Beyond the sacred page, I seek
thee, Lord. Beyond the sacred page, beyond
just the written word. And then it says, the last line,
he says, show me the truth concealed within thy word and in thy book
revealed. I see the Lord. That's good,
isn't it? That's what I feel like in these Old Testament types. That's what I felt like
when I was studying Joshua chapter 5 and other chapters. I felt
like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, Christ met with them
and He went out of their sight, and they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by
the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? I hope and pray that's what you
will receive this morning, a little bit of spiritual heartburn. Joshua
chapter five. Most of this chapter, Joshua
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, most of this chapter. But in
the end, the type meets the real thing. The shadow gives way to
substance. Joshua meets man. The title of
this message is Captain of the Lord's Host. Back in chapter four, Verse 21,
look back there, chapter 4, verse 21, leading up to chapter 5. Chapter 4, verse 21, he spoke
unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall
ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these
stones? In chapter 4, you can read it
for yourself, they took some stones out of the the River Jordan
where they walked across and set them up as a memorial. And
you can read that for yourself. I chose to bypass that chapter. We're just going to have maybe
one or two more messages on this from the book of Joshua. But they set up some stones and
he said, when your children ask you what these stones mean, Then
you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over Jordan
on dry land," read on, "'The Lord your God dried up the waters
of Jordan from before you,' I'm reading chapter 4, verse 23,
"'until we were passed over.'" Tell them, the Lord your God
dried the waters up until we passed over. As the Lord your
God did the Red Sea, which he dried up from the forest, until
we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know
the hand of the Lord. It's mighty. And you might fear
the Lord your God forever. Tell them. Tell your children
when they ask, What does this mean? What are you doing here?
What's this all about? And that's what I'm trying to
tell your children and our children. And what you tell your children.
Let them know. Trying to tell our children that
the hand of our Lord is mighty, that his hands were in his name,
and he hath done whatsoever he pleased. And we fear this God. That's why we're here this morning.
That's what we're doing, in the fear of God. I'm not playing
church. I dare not play church. We fear God too much. A lot of
people play in church. True worshipers don't. They fear
God. God is holy. The Amorites, look at chapter
5, verse 1. It came to pass when all the
kings of the Amorites, who were on the side of Jordan westward,
all the kings of the Canaanites, by the sea, heard that the Lord
had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel
until we were passed over. Their heart melted. There was
no more spirit in them because of the children of Israel. The
Amorites and the Canaanites heard of this powerful God, and it
says their hearts melted. There's no more spirit in them.
They didn't have anything to say before the people of God.
But our generation now, our generation is like Paul said
in Romans, there's no fear of God before their eyes. And if
we would say anything to our generation, it be this, the fear
of God is the beginning of wisdom. Fear God. Our generation is ignorant of
the God of the Bible. They're ignorant of what he is,
what he's like. They're ignorant of his holiness.
Ask the average person, they would say, love is what God is
like. But the Bible says his love is
under another attribute, holy. If you know the Lord is holy,
if you know the Lord is just, you will by no means clear the
guilty. And you realize he's to be feared. And his power,
he's sovereign. Now our generation doesn't know
that, do they? Our generation doesn't know And
they don't, their hearts don't melt before the God of Scripture,
his power, his absolute sovereign power. He's doing what he will,
with whom he will, why he will, when he will. And you know, we
were, we were just like them at one time. We were, Scripture
says, aliens. These Amorites and these Canaanites
were strangers to the covenant of promise, weren't they? They
were aliens, they were enemies. And we were, too. That's what
Ephesians says. You were strangers to the covenant
of promise. Enemies in your own mind by wicked
work. And we were strangers to this
God, too. But when the God of the Bible
revealed himself to us, it used to be feared, and our hearts
melted. He melts our hearts. That's the
first thing God does when he comes to an old city. He melts
the hearts. He melts the heart. And there's
no more spirit in them. When they get around a new believer,
when they get around other believers, especially older ones, they don't
have so much to say anymore. Why? They feel themselves to
be so ignorant. They have been so foolish and
sin-pulling. They don't have much to say anymore. You see that? That was us there,
like these Amorites and these Canaanites. Verse 2, look at
it. It says, right after the melting of these
hearts. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, Now, Joshua,
make sharp knives, knives of flint, and circumcise again the
children of Israel a second time. Now, I want you to turn over
to Romans, Chapter 2. OK? Romans 2. And let's look at this
thing of circumcision. The Bible, the Scripture, speaks
a lot about circumcision. It's more than just a law for
hygiene purposes. Any law God gave had a spiritual
reason behind it. That's the principle. The law
is spiritual. Circumcision, while it did have
hygienic purposes, sanitary purposes, yet it had a much deeper meaning
to it. All right? Look at Romans 2, verses 28 and
29. If he is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
But he is a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that
of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter or in the flesh.
whose praise is not of men, or outward, but of God, inward. It's not an outward sign, it's
an inward one. All right, back to the text,
the circumcisions of the heart. All right, when these people,
at the time of the melting of these people's hearts, it said
that the Lord told Joshua, make some knives and circumcise these
children. And when the word of God came to us, in power and
revealed to us who God is, created fear in our heart. He then sent
his word by the Spirit to say, Circumcise him. Over in Colossians 2, it talks
about the operation of the Spirit of God upon us. The Holy Spirit
is the one that does this work of heart and circumcision, changing
of a heart. Listen, here's what heart and
circumcision is. Here's what it is. It's to remove
the hard heart. Like Ezekiel 36 says, I'll take
away that heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, a
soft heart. Take away that hard covering
that the Word will pierce and give them a heart of flesh, that
the Word of God will pierce their hearts and bring forth fruit.
It's a prepared heart. When you cut something, you know,
you break it open, don't you? Like you plow the land. Well,
this is that circumcision of the heart. God plows our hearts,
breaks our hearts before God. Broken. To this man, when I look,
he is broken of a contract. Broken. Circumcised heart. Broken. Split. Cut. Cut. Wounded. And the Word of God goes in there
and heals. Circumcision of the heart. causes
or removes the old affections. Are you with me? Those who have
this work done are. The circumcision of the heart,
it removes the affections. It changes the affections. That
heart of flesh used to beat for flesh. But Colossians 1 says,
if you then be risen with Christ, your heart is set on things above.
Where is that old hired heart? fleshly-seeking heart, uncircumcised
heart, just goes after nothing but the world. But God's circumcision
removes that, set on things above. Heart circumcision is to cause
the heart that once was dead to God, now to be with God. Did not our hearts burn within
us, they said? It causes them to have heartburn
toward God, or as before, cold and dead and dry. But when the
Spirit of God comes in, like my pastor was preaching Wednesday
night, something happens. Hearts begin to beat toward God,
and their hearts beat as one. When the gospel is preached,
it causes the heart to start beating a little faster. That's
circumcision. And if yours doesn't do that
when this rhetorical science comes, say, God, there's something
to my heart. It ain't here. Now, this has got to happen.
You see these children of Israel. Read on, verses 4 through 7.
I'll not read it to you, but I'll just... These children of
Israel, they all weren't circumcised. Well, they look like children
of Israel. Doesn't everybody here look like believers? They
all weren't circumcised. Everybody entering the promised
land had to be circumcised. I'm immediately reminded of the
parable our Lord gave of the ten virgins. They all looked
like virgins. They were all prepared for the
wedding feast, weren't they? And they all looked like they
had lamps. That's life, lamps. I had oil. I didn't. What's oil? It's the anointing of God's Spirit.
Work on the heart. And let me say it again. If this
gospel doesn't burn within your heart, even now as I speak, if
you're not warned by a dead and cold heart, you've got hardening of the arteries. It'll kill you. I preach as one who may never
preach again, as a dying man, as a dying man. One more time. This thing needs to burn. It's
the last message you may have heard from my pastor, as the
last thing you heard, when the Holy Spirit comes in. He does
a work, and he perfects it. It doesn't grow dull and lazy
and cold and lifeless. It moves. heart doesn't become
dull, it beats more. Being confident of this very
thing that he's begun a good work ain't worth perfecting.
Right? Won't let it lie cold and dormant
and diminish, it will increase. All right, verse 8. It says,
when they came to pass, when they had done circumcising all
the people, verse 8, they abode in their places in the camp till
they were whole, after they were circumcised. And this is the
work of the God Spirit, this type of God sending the gospel
to just rip your heart open. and change it and make it deep
toward God. When that happened, they stayed
right where they were. They abode in that place until
they were made whole. You see the picture of that?
When the gospel comes and you hear it, you say, this is it,
what I've been looking for. You sit down and you just abide
right there until you're made whole. until Christ comes, Joe, and
takes us out. Then we go to be with the man
who made hope. We hear some pretty fair preaching
now, but we're going to hear some preaching then. But until
then, this is the place. This is the gospel. And if he's any kind of preacher
at all, your heart will beat with him, and beat with that
message. If there's any Christ in that preacher, your heart
will beat if it's been circumcised. And you abide right there. You
just abide. You just live there until you're
made whole, until you go home and be with the Lord. You say,
well, I heard the half of it, but, I mean, phew. And it was
good, but this is better. All right, verse 9, And the Lord
said unto Joshua, This day, I love this. I love this place. This day have
I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off of you. This day, the day of salvation,
when the gospel comes and pierces your heart, you hear from Christ
the word. You hear from him. Joshua represents
Christ here. When you hear from his word,
I roll away the reproach. The same gospel that breaks your
heart then quickens it, and you hear from Christ himself, I've
rolled away the reproach. The same gospel and word that
breaks your heart and convicts you of sin pours in at oil and
wine at the balm of Gilead and says, I've broken it, but I've
healed it. You're a sinner, but I'm your
Savior. I've rolled away the reproach.
He put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. Is your heart beating
a little? He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made to righteousness of God in him. God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. All our sins on him were laid.
He had blotted out the handwriting of the ordinances against us
and nailed them to the cross. John Davis kept them full. Huh? Oh, my. And he said, I've rolled away
the reproach. We ought to rename this church.
You want to rename it? Let's name it Gilgal Baptist. Huh? This is where he rolled
away the reproach. This is where I heard that he
rolled all my sins on Christ. Gilgal Baptist, that's a good
one. Or just Gilgal Church. Verse 10, And the children of
Israel encamped in Gilgal. Encamped there. It sounded like
they just hunkered down right there. Encamped there. And look what the first thing
they did was. They said they kept the Passover. After the Lord brought them over,
and they were circumcised, and they just hunkered down in that
place, and the first thing they did sacrifice a lamb, kept the
Passover. This is no coincidence, is it,
that this happened right after that circumcision. The Passover
was a remembrance. The people, this was how the
people remembered how the Lord spared them, how the Lord, by
the blood on the doorpost and the lentils. Remember the Passover?
This is what the people, the Passover, what they did. to remember
how the Lord spared them, didn't kill them like he did the Egyptians,
spared them in mercy and love and grace, and brought them out
of Egypt into the promised land. And they kept that power. They
were about to forget what the Lord did for them. Spared them by blood and brought
them out. And upon hearing of Christ bearing
our sins, We do this in remembrance of Him. Why are we here this
morning? Children, why are we here? Young people, my child,
your children, why are we here this morning? What are we doing
here? We're remembering how the Lord
spared us. The Lord spared us. These people,
your mother and father, are here doing this in remembrance of
Christ, who spared us. He was merciful and gracious
to us in putting away our sins in Christ, our Passover lamb,
and brought us out of the world that's perishing, brought us
out to himself. That's what we're doing. That's
what we're doing here. We're doing this in remembrance
of him. We do this in remembrance of
him. We do that in remembrance of him. Everything we do is in
remembrance of blood and bringing. Keep the Passover. Read on. And they did eat of the old corn
of the land after the Passover on the fourteenth day of the
month, even in the plains of Jericho. Remember that. All right, remember that. They ate this right down in the,
right where Jericho is. give you a clue, Psalm 23. All
right, verse 11, And they did eat of the old corn of the land
on the morrow, after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched
corn to self the same day. And the manna ceased on the morrow,
after they had eaten of the old corn of the land, neither had
the children of Israel manna any more. But they did eat of
the food of the land of Canaan that year. Folks, we partake. What are we
eating right here this morning? What are we eating? Old food. Same old, same old. Aren't we
staying? What are you eating right now?
Same thing you ate in the beginning. When God brought you out, manna.
The bread of life into Christ. Same old food. Isn't it? Same thing. But it's good, and
it's good food, and it sustains you this long. It'll sustain
you until that day when you go to be with Him, and you're going
to eat the fruit of the land of Cain. We're going to hear
it about Christ. Never you hear it about Christ.
And it's good. It's great sometimes. It tastes
good to you. It's sweet. You're going to be
with Christ now. I'm talking about going from
cornbread to big ripe mangoes. And this is the reason, you know,
same food, same fare. Does your heart loathe this old
black bread? Now, be honest. That's the reason
some fall asleep during it. That's just so. It's the same
old same old. And as I said before, it's not the gospel's fault.
It's not the Word's fault. Same gospel, same one in the
beginning. You heard me just, oh, it's the
greatest thing I've ever heard. And in the end, it's like these
children of Israel, parched corn. And I can't make it sweet. Only
the Holy Spirit can. That's the reason I urge you,
Lord. We sang, it's a calm Holy Spirit, heavenly dove. Make parched
corn into ripe fruit. Make the manna sweet again. Well, one day, it'll never be parched
corn again to you, never. It'll be the same old, same old. You know how it was when you
first heard the gospel and you just thought, I'm not, I'm just,
I'm going to float. I'm coming out of here. I'm ready
to die. Like Simeon. You know what you,
I've seen thyself, a foretaste of glory, and you thought, why
ain't nobody else? That's what it's going to be
like all the time. You want to eat the fruit of
the land of Canaan, Christ himself. Gentlemen, we want to hear him
speak, and we want to say, never may I speak like that man. We've
never heard it on this session before. I'll eat the fruit, day in and
day out, and it will always be sweet in glory. Now, here is
an amazing part. The type changes here. Joshua
is no more a type of Christ anymore. All right? Joshua represents
us. Joshua is going to meet somebody.
Joshua is going to see a glorious person. Now, hold your pews,
old fellow would say, we're going to jump a creek. Joshua meets
a man. Scripture says we go from glory
to glory. Now, that was good, wasn't it,
John, if you were with me. That first part, verse 11, has
good stuff, but it gets better. It goes from glory to glory. Read on with me. Joshua meets
a man, verse 13. It came to pass when Joshua was
by Jericho. He keeps saying this. Over in
chapter 3, verse 16, it says the people passed over right
against Jericho. Remember that? So they passed
over right against Jericho. Chapter 4, it said, he talked
about it again, over in Jericho. Chapter 5, he said this, he said,
they were eating, they were eating right in the plains right where
Jericho was. Why does he keep saying that?
Keep reminding us that all this was going on around Jericho.
Because if you'll read Numbers 25 sometime, Jericho, Jericho
was the most notoriously evil place on earth. It might not be Numbers 25, excuse
me. I don't know why that scripture came up, but it might not. At
any rate, Jericho—don't look at it, look at me—Jericho was
the most notoriously evil place on the planet. God's about to
send Joshua in there, wipe her out. Jericho's like Sodom. God's sending Joshua. They're
coming into Jericho, and God's going to kill everything, man,
woman, and child. Except one. Except one. You don't remember, do you? There's
one in there, a certain woman. But you see Jericho, and here
are these people just sitting right in the shadow of Jericho,
right in the plains of Jericho eating manna. being saved. A shadow of a wash. Got it? Got it, Vicki? He prepared us
a table. Psalm 23, in the presence of
our enemy. Is it nothing to you, Jeremiah,
all you that pass by? Listen to the card. He prepares us a table. right by Jericho. This man right
here doesn't have to. He doesn't care anything about
the gospel. He prepared for us to take. We're eating manna. Huh? Oh, in the midst of our
enemy. The gospel came to us in hostile
country. And we, the scripture says, listen,
the scripture says, we all had among whom we all had our conversation
in times past. We lived in Jericho. We lived
there. How we have. We lived there. But God, who is rich in mercy,
prepared us a table. What about it, Mephibosheth?
God brought you to the table, set you down, table of kings,
right in Jericho. Should have killed you with the
rest of them? No. But in mercy, about you. Who, me? Yeah, you. Deborah,
why you? Mercy. It's of the Lord's mercies
that you're not concerned. That's why. Once dead to Christ, now married.
Or once dead to Christ and married to the world, now dead to the
world, married to another. He was brought by Jericho, Joshua
was brought by Jericho, and he lifted up his eyes and looked.
Salvation is in a look. He lifted up his eyes and looked.
God said, Look unto me, and be ye saved. What did he say? Behold,
there stood a man. Joshua lifted up his eyes, right
beside Jericho, lifted up his eyes, and behold, there stood
a man. John the Baptist one day was down But twelve hundred years
later, John the Baptist was baptizing in that very creek, Jordan. Maybe standing where Joshua was
standing. I don't doubt it for a minute.
Do you stand? That's where they crossed. I
bet that's where John was baptizing. Where Joshua stood and saw that
man. Because John was baptizing and
behold, right over there stood a man. The Lamb of God, the God-man. God said, Behold, my servant,
mine elect, mine elect, God's man stood on this earth. God's
man. That prophet. Moses said, God
will send that prophet. Remember that Joshua saw him.
I wish John saw him. I've seen him too. That prophet,
that great high priest, greater than Aaron, greater than Levi,
that great high priest, that king, greater than David, greater
than Solomon, king of kings. Here this man stood with his
sword drawn. Now, it's no insignificant thing that the
Lord barred the garden by an angel with a sword, a flaming
sword. And right here, here this man stands with a sword. And the Lord Jesus Christ, listen,
is one who stands between us and God, between us getting to
God. Between us going to be with God,
between us going to live with God, there's one that stands
between us. I tell you, Joe, we're between a rock and a hard
place. There's one that stands there.
He said, and he stands there, and this sword that comes out
of his mouth. This is what Christ comes out of his mouth, and it's
a hard saying to some people. The sword's got a hard edge on
it. Christ said, with this sword that came out of his mouth, which
is his word, he said, but by me." And this is how he deals with
us, with his sword, with his word, and he does it powerfully. A sword is a violent thing, isn't
it? A sword. What do you do with a sword?
You cut heads off. You pierce hearts. The Scripture says the
word of God is quick, powerful, and sharper than a two-edged
sword. And he saved, with the same sword
in the hands of the great physician. After it wounds, rips, it heals,
like a scalpel. It heals. He saves by his word. This is how men are going to
be saved, by the word of God. What am I doing right now? Foolishness?
It is to the world. But to us which are being saved
is the power of God. These words are life! Righteousness,
peace, Christ, blood, life. If that heart's alive, these
words are life! They make you beat! Sword, spirit,
broken, healed, bound, given, Christ! If it's alive, it's beating.
That's the same, so the same word Christ is going to condemn
people by. Stand some day, the same God
might play a recording of the word preached to people,
which they did not receive. As he points to them and says,
there is the one he's talking about, there was your only hope,
but you just rejected, weren't it? There's some. Huh? Proverbs 1, there are a few.
What is the call? What is the sword? This word.
Same word by which he grants interest, he dubs righteous.
You know how the kings of old used to take a sword and dub,
I dub thee? Sir Galahad, and he does the
same thing with us. Takes a sword. I dub thee Saint
Nancy. Come on in, lady. But the next
one, who is not interested in his word, so what do you got? The word. Didn't Christ say, I have one
that judges you? The word. Didn't he say that? The word shall judge you in the
end. Oh, Lord, I believe. What do we believe about His
Word? All of it. Oh, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Don't damn
me. Love me with the Word. Don't cut my head off. Anoint
my head. Oh, smite me. It'll be health
to me. Let the righteous smite me. It
won't work, my dear. Read on. He says he stood over
against him, and Joshua went unto him. Look at it, verse 13.
Joshua went unto him. Now, Christ comes to us first,
doesn't he? Who appeared first? Was Joshua
seeking? Who appeared first? This man
came to him first. And he didn't say anything, except
to have that sword. And Joshua came to him, didn't
he? Must have saw something in his eyes, Sherry. He saw that
sword and the man, but he saw, now this is one I can approach. I fear him, yet I've got to come
to him. Joshua came to him. When Christ
comes to us first, he makes us fear and tremble before God,
but we come to him, too, don't we? It's in his eyes. He had dove's eyes. He had dove's eyes. We go to
him. Christ comes to us and we go to him. And all this was happening
without the camp. Without the camp, Joshua and
the band by themselves. Without the camp. And Joshua
said, Are you for us or against us? For our adversaries. Back
in the Civil War, this is a true story. A young soldier, one of
the officers in the Union Army, appeared before Abraham Lincoln. And this was right in the heat
of the war when things didn't know how they were going to go.
And this young soldier said to Lincoln, he said, Mr. President, Mr. Lakin, I sure
hope the Lord is on our side." And Mr. Lakin wisely said, he
said, Son, I hope we're on the Lord's side. You see, it's not, who's on the
Lord's side is what Scripture says it doesn't. Who's on it?
It's just only one side. He ain't got two sides to a coin. It's only one side, isn't it?
It's God's side. It's only one way, isn't it? You don't go away. It's one way.
Christ is the way. Look at what he said, and he
answered just well. He said in verse 14, "'Nay, who
are you on our side? Are you on their side?' Now, that's what Paul said in
Romans 9, doesn't it, Vicki? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
to talk with God? Nay, he said, but as captain
of the host of the Lord am I now come. I'm sent by God, captain
of the host, the overseer of the host of heaven, I'm sent.
Not on your side. on God's side. Blessed be God, Joshua, I believe,
was on God's side. Captain of our salvation, the
Lord Jesus Christ came, the captain of God's host, the captain of
his children, a captain's one in charge, isn't it, isn't it,
Henry? Captain, you answered to him, wasn't it? Yes, the captain.
Captain, my captain. Commander, the one who fought
the battles for you, went out before you, the conquering captain.
That's Christ Jesus, our Lord, who comes, who came to this earth
as a captain of our salvation. And Joshua, verse 14, fell on
his face to the earth and did worship. Fell on his face. Sounds like Paul, Saul of Tarsus,
doesn't it? You see, God saves all his people
the same way, doesn't he? From Joshua to Saul, from Saul
to Paul. He says them all the same way.
He creates fear, he circumcises the heart, he lets known how
he rolled away the reproach. They keep the Passover, and they
see a man, and they bow and they worship. And he reveals some things to
them. He really opens their eyes then.
Verse 15, the captain and the Lord's host sit under Joshua,
take their shoes off. Loose the shoe from your foot.
The place you stand is holy. I just now thought of when our
Lord took our disciples' shoes off, remember that? And washed
their feet. He took them off for them. The
captain of our salvation appeared unto us like this man. Whether
or not this was actually Christ, I don't know. But our Lord did
stand, the captain of our salvation, the captain of the Lord, the
Lord's host, stood on this earth one day, and all his people meet
him. He comes to them, and they come
to him, and they worship him. They fall on their feet, at his
feet, at Christ's feet, and they worship him. And from that day
forward, that's where you'll find them, barefoot before the
Lord. All right. Joe, you got a number
picked out, buddy? What is it? 228. 228. First and
third verses, 228.