Okay, Joshua chapter 5. I've
entitled the lesson this morning, The Captain of Our Salvation.
Now the message of the book of Joshua is this. Jesus saves. There's salvation for sinners
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua gave Israel temporary
rest. He gave that nation, Israel,
temporary rest. He brought them into the promised
land. Christ gives his people, spiritual Israel, eternal rest
in him. Joshua, the man Joshua, stands
out as one of the clear pictures of Christ in the Old Testament.
It begins with his name. Joshua is the Old Testament name
for the New Testament name, Jesus. Joshua, for a time, was the servant
of the man Moses. For a time, the Lord Jesus Christ
became the servant of his father. Joshua the servant became the
commander of all Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ the servant
is the sovereign commander of all, all things. Joshua led that
nation Israel into the promised land. Christ doesn't just lead,
he brings his people into glory, eternal glory. Joshua was a mighty
conqueror. He defeated every enemy in the
promised land. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mighty conqueror. He defeated all of our enemies,
sin, death, hell, Satan, everything's under his feet, defeated them
all. Now at this time, Joshua chapter five, you can imagine
this man. I mean, Joshua was a man just
like us. And he has taken over as leader
of this nation Israel. He has led Israel after 40 years
of wandering in the wilderness, he's led them into the promised
land. They crossed through Jordan, God parted the waters, they crossed
on dry land, and he's brought the people into the promised
land, the land that God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And
you can just imagine how Joshua feels. This man began his life
as a slave in Egypt. Moses came to town one day, Joshua
followed him. Joshua, just like all the other
people, followed Moses out of Egypt. And during those years
in the wilderness, Joshua became Moses' right-hand man. And now
here he is, suddenly, he's become the leader of this nation, the
commander of this great company of people. And Joshua loves him. Joshua's one of them. He loves
these people. These are his kindred, according
to the flesh, But Joshua's been with these people a while. He
knows they're stiff-necked, rebellious people, but he loves them. He's
their leader. And when Joshua has a moment
to himself to think about it, he gets overwhelmed, thinking,
what? His wife looks at him sometimes,
says, Joshua, what on earth are you doing? He gets overwhelmed
thinking about it. Now they've crossed Jordan. And
he knows the first city that's got to be taken is Jericho. You
know, they're not starting out with some small little, you know,
place with a little army. They're starting out with Jericho,
a mighty city, this huge, thick, high walls, well-defended city. And Joshua knows this is a job
that's got to be done. And while everyone is asleep,
Joshua is out alone. I'm sure he's out. walking through,
it's a wooded area, sounds like, and he's praying, just like our
Lord, how he often went to a mountain alone and prayed all night. Joshua
could be going through here, maybe he's overlooking the city.
He's looking at that city, wondering how on earth is a bunch of slaves
with very little military training going to take this mighty city?
And he's thinking, he's praying, he's wondering, And then Joshua,
the picture, comes face to face with the person. Look in verse
13 of Joshua chapter five. And it came to pass when Joshua
was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold,
there stood a man over against him with a sword drawn in his
hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, art thou for
us or for our adversaries? And here Joshua, he's alone in
a mountain or hill of some sort. He's all alone and he sees this
man. And this man appears as a mighty warrior. He's got his
sword drawn. He's in some sort of stance,
like he's getting ready to do battle. Now we know this man
is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Chapter six, verse
two, calls him the Lord. When he speaks, calls him the
Lord. All capital letters, Jehovah. This is God in human flesh. Now
you and I know it, because we know the end of the story. Joshua
doesn't know this yet. Now he realizes this man's a
warrior to be reckoned with, but he doesn't know who he is.
And they ask him, are you for us or are you for our enemy?
Now Joshua doesn't know this is the Lord yet. If he did know
this was the Lord, a better question would have been this, am I on
your side? It reminds me of the question
someone famously asked President Lincoln during the Civil War.
Is God on our side in this war? And Lincoln answered him, he
said, sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My
greatest concern is to be on God's side, for he's always right. But don't we think the same thing
today? We've got adversaries. Is God on our side or on theirs?
Whose side is God on? Well, you know, really the Lord
doesn't take sides. The Lord's just right. He's just
who he is. We need to find out the Lord's
way and be in the Lord's way. We need to find out where the
Lord is and be there, be on his side. And that's basically what
our Lord answers Joshua. I'm not here to take sides. I'm
here as who I am, captain of the Lord's host. Look at verse
14. And he said, nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord
am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship, and said unto him, what saith my
Lord unto his servant? Now here's another reason I know
that this man is not just a man or an angel. If he had been a
man, he'd have said, don't you worship me, you get up. He didn't
tell him that. Joshua fell and worshiped. He
fell before the Lord and worshiped. Because now he realizes who he's
talking to. And I'll tell you a sure sign.
You want to know if you've seen the Lord? A sure sign that we've
seen the Lord is reference. We've seen him as he is. We've
seen ourselves as who we are and we'll be referenced if we've
seen the Lord. Joshua falls on his face and worships. And he
asked the Lord, same thing Saul of Tarsus did when he revealed
himself to Saul, what would you have me do? What are your orders
to me? Here's another sure sign you've
seen the Lord. A sure sign you've seen the captain of the Lord's
host is you snap to attention when he's there. Just like someone
hollers out, there's an officer on deck and all the soldiers
snap to attention. The captain's here. Now look
over at 2 Timothy 2. Every believer is a soldier in
the army of God under the command of the captain of our salvation.
Second Timothy two, in verse three. Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man at worth entangling himself
with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has
chosen him to be a soldier. Now I know that Paul is speaking
to Timothy here as a preacher, but this applies to every believer.
You've been called of God to be a soldier in his army. Ephesians
tells us about the armor of faith that every believer is to put
on. Well, the only person that needs armor is a soldier. Every
believer is a soldier in God's army, and we're in a war. This military is in a war. The church militant is in a war. We're in a war against sin, sin
within and sin without. We're in a war with Satan, the
adversary. We're in a war with false prophets.
We're in a war with unbelief, both within and without. And
good soldiers understand a few things. Good soldiers understand
the chain of command, and they follow it. Believers understand
the chain of command. Christ is the captain. He's the
head of all, and we follow him. We follow his orders. Good soldiers
follow their leaders into battle. Now they don't have to understand
the whole great big battle plan. There goes the leader, charge.
They go after him. A believer understands we're
gonna follow our commander into battle. And the only way we can
do battle is by following Christ, by being in him. Good soldiers
are well-trained. Soldiers spend a lot of time
drilling so that when they're ready for action, they've been
trained. They know what to do. I read
a story this week about a group of Negro soldiers in the Civil
War had been trained for this. They trained and trained and
trained and drilled and drilled and drilled for this grand expedition
they were going to do. And at the last minute, General
Meade thought, I don't trust And this is the last second he
got this group of white soldiers together and told them to go
do it. They didn't train. And they were slaughtered because
they made every mistake that this other group had been trained
not to do. They got slaughtered. Good soldiers are well-trained. A believer, soldier, and the
church militant is well-trained. How do we get trained? By doing
right what we're doing now. listening to the preaching of
the gospel, listening to the teaching of God's word. We become
trained and prepared by spending time in prayer and reading the
scriptures. There are many similarities between a soldier and a believer,
but there's a lot of differences though. Soldiers are mighty men. It utterly amazes me what the
men and women of the U.S. military can do just It astounds
me, these men of valor and might, and they just, they put their
life on the line for freedom. Well, that's not really believer,
is it? You hear that description, that's not describing me. I'm
nothing, I'm timid, I'm afraid, I'm weak. The only way we could
ever be found mighty is in Christ. He's our might, we don't have
any. And soldiers have many different weapons at their disposal. They
train on so many different kinds of weapon systems and specialized
systems. A believer just got one weapon.
Our only weapon is the word of God. That's the sword that the
captain of the Lord's host has drawn. It's his word. John saw
in revelation how the sword came from his mouth. It's his word.
And when Jericho falls, You know the story, Israel one time per
day is going to silently march around the city six days in a
row. On the seventh day, they march
around it silently seven times. And then the priest, they're
going to blow the trumpet and those walls are just going to
fall down. But what's that trumpet? The trumpet is the sound of the
gospel. It's God's word being proclaimed.
And when the gospel sounds out in the power of the Holy Spirit,
when the gospel is in the hand of Christ our high priest, the
walls are going to fall flat. All those walls of unbelief and
rebellion, they're going to fall flat. This word is our only weapon. We were driving over here this
morning. Janet saw this sign at what Don
Fortner calls a goat farm saying, The baptistry's open today. Come
get baptized. They're advertising it. We don't
have to do that. You don't have to advertise.
Advertising, that's what Nestle does to sell chocolate. That's
not the way we preach the gospel. We're not advertising and tricking
people and trying to deceive them into doing something they
don't want to do. We just preach God's word. I promise you it'll
reach every heart of God's people. I promise you it will. And we
have so many enemies, we need to be well-versed in this weapon.
And I tell you where we find our worst enemy. I know this
is true with you like it is with me. I am my own worst enemy. I carry that enemy around with
me everywhere I go. It's the sin nature I was born
with. The sin nature I got from my father Adam. It can't be changed. It can't be subdued and nothing
can be done with it. And I know this, we can't be
accepted with God as we are in this sin nature. The writer to
the Hebrews said, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Well,
we're going to have to have a new nature then. That old nature
can't be made holy. We're going to have to have a
new nature if we're going to see the Lord. There is in every one
of us a wicked heart of unbelief. That's an enemy that we carry
with us everywhere we go. Our natural heart, the natural
heart that we're born with will never believe God. Yes, scripture
says without faith, it's impossible to please God. Well, then if
we're ever going to please God, God's going to give us a new
heart, doesn't he? Because that old one's not going to believe him. See
all these enemies that are within us, those are enemies we can't
defeat. Well, that's kind of depressing.
Is there anybody that can defeat him? Is there a way these enemies
can be subdued? Well, there's one. Look back
in our text, Joshua chapter five. There is one who can defeat these
enemies. He's the captain of the Lord's
host. 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. Now holiness. That is the requirement
in order to be in the Lord's presence. Holiness, we've got
to be holy. And submission to the holiness
of Christ, submission to the righteousness of Christ is the
only way a sinner can come before God and be accepted. And that's
what's pictured here. Now we looked at this a few weeks
ago. Remember Moses at the burning
bush? He saw that bush burning, but it wasn't consumed. He said,
I'm gonna go see this. This is a wonder. I'm gonna see
how this is happening. As he approached, God spoke to
him. Christ spoke to him from the burning bush, didn't he?
He said, Moses, take off your shoes. The ground whereon you
stand is holy. And Moses did, so he took off
his shoes. Remember, I told you that is
a picture of submission and respect. You know, today we take off our
hat when the national anthem plays as a sign of submission,
respect to the flag. In this day, what they would
do, to show that same submission and respect, they take off their
shoes. I find this very interesting.
The Lord gave the commandment to Moses, Moses, take off your
shoes, you're on holy ground. right before he sent Moses down
to Egypt to bring the children of Israel out. Now he's brought
them out. He brought them into the promised
land and God gives Joshua the exact same command as they enter
the promised land. Joshua, take off your shoes.
You're on holy ground. I'll tell you what that's picturing.
The only way sinners like you and me can ever be made holy
is submission. Submission to the righteousness
of Christ. Look in Romans chapter 10. We can't do anything to make
ourselves righteous. And I'll show you this in a minute,
we're gonna be made righteous in Christ and we're gonna submit
ourselves to Christ our righteousness. Romans 10 verse one. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. For I bear them record, they
have a zeal of God. They're just like Wayne praying
his prayer about those who, they're religious, but they're lost.
That's what Paul's saying here. I bear record, they have his
zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Now, everyone
who tries to establish their own righteousness, everybody
tries to do this on their own, establish what God requires of
them on their own, rather than submit themselves to the righteousness
of Christ, they're going to be damned. Now, when I say we've
got to submit ourselves to the righteousness of Christ, this
is what I mean. We've got to submit. We've got
to quit trying to earn our own righteousness. This is God's
commandment. Don't try to earn on your own, now submit. Don't
try to contribute anything of your own righteousness and submit
yourself to being made righteous in Christ. Now the ground on
which our Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of the Lord's host,
that ground was holy ground. He says, Joshua, this is holy
ground. That ground was holy. That ground wasn't any different
than any other ground, but it was made holy. Why? Because the
Lord Jesus Christ was there. His presence made that ground
holy. You got a picture there, how
you and I can be made holy? Look at Philippians chapter three.
That's a picture of how you and I are made holy. We're going
to be made holy by the presence of Christ himself. Philippians
three, verse eight, Paul had been giving
his resume as a Pharisee, how he went through all these things,
you know, that he could make himself righteous. And he says
in verse seven of Philippians chapter three, but what things
were gained to me, those things that I thought brought me gain,
those I counted lost for Christ. They doubtless and I count all
things, all those things I did, everything about me, I count
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I've suffered loss of all things. I've lost
all those things that I did on my own and do count them but
done that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law. but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That's how we're made righteous.
We're made holy by being in Christ. Well, what about all of our sin?
What about our guilt in Adam? What about the guilt of all the
sin we've committed on our own? How can that sin be put away?
How can that sin be taken care of, justly paid for and put away? by the captain of our salvation. Look over in Hebrews chapter
nine. This is the work of the captain. Hebrews two verse nine. But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. We
see him crowned with glory and honor. that he, by the grace
of God, should taste death for every man. Now, by God's grace,
we do see the Lord Jesus Christ, who, for a little while, was
made lower than the angels. For a little while, he became
a man. He humbled himself to become
a man. And as a man, Christ suffered
the death that his people deserved. He became a man to be their representative,
to be their substitute, Their sin was imputed to him and he
suffered the death that all of his people deserve. And that
death, that death is the great substitute, earned Christ all
the glory and all the honor because he by himself saved his people
from their sin. Now I know this says here that
he should taste death for every man. Now that does not mean that
Christ died for every man, for every son of Adam. In context,
who's he talking about here? Not talking about every son of
Adam. He's talking about God's elect. He says in verse 10, in
bringing many sons to glory, those sons are men and women
who've been adopted into God's family in divine election. And
they've been born into God's family in the new birth. That's
who Christ died for, is God's elect. Now verse 10, for it became
him. for whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, and bring many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Now,
it became him, the him that they're talking about there is God. It
became God to save sinners this way. It was fitting, it was fitting
of God's glory. is fitting of God's wisdom and
His grace. It was fitting of God's justice. It was fitting of God's love
that Christ die as a substitute for His people. That is befitting
to the character of God. Only God could do and only God
would do something so wonderfully glorious for sinners. It was
befitting of God's glory. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ brought
many sons into glory. Well, how did he do that? As
their captain. He's the captain of their salvation.
And as their captain, he suffered and died as their substitute.
The Lord Jesus Christ made his people perfect. Every son, every
daughter, he made them perfect because he took their sins away
from them. Took them into his own body on the tree and put
those sins away by the blood of his sacrifice. And he gave
his people the righteousness that he earned as a man. So they're
perfect. They wear the righteousness of
Christ. They're made righteous in him. And Christ put their
sin away through his sufferings as their substitute. All right. I see that Christ made his people
righteous. How righteous are they? Come
on, how righteous are those people for whom Christ died? They are
as righteous as Christ himself. They're perfectly righteous. John, if they're not, they can't
be accepted. They're perfect. See what that says, verse 11?
For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren.
Everyone that Christ died for is as righteous as Christ himself. He that made his people holy,
and those who are made holy, they're one. You can't tell one
from the other. They're one, they're exactly
alike. And that's what's pictured back
in our text in Joshua. The ground that the Lord Jesus,
the captain of our salvation, was standing with that sword
in his hand, that ground was holy. just because he was there. That ground is dirt, but it's
holy because Christ is there. God's elect, they're just dirt. They're men just like every other
human being, but they're holy because Christ is there. They're
holy because they've been made one with Christ. He's in them
and they're in him, so they're holy. Now remember the burning
bush. We looked at this a few weeks
ago. That bush was just a little old thorn bush. It burned with
fire, but it was not consumed. And it wasn't consumed because
Christ was in the bush. Remember that? And I told you,
that's a picture of what happened at Calvary. Christ burned with
the fire of God's wrath, but he was not consumed because the
Lord Jesus Christ was the sinless sacrifice Christ cannot be burned. He cannot be consumed with the
fire of God's wrath because He's holy. Well, His people are one
with Him, right? Then His people can't be burned
up, can't be destroyed by the fire of God's wrath because Christ
has made His people holy in Him. Now, if you look back at Daniel
chapter 3, I'll show you a great picture of this. I would have
given you this at the burning bush, but it didn't come to my
mind. He did this time. Daniel chapter
three. This is a story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You all
know that story. Nebuchadnezzar threw those three
Hebrew children into that fiery furnace because they refused
to bow to his statue and worship him. Daniel chapter three, verse
22. Therefore, because the king's
commandment was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, The
flame of fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound into the midst of the fiery
furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished. He rose
up in haste and spake. And he said unto his counselors,
did not we cast three men bound in the midst of the fire? And
they answered and said unto the king, true, O king, He answered
and said, lo, I see four men and they're loose, walking in
the midst of the fire and they have no heart. And the form of
the fourth is likened to the son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar
came near to the mouth of the burning fire, he furnished and
spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you servants of
the most high God, come forth and come hither. And Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire And
the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors being
gathered together, saw these men upon whose bodies the fire
had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither
were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed
on them. Even the smell of fire wasn't
on their clothes. They didn't even smell smoky.
Why didn't Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego burn up in that
fiery furnace? Those men who prepared the furnace
or getting ready to throw them in, they burned up, didn't they?
The fire coming out of there just slew them, killed them.
Well, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in the midst of
it. Why didn't they burn up? Because they were on holy ground.
Christ himself. When they went into that furnace.
It says that they get thrown in. They fell down bound into
it. Christ was already there. They
fell down at his feet worshiping him and they could not be burned
up because they were on holy ground. They were with Christ
our Savior. And that's a picture of the believer
in Christ. The believer is so righteous. I mean, I hate to even say so
righteous, but you're so righteous in Christ. Not only can you not
be consumed with the fire of God's wrath against your sin,
even the smell, the smoke of God's wrath against your sin
can't get on you because you've been made perfect in the captain
of our salvation. I believe that'll do. I'm going
to follow him. Are you? He's worth it. All right. I hope the Lord bless that too.