If you would, open your Bibles
again with me to Joshua chapter five. I titled the message this morning,
Are You For Us or Our Enemies? Joshua, he stands out as one
of the clear pictures of Christ in the Old Testament. His name,
Joshua, is the Old Testament name for the New Testament name,
Jesus. Joshua led the people into the
promised land and gave them temporary rest there. Christ, our Joshua,
leads his people into eternal rest. Joshua was a mighty conqueror. He defeated every enemy that
he met in the promised land. And that's such a picture of
Christ our Savior. He's the mighty conqueror. He
defeated every spiritual enemy of his people. He met Satan head
on at Calvary and crushed his head, preserved him in chains
until the time appointed that the Lord would put him away forever.
Christ the Savior defeated sin once and for all by taking that
sin into his own body on the tree and paying the debt in full
with his precious blood, washing his people white as snow so there's
not a trace of sin left on them. Christ defeated death. by dying
in the place of his people so they can never die. He took the
sting of death so death can never sting, never harm his people. Christ our Savior defeated every
enemy just like Joshua did for the children of Israel. And the
man that Joshua meets here at the end of this chapter in verse
13 is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. This is not an angel,
this is not some special man, this is Christ himself. He tells
Joshua the same thing I am, told Moses at the burning bush. Take
off your shoes, you're on holy ground. And in chapter six, verse
two, he's identified as the Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D. This is Jehovah. Jehovah speaking
to Joshua. There's no doubt in my mind,
this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. And I love this. Joshua, this great type of Christ,
meets Christ the fulfillment of the picture. He meets the
actual. He met Christ. Now I want you and me to know
this. Have I truly met Christ or not? I want us to know that. And if we've met Christ, I can
tell you this, God hadn't changed. We're gonna meet the same one
Joshua met here outside of Jericho in chapter five. I wanna give
you four defining attributes of the Savior that I see in this
meeting with Joshua. And you'll recognize these four
traits if you've met Christ the Savior the same way Joshua did.
Number one is this. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
captain. Verse 13, Joshua chapter five.
And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, they lifted up
his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against
him with a sword drawn in his hand And Joshua went unto him
and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries? Now the children of Israel are
getting ready to enter into the promised land. And Joshua knows
the first job that must be done when they enter the promised
land is Jericho must be taken. Now Jericho is a very large city. It's got surrounded by huge thick
walls and it's very well defended. They've been preparing for Israel
to come for a while now. And on the night before the battle,
when everybody else is asleep, Joshua is out at night alone. I'm sure he's walking around,
surveying the ground and so forth, and he's praying. You know he's
praying. Isn't that another picture of our Lord? How he often went
into the mountain alone at night to pray all night long. And Joshua's
out there like any good general would be. He's out looking at
tomorrow's battlefield. He's looking over the city. He's
looking over the terrain. And it wouldn't surprise me to
find out he's wondering, how is a group of slaves that never
had any military training whatsoever, how are we going to go take that
mighty walled city? Those walls are so thick and
so tall. How are we ever going to take
that city? He's probably trying to come up with a plan of attack.
Now Josh was out here alone. He was probably on the hillside,
a very wooded area, and he's all alone. And then he sees a
man over against him. That man is standing with his
sword drawn. He's not just got a sword down
here by his side. He's got it in a battle stance,
like he's ready to do battle. And that one, like I said earlier,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we should take note of this.
Christ our Savior is a warrior. He's not some wimpy little guy
begging people to do something for him. You know, in the New
Testament, he's described as a shepherd. You know, we think
of shepherd like little Bo Peep, right? Just so cute and frilly
and yeah. A shepherd was a warrior. I mean, he went out there to
do battle. with lions and bears and wolves
and things that would take his sheep. I mean, this is a fierce
man to be able to protect his sheep that way. Christ our Savior
is a warrior. He's a mighty conqueror and he
will conquer every last son of Adam. Just like he's defeated
all of our spiritual enemies, he will conquer every son of
Adam. He'll either do it by the power
of his grace power of his love for his people. Or he'll conquer
them when he names them. And then they'll be conquered.
But either way, every knee's gonna bow. They're all gonna
be conquered. Everybody's gonna bow the knee
to him. He's the warrior. Now Joshua doesn't know it yet.
He didn't know this is Christ yet, but he does recognize this
man's a warrior. He's somebody to be reckoned
with. And he goes and asks him, are you for us? Are you for our
enemies? Look at verse 14 and see the
Lord's answer to him. 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. He said unto him, what saith
the Lord unto his servant? Now our Lord answers Joshua,
I'm not here to take sides. I'm here as the captain. I'm
here as who I am. the captain of the host of the
Lord. And that word captain means the prince. It means the chieftain. It means the head. And it means
the ruler of rulers. The Savior says I'm here as the
ruler of rulers. I'm here having dominion. Anywhere our Lord is, he has
dominion, doesn't he? So what the Lord's telling Joshua
is I'm not here to exile. I'm here in charge of this whole
shooting match. That's what I'm doing here. You know, we often
think the same thing Joshua did. We think, well, is the Lord on
my side in this or not? We need to remember this. The
Lord doesn't take sides any more today than he did there with
Joshua. The Lord doesn't take sides. The Lord's on his side. The Lord is doing right. That's
what the Lord's doing. So the question I should be asking
is not, is the Lord on my side? The question I should be asking
is, am I on the Lord's side? Am I on his side? I need to find
out what the Lord's way is and then get in that way, don't I?
I need to find out where the Lord is and then be on his side. You see the gospel, the gospel
of our salvation. Scripture calls it the gospel
of Christ, the gospel of God. The gospel is not about me. The
gospel is not about what I believe. The gospel is not about where
I stand. The gospel is Christ. The gospel is Christ. It's all
about Christ. So when I ask, is the Lord on
my side? I'm making it about me, aren't
I? When I ask, is the Lord on my side? I've got everything
backwards. And when Joshua realized who
it was, that he was speaking to, Joshua fell on his face and
he worshiped the Lord. Now I'll tell you a sure sign
that you've met Christ the Savior. It's reverence. It's reverence
in his mighty, awesome presence. This is the sovereign. Oh, and
we're so careful to use his name. We're so careful to come into
his presence with reverence. Because we know who he is. This
is God. This is God. You know, things
never did change. Joshua and Saul of Tarsus, they
both asked the same thing when they met the Lord. They both
got down in the dust and said, Lord, what would you have me
do? Lord, you're the captain. You're the Lord. What are your
orders? What's your orders to me? See, that was the right question
all along. The wrong question was, are you
on my side or their side? The right question is, Lord,
what do you say to your servant? What is your commandment to me? What are your orders? I'm here
to obey. You know, a sure sign that you've
seen the captain of the Lord's host is you snap to attention
when he comes on the scene. I love watching war movies and
these kinds of things. And I love to see this. You know,
I was never in the military, but I'm so impressed by this.
You know, people are just in there, you know, they're in the
military, they're just doing their thing. And somebody shouts, there's
an officer on deck. And everybody snaps to attention. And they're waiting for his orders.
Now, if we truly met Christ, that's what we snap to attention
and say, Lord, what are your orders? What are your orders
to me? What does the Lord have to say
to me? Wouldn't it be something if the
captain condescended this morning and had something to say to you
and me? Wouldn't that be something? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
captain of the Lord's host. He is the captain, the chieftain,
the ruler of rulers that every believer follows. We follow in
allegiance to him, in obedience to him and love to him. We wouldn't
follow anybody else. But Christ is also the captain
of our salvation. He's the sovereign. He's the
captain who went into battle and accomplished all of salvation
for his people. Now he's our savior. He's our
savior. He loves us and we love him.
Salvation is not just knowing things about Christ. Salvation
is a relationship with Him. It's knowing Him. It's being
in Him. The believer loves Christ and He loves us. That's a special
loving relationship, isn't it? But don't ever forget this. He's
our captain. He's God. He's the Lord. And
we are always in His hand to do with as He pleases. And we
bow before Him. It's the only right posture we
can take to bow before him, waiting to hear what he has to say to
us, because he's our captain. All right, here's the second
thing. Christ, our captain, defeats
every enemy, and he does it with a specific weapon. He does it
with his word, the sword of his word. Joshua saw the Lord with
the sword drawn in his hand in a battle stance. The apostle
John got a look, Got a revelation at the end of time. Revelation
chapter one. And you know what he saw? He
said he saw the Lord Jesus Christ with a sharp two-edged sword
coming out of his mouth. That sword is the word of God. It's what he speaks. That's what
the apostle Paul told us when he talks about putting on the
whole armor of God. He tells us to take the sword
of the spirit, which is the sword of God's word. And our captain
uses that word to defeat every enemy. It's his word. Remember
when Satan came and tempted our Lord, he tempted him with things
of this earth that every one of us would fall for, like that,
if we were tempted. And you know how the Savior defeated
him? It was with his word. With every temptation of Satan,
what did the Savior say? It is written. He used the word
of God And in the face of the word of God, Satan had to leave
him alone. He found nothing in him. He used
the word to defeat him. In all of God's elect, before
time began, God chose the people, say. But we're born in this world,
we're born natural enemies of God. We hate God, we refuse to
bow to him, we refuse to submit to him. You may believe right
now, But at one time, you didn't, did you? At one time, you're
children of wrath, even as others. Well, here's God's people. They
got a stubborn, stony heart that cannot be broken. How are they
gonna be broken? How are they gonna be brought
into loving submission to the Savior? How can they be given
a new heart that trusts Christ, that rests in Him alone? It's
by the preaching of the word. is by the preaching of God's
word. That's why Paul told Timothy, he said, Timothy, in every season,
in every situation, Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word,
preach the word, preach only the word. The preaching of God's word,
that's what every single one of us in this room means. Uncle,
who you are, believer, unbeliever, uncle, who you are, What every
one of us needs is the preaching of God's word. Are you lost? Are you someone that does not
know Christ? Tell you what you need, the preaching of the word. The Lord saves the lost by the
preaching of his word. If you're gonna know Christ,
you're gonna come to know him by the preaching of his word. Well,
are you a believer? Are you someone that knows Christ
and loves Christ? God's caused a new man to be
born in you. Well, you know what? You need the preaching of the
word of God too. That new man is strengthened. He's fed. He's
encouraged. He's edified only by the preaching
of the word. Man's ideas and doctrines and
thoughts on theology doesn't matter. What feeds God's sheep
is the word. The sincere milk of the word. Are you a believer that's out
there in the world just surrounded by everything that the world
is? By the false religion of the
world? By working with people that just... I mean, they hate
God. And they're so deceived into
thinking something else and believing something else. They're so sincere
in going the way that they go. And they just... Oh! They do
everything they can do to convince you, wouldn't they? What's going
to keep you from being deceived? the preaching of the word, the
constant preaching of the word. Are you a believer that's so
unsatisfied with your knowledge of Christ? Are you like Paul? Oh, that I might know him. Let
me tell you what you need, the preaching of the word. This is
how the children are taught. I bet you you're a believer that
need some comfort for your heart, aren't you? Need some comfort? Need some assurance for your
heart? Tell you what you need, the preaching of the word. There's
nothing that will comfort the hearts of God's people but his
word, but his word. I bet you, if you needed comfort
for your heart this morning, as Eric was reading that psalm,
you found comfort for your heart, didn't you? Eric couldn't have
got up here and used some psychology to comfort your heart. All he
had to do was open and read the Word of God. It comforted your
heart, didn't it? You just cannot overemphasize
the importance of the preaching of the Word. The Lord conquers
his people. He feeds his people. He comforts
his people. He instructs his people. He guides
his people by the preaching of the Word. That's the only weapon
that he uses. Then here's the third thing.
Christ, our captain, is to be worshiped. As soon as Joshua
realized who it was he was talking to, he got down in the dust at
the feet of the Savior and said, what's your orders? What do you
have to say to your servant? You know, the Apostle John did
the very same thing. Now, the Apostle John, he had
such a loving, intimate relationship with the Savior. He called himself
the disciple that the Lord loved. He was so comfortable with the
Savior, he leaned on his breast at supper, just leaned on him. They had such a loving, intimate
relationship. And when John saw the Lord on
the Isle of Patmos, he didn't treat him like a long lost buddy,
did he? John said, when I saw him, I
felt his feet as a dead man. Oh, I love him. Oh, I love you,
he loves me, I know he does. But he's to be worshiped. I fell
at his feet as a dead man. That's the only response a sinner
could ever have at seeing the Savior. To fall at his feet and
worship. Now just like the preaching of
God's word, it can't be overemphasized. You can't overemphasize the importance
of worship. Worshiping at the feet, of Christ,
and that happens in public worship. Now, I know we find that we can
worship in private and reading the word or whatever, but there's
nothing like public worship. This is where Christ promised
to meet with his people. If you want to be at his feet,
you got to be where he's at, don't you? He promised he'd be
here. Two or three are gathered together
preaching his name. This is where we fall at the
feet of the Savior. In public worship, at the feet
of Christ, it is so good for us. It is so good for us. When
we worship at the feet of Christ, we learn of Him. We learn of
Him. Mary, she chose that better part,
didn't she? Where will you always find a
Mary? At the feet of Christ. How'd she learn that? She learned
it at his feet. When we worship at the feet of Christ, we're
healed from all of our spiritual diseases, all of our wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. That leper who came to our Lord,
Matthew chapter eight, where'd you find him? At the feet of
the Savior. He came and fell at his feet
and worshiped him. Now he just worshiped him for
who he is, The Savior hadn't done anything yet for him. He
didn't promise him he'd do anything for him. That leper had absolutely
no idea if the Lord would do anything at all for him. But
he worshiped, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Where was he made clean? At the
feet of the Savior. When the Savior touched him,
he said, I will. Be thou clean. Oh, if we'd be
healed from all of our sin sicknesses, it's gonna be at the feet of
Christ. Worshipping Him. We hear about the forgiveness
of our sin, a defeat of Christ. Is there anything sweeter to
a sinner than hearing your sins forgiven? Remember the woman, John chapter
eight, she was taken in the very act of adultery. And those religious
hypocrites, they brought that woman and they threw her at the
feet of Christ. Remember how the Lord dealt with
those religious hypocrites? He bent down, he wrote with his
finger in the dirt, and he said, which of you haven't seen the
cast of the first stone? I really believe he wrote when
he wrote there in the dirt. I believe he started writing
names and days and convicted every one of those men of being
guilty of this very sin. They just hadn't got caught.
They caught this woman, bring her to the Savior, throw her
at his feet, and she's in the dust. They're all standing around
it. like a bunch of dogs circling, you know, thinking that they
got him. And one by one, beginning at the oldest to the youngest,
they all left. Now the Lord's dealt with him. He dealt with
the religious hypocrite. Now he turns his attention to
this woman. He hadn't given her any attention
yet, now he does. And he says, woman, where are those thine
accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. And then he said to her, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. She found
forgiveness of sin at his feet. And you and I will too if we
worship the Lord there. I'll tell you something else
we learned at the feet of the Savior. We learned how God can be just
and justify a sinner like me. How can God be just, remain holy
and just and still justify a sinner like me, I find that a defeat
of Christ crucified. Those women who are at the foot
of the cross of our Savior, they got a firsthand view of that. I know that had to be so agonizingly
heartbreaking to them. This is the Lord's mother. This
is those women who have been with the Lord from the beginning
of His earthly ministry, ministered to Him. They love the Lord, and
they're watching Him suffer and die. I can't help but think that
the Spirit brought to their mind, this is the time of the Passover.
It brought to their, this is the Lord. Our Passover sacrifice
for us. Mary had to think about those
prophecies that she heard. This is how sin's gonna be put
away. I'm just sure they realize some of it. This is how God can
be just and justify a sinner like me. It's by the sacrifice
of Christ. He's dying bearing my sin. The
only way I find out how can God save a sinner like me is at the
feet of Christ, hearing Christ in him crucified, praise. Every believer would like to
exalt the Lord, wouldn't they? Every believer would. Do you know how you can exalt
the Lord? By worshiping at his feet. Psalm 99 verse five, David
said, exalt ye the Lord. Here's how you do it. Worship
at his footstool. We exalt the Lord. We put the
Lord in his right place and us in our right place when we worship
at his feet. All this is so important. Everything
the believer needs is found worshiping at the feet of Christ. We talked
about this in the lesson today, this morning. Endeavoring to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. You know
why we overlook the faults of our brethren? We just overlook
them. Yeah, they're false. Overlook
them. so we can worship together at the feet of Christ. That's all that matters. For
us, for our children, for our little ones, for our community,
all that matters is that we worship Christ by the preaching of the
gospel. And if we aren't worshiping together
at the feet of Christ, you know why that is? We're focusing on
something else. Well, if we're at the feet of
Christ, it's gonna be hard to focus on anything but him, isn't it?
Our captain is to be worshiped. And then here's the fourth thing.
Our captain makes his people holy. 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
did so. The Lord gave commandment and
Joshua obeyed, didn't he? Christ, our captain, makes his
people holy. He came as the mighty warrior.
He came to do battle with our greatest enemy. And our greatest
enemy is our sin. It's not Satan, it's not the
sin of the world, it's not the sin of somebody else, it's my
own sin. And Christ came and defeated
that sin once and for all. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And I tell you how Christ made
His people holy. He made it so they have no sin at all and they
can never sin again. He took their sin away from them
and traded them His perfect obedience, His perfect righteousness, and
He died to put that sin away. It causes them to be born again
with a new man, a holy, righteous nature that can never sin. See, everything Christ our Savior
touches is holy. He gave us pictures of that.
Every single time the Lord ever touched a sick person, what happened
to them? They were healed. If he touched
a dead person, what happened? They were brought back to life.
The ground, there's nothing special about this ground outside Jericho.
Why was it holy? The Lord was standing on it.
Holiness himself was standing upon them. And the Lord makes
his people holy by touching them. The songwriters said, oh, he
touched me. Nothing's ever been the same again. The Lord didn't
just touch his people and let them go their way. No, when the
Lord touches his people, he takes them to himself and has union
with them so they never depart. They are what he is. They're
his body, he makes them holy. This is vitally important. If we would be brought into the
presence of God Almighty, we must be holy. We can't come into
God's presence like we are in these bodies. We must be holy. The writer to the Hebrews said
in Hebrews 12 verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. Without this holiness,
no man can see the Lord. Well, how can we be holy? Not
by what we do. No. The only way we can be made
holy is if the Lord touches us in mercy, touches us in grace,
and makes us holy. If Christ has made you holy,
nothing can ever separate you from Him. Sin's the only thing
that can separate us from our God, and if He makes us holy,
nothing can separate you from Him ever again. and you'll see
him. You'll see him forever. You see
him now in his word, don't you? You see him in his word. You
see him in providence, just like we read there in Joshua, the
Lord brought the children of Israel right to the edge of the
promised land, and the manna didn't stop until they had the
harvest the next day. That's God's providence. And
one day, like Joshua told one day, we're gonna see our captain
face-to-face with nothing between. No more weak faith, no more sin. We'll see him face-to-face and
we'll be as he is, holy. That's our captain. I'm thankful
for such a captain. And I say with Joshua, I hope
you'll say this in your heart, I hope you can say this truthfully.
Lord, what's your orders to me? What do you have to say to me? What's your orders? You know
what God's order from this book is? Believe, that's his order. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Quit your works of religion and trust Christ. That's his commandment.
God help us to obey. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word, how we thank you for this revelation of Christ
our captain. And Father, I pray that you'd
cause each one of us here this morning to bow to him, to follow
his feet in worship, trusting, believing. Lord, I pray that
you would do what only you can do and reveal yourself to each
heart here this morning. Father, cause this word to go
forth to your glory. Enable us to take this word with
us in our heart and comfort and encourage us as we continue on
through this journey that you've called us to here below. Father,
show us your glory. I beg of you that you'd show
us your glory, your redemptive glory in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's in his precious name. For
his sake we pray, amen. All right, Isaac, come lead us
in a closing hymn if you would.