY IS MINE TO DO WITH AS I WILL. THEY'RE MINE! And we see that in the end when He saves one, I'm going to get ahead of myself here, but He saves one but He burns the others up, He destroys them. JUDGEMENT IS COMING! JUDGEMENT IS COMING! and judgment is His to execute. He's not pleading. Jesus Christ is not pleading, He's conquering. He's not pleading, He's conquering. And there's some evidence of that here in this room. He's conquering. Our Lord will either save, He'll either be a Savior Lord and Savior or He'll be Judge. It's going to be one or the other. It's going to be one or the other. All judgment, it says in John 3, 18, all judgment has been committed to the Son. All judgment there in John chapter 3. Now I want you to notice the foolishness of God's method as it appears to man. Here's the strongest city in Canaan, this is one of the strongest cities in Canaan. How are they going to take it? Well, here's how they're going to take it, and this is a good strategy. They're going to march around it, every day they're going to march around it and they're going to blow the trumpet, the horn, the ram's horn, that's important. It represents Christ. It was that ram. Where'd that horn come from? It came from a male ram. It represents power. It represents God's presence. It represents a sacrifice. When Abraham saw that ram caught in the thicket, well, it was caught by its horns. But anyway, they're gonna march, they're gonna blow the ram's horn. Every time, they're gonna blow it, and they're gonna blow it seven times on the seventh day. You notice how this seventh keeps coming up? That's the number of perfection in the scriptures. It's the number of completion in the Word of God. And so they're going to march, they're going to blow the trumpet, and listen, they're not going to make a sound. Silence. Silence. And no weapon raised, no cannon, no swords. They're just going to march around that big city. I wrote something down in the study just before coming out of here, and I want to use it next time, but I don't forget it. But every time they marched around that city, you know what they saw? They saw one red line coming down that wall, all the way around that city. And there's one red line, but that's next week. But here they are, they're marching around there, silent, no weapons raised, and that looks odd. You think the king in there is like, well, I've never seen such a thing, never heard such a thing, never heard such trumpets blowing, never heard such a thing. Well, you know, Isaiah 55, eight says, eight and nine, it says, God says, my ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts. You see, this is going to be done in a way that's consistent with God. It's going to be done in a way that the power and the glory is going to belong to God and nobody else. Nobody else. And it's going to be evident. It's going to be evident to Israel. It's evident to us as we read this, that the power is of God, not of ourselves. Salvation is of the Lord. And so is judgment. So is judgment. You see, this is a SPIRITUAL WARFARE and the weapons of our warfare, as it says in 2 Corinthians 10, are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. We have an inkling of an idea, if the Lord has saved us, OF THE POWER OF SIN AND SATAN. WE HAVE AN INKLING OF AN IDEA. WE HAVE ENOUGH UNDERSTANDING TO KNOW THIS. LORD IF YOU DON'T SAVE ME I'M NOT GOING TO BE SAVED BECAUSE I CAN'T RESIST SATAN AND MY SINFUL NATURE. I CAN'T STAND UP AGAINST THAT. LORD YOU HAVE TO SAVE ME. THIS IS A SPIRITUAL WARFARE. And God uses preaching in this spiritual warfare, not human power, to save them that believe. It says that over in 1 Corinthians 1.21 that by the foolishness of preaching it saved God to save them that believe. Not the preaching of foolishness now. God doesn't save anyone by the preaching of foolishness, but what the world calls foolishness. God that's what God uses to save sinners. It's the power of God unto salvation. Paul said in Romans chapter 1. Listen to Zechariah 4.6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, NOR BY POWER, BUT BY MY SPIRIT, SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS." That's how you're going to be saved. You're not going to be saved by your power or your might. You're going to be conquered by My Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to conquer you. He's going to bring the walls of rebellion. He's going to bring the walls of enmity down. Down. They're going to fall down. And the Lord's going to take over a man's soul. He's going to take over the city. And this ram's horn, as I've already mentioned, it's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, a symbol of God's presence and power and sacrifice. And the only trumpet we have to blow is what? Christ and Him crucified. That's the only trumpet we have to blow. That's the ram's horn we blow. Christ and Him crucified. Now notice here in Joshua 6 and 7, we have the Ark of the Covenant. All of these represent Christ. We have the Ark of the Covenant carried by CHOSEN VESSELS just as the Gospel is carried by the Church and the Ministers whom God calls to preach the Gospel. You carry the gospel as well as me. You support me and enable me to preach the gospel. You are in the ministry just as I am in the ministry. You're just every bit in the ministry as I am. And God appointed, He appointed those who would carry the ark. He appointed those who would blow the horn, the priests. Are we not made kings and priests unto God? Are we not made kings and priests unto God? When you go out there to work out there in the world and God gives you an opportunity to witness the gospel, blow that ram's horn. Don't be afraid to blow that ram's horn. God's made you a priest. And notice the procession here. It is one of obedience. This thing is orderly. You notice how orderly? Everything God does is orderly. You know, when they went out of Egypt, they went out ranked in groups of five. It says harnessed. They went out harnessed. They didn't just all walk. You know, you watch the Ten Commandments and all of them are just walking out of there. You know, they got a big group just all just heading out the door. No, they marched out of there like an army. God's a God of ORDER! He's ORDERED ALL THINGS AND SURE! That's what David said, God has made a covenant with me ORDERED IN ALL THINGS AND SURE! THIS THING IS THIS WHOLE MATTER OF SALVATION! THIS WHOLE MATTER OF OUR SALVATION IN CHRIST IS ORDERED AND SURE! There's nothing up in the air! It's done! Christ said it's finished! It's finished! They were armed men, they were priests, they were trumpets. I know it looks strange to the people in Jericho, but it was divinely ordered of God. What I'm doing right now, what we're doing right now, is divinely ordered of God. You see, the gospel does not make sense to the world, but it's the power of God unto salvation to those who believe. It may not make sense to the world, but it does to me. It does to you who believe. It makes good sense, doesn't it? And here we see in verse 8 through 15 the SILENCE OF OBEDIENCE. No negotiation, just a proclamation given by Joshua. No shouting, no speaking, just obedience and trumpets. That's it. That's it. What do you do for the young people? Preach the gospel. I blow the ram's horn. That's what I do. I blow the ram's horn. I do more for them than these churches out here do for theirs. I'm not going to entertain sinners, especially our children, on their way to hell. I'm going to tell them the truth. Now you can take them to Disney World, you can do that, but this ain't Disney World. This is where the truth is told. This is not playland. This is where the gospel is preached. This is where sinners come and they hear God speak through His man, through His Word, and by His Spirit. Playland is out there, not in here. So there's no shouting, no speaking, just obedience, trumpets. We are to preach Christ faithfully And watch God bring the walls down. The walls of rebellion. I don't know, it may take years. Some years may go by. The Lord may save some young people that Rupert preached to, and I've preached to, and I may be gone and never see it. And one day there's an interest created. That seed planted years ago, and God gave the increase. That's why it's important. That's why it's important to bring people in to hear the gospel. You don't know when God will plant that seed and then give the increase. You don't know. And then there was consistency here of obedience. Not sporadic, it was consistency. And this is interesting. They were obedient. Joshua told them how they were going to do this. And they did it. And six days to seven days they walked around that city. They walked around it one day, blew the trumpet, got up the next morning, walked around it, did that. Then on the seventh day they went around it seven times and blew the trumpet. But they did all of that with no results. FOR SIX DAYS! FOR SIX DAYS! THIS IS GOOD FOR ME! KEEPS ME FROM GETTING SO DISHEARTED WHEN YOU DON'T SEE PEOPLE CONFESS CHRIST! YOU PREACH AND YOU PREACH AND YOU PREACH! AND THEY DON'T CONFESS CHRIST! BUT HERE THEY WENT! SIX DAYS! BLOW THE TRUMPET! ANOTHER DAY! BLOW THE TRUMPET! THIRD DAY! FOURTH DAY! FIFTH DAY! SIXTH DAY! THEN THAT SEVENTH DAY! DO IT SEVEN TIMES! do it seven times you see things happen in God's time in God's time God saves everyone he saves in his time there's a time to be born and there's a time to die There's a time to come into this world, and there's a time to leave this world. There's a time to be born of God. If God's going to save you, there's a time to be born of God, and there's a time for you to die to yourself. There's a time for that. Now in verse 16 through 20, they have been marching around the city, they've been in dead silence, not even a word, not a word was to come out of their mouth. And now he says, Joshua says, now, we're gonna blow the horn seven times. And at the end of the seventh time, shout. He didn't say you can start talking. He said, shout. Shout. And I tell you, we got something to shout about, don't we? Here a few weeks ago, I said sometimes I'd like to be a Pentecostal so I could shout. I got home and that bothered me. I thought, man, they're liars. They don't preach the gospel. I should have never said that. That's bothered me since I said it. I do say things I wish I hadn't said. But I do say this, we ought to shout. And I don't mean we have to start shouting here, but in our hearts, We ought to shout. You can say amen. You women can say amen. Nobody says you can't say that. You can shout, he said, shout for the Lord has given you the city. He gave it to Joshua at first. He says, I've given you, the Lord has given you the city. And now Joshua says, the Lord's given you the city. You see, Christ has given us the victory. THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVES US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1 Corinthians 15 57. ALL THE FATHER GAVE TO CHRIST IS OURS IN HIM, ISN'T IT? THE CITY IS GIVEN TO JOSHUA. MAN'S SOUL IS GIVEN TO JOSHUA. AND ALL THAT IS GIVEN TO HIM IS GIVEN TO US. WE HAVE EVERYTHING THAT BELONGS TO JESUS CHRIST. WE HAVE IT ALL. We are heirs with Christ. It tells us that in Romans. And when they shouted, when they shouted, the walls fail. The walls fail. You know, over in, I should have marked in the margin, the walls came down. I was reading all of this and it says, most all the writers say that the walls sunk down into the ground. You know, I always, in my mind, I've always pictured it falling, you know. And I thought today, well, that makes sense, because they'd had to go over all that rubble. Just think of all the junk they'd had to crawl over to get into the city. But the meaning of it seems to be that the walls sunk down into the earth. That's amazing. God opened the earth and swallowed up the walls. Jericho fell without one weapon being lifted in violence. Not one weapon lifted in violence. God did it. You know what the Lord said to Peter, I believe it was, He said, The gates of hell shall not prevail against thee. Meaning this, the gates of hell will not keep you out. The gates of hell will not keep the gospel out. You see a person who is so hardened in sin or so religious, so self-righteous like the Apostle Paul, None are so bad, so hard, that God can't save. He can bring those walls down. God, He did it with us. Why would we doubt anybody else? Why? Now we see here in verses 17 through 21, the destruction of the old man. Here we see the destruction of the old man. Jericho was put under a curse. The old life, the flesh is cursed. They went in and they burnt, they killed everybody in there except for the one person and her family. They killed them all, young and old, killed them all. men women killed them all you say that's that's that sounds harsh God's gonna put people in hell forever here's an example here's an example that people ought to fear the Lord you know he burned Sodom and Gomorrah down as an example for those who should live like that afterwards God burn it down Now he's giving an example but here the old life the flesh is a curse because Joshua said Cursed is everyone who builds this back. He said there at the end of that chapter, if you listen here, at the end of this chapter, he says in verse 20, And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord that rises up and builds this city Jericho. He'll lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn and in his youngest son, shall he set the gates of it. He's going to pay for it. It's cursed. Flesh is cursed, it's cursed. Don't take what God has condemned and try to resurrect it, it's cursed. Cursed is the man who trusts in the flesh. You see, this is a great example to the Hebrews, who some of them was wanting to go back. And he said, you go back, you're cursed. You rely on the flesh again, you are cursed. WE SEE THE SEVERITY OF GOD'S JUDGEMENT AGAINST THE FLESH. GOD'S MERCIFUL BUT GOD'S HOLY ALSO. But there's one in that city, there's one in that city whom God's going to save. The gospel was for one woman. BLOWING THOSE TRUMPETS FOR ONE WOMAN! A HARLOT! A HARLOT WHO BELIEVED! A GENTILE WOMAN WHO BELIEVED! GOD BROUGHT DOWN THE CITY TO GET HER! HE'S GONNA HAVE HIS PEOPLE! GOD'S GONNA HAVE THEM! HER HOUSE STOOD WHEN ALL ELSE FELL! HER HOUSE STOOD! You see, the Lord knoweth them that are His. She's mine. She's mine. And her faith was real. Turn back over to Joshua chapter 2. You see, she perished not with them that believed not. Back over here in Joshua chapter 2. Look in verse 11, this is her speaking to the spies. And as soon as we had heard these things about them, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, listen, here's her confession of faith. For the Lord your God, He's God in heaven above and in earth beneath. She believed that with all her heart. your God is God and no doubt from that point on God taught her we learn who God is we learn who God is and then we're taught of God we're taught of God she heard she said she heard they heard and she believed faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God and her faith led to obedience in hiding those spies. She believed. Now in closing, here's a curse to get back to this matter of the flesh. Here's a curse on rebuilding the flesh in verses 26-27. Here's a warning to the Hebrews and to us. It's a warning against rebuilding Jericho. DO NOT GO BACK TO WHAT GOD HAS CURSED, AND HUMAN NATURE CANNOT BE RESTORED. You can send somebody to all the rehab centers you want to, send them to all the prisons you want to, human nature cannot be restored. It must be crucified, it must be put to death, it HAS TO BE, it HAS TO BE PUT TO DEATH. Even in the New Testament, Jericho is judged. Our Lord, listen here, in Luke chapter 19, our Lord, it says, PASSED THROUGH Jericho. Here's what happened. Before He enters into Jericho, He saves a blind man named Blind Bartimaeus. When he LEAVED Jericho, he saved a man, a rich man named Zacchaeus. But we don't read of him saving anyone in Jericho. Jericho cannot be rebuilt. The flesh cannot be saved. It cannot be saved. It can only be judged and condemned. Jericho is a symbol of the flesh and it must die. Now here's the conclusion. Hebrews 11, 30, and 31 connects the fall of Jericho and Rahab's salvation directly to faith, but that faith is in the Lord. It's the object of faith that saves, we know that, we know that. God has not changed, God has not changed. I think this religious world believes that the gospel has made God a kinder, more gentle, loving God. He's still a consuming fire. He's going to burn this world up. And all those who are not in Christ, He's going to burn them up in hell. They're going to be tormented forever and ever and ever. What kind of watchman would I be if I didn't tell you that? TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! If the bridge was out and there was a raging flood ahead and I just let people just drive on past, what kind of person would I be? Not to stop them and say, THE BRIDGE IS OUT! And He saves sinners hidden in His promises. Those sinners who are hidden in His promises, He saves every one of them. And He curses the old man in flesh forever. That old flesh is cursed forever. This old nature I have and you still have is going to go to the grave and it's not coming out. That new man is, but not that old man. Our God is the conqueror and all who do not believe will be conquered by Him. Now He's going to conquer everyone one way or another. Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Some are going to do it willingly and some are going to do it unwillingly. But EVERYBODY is going to do it. EVERYBODY!