Todd and I have been friends
for a long time. Recently we were together up
at Frank's in Ashland, Frank Tate's. We were at the motel
together. We got on the elevator together and some fella got on
the elevator with us and he goes, bothering son? And neither one
of us asked him which one he thought was. But I give Todd
credit, he did step up and he said, yeah, I'm the father. And
then later on, he said, you know that he thought you were the
father. And thus is our relationship. What an honor and a privilege
to be here. Thank you for asking me. And
I've been, like these other men have said, so encouraged by the
message. It's been such a comfort to me. We love to hear good preaching.
Preachers do. And thankful for times like these
where we can. My text this morning is found
in the book of Joshua, chapter six, if you would turn there
with me. And let me say, while you're
turning, by God's grace, I'm learning to rest. That seems
to be, of course, Christ is the theme in our preaching, but that
kind of seems to be the ongoing theme in preaching Christ is
his finished work and us resting in his finished work. You know,
I love to take an afternoon nap, but that's not the kind of rest
that I'm talking about. resting in Christ. And I want
to encourage you to continue to rest in Christ. Moses wrote
in Genesis chapter two, verse two, and on the seventh day,
God ended his work, which he had made, and he rested on the
seventh day from the work which he had made. God rested. And God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it. He set it apart. He made it holy
because that in it, he had rested from all his work, which God
created and made. Now, when can a man and woman
truly rest? When their work is finished.
When their work is finished. I can rest in Christ because
He has finished the work. He finished it. Well, what is
there for me to do? What must I do to be saved? And
as we've so well heard, nothing. We can do nothing. I can rest
in Christ. That was His last words to His
people on the cross. He said it's finished. And friends,
it was. And we can rest. The whole will
of God is finished. The work God gave Christ to do
is complete. Perfect obedience to the law
of God has been accomplished. A perfect righteousness for His
elect is performed. Eternal salvation for His people
is executed. Complete pardon This procured
and concluded and redemption from the curse of the law has
been made. Justice has been satisfied. God
no longer angry with the wicked every day. Full atonement made. Iniquities vanished. Peace is
acquired. Rest is given. And it's finished. Are you resting? Oh, may God
enable us to rest. I'm learning to rest. So why
don't we? Why do we find so much unrest
still? Well, it's because we still have
just too much unbelief in us. God, help us to believe. Lord,
I believe. Help my unbelief. Most everyone
knows the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. Most of
us as children sung that little song, Joshua fought the battle
of Jericho and the walls come tumbling down. But you know,
I was thinking from a doctrinal standpoint, that's not right. It was the Lord who fought the
battle of Jericho and the walls come tumbling down. It's the
Lord who's fought all our battles for us. Every single one of them. It's the Lord who'll continue
to fight all our battles. And isn't that so comforting
to know that He is fighting our battles? Knowing that the war
is over, it's finished in Christ and I'm learning to rest in peace
and with assurance in that wondrous gospel fact. Christ did for me
what I could not do for myself and it's finished and I can rest. In Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse
30, Moses told Israel, the Lord your God which goeth before you,
he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in
Egypt before your eyes. And in the wilderness where thou
hast seen how that the Lord thy God bear, that word means pardon
and forgive, he bear, he pardoned, he forgave you as a man doth
bear or forgive his son. And all the way that he went
until he came into this place. And when Israel, remember when
they faced those two evil kings, Sihon and Og, Moses told them
in Deuteronomy 3 verse 22, you shall not fear them. No, you
shall not fear them for the Lord your God, He shall fight for
you. We don't fight our own battles,
friends, the Lord does. Now, next time you're in a battle,
remember that and rest. The Lord thy God is with thee,
for the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you
against your enemies to save you. Deuteronomy 20, verse 4.
Will we ever learn? There's no war for us to fight.
If onward Christian soldiers... Well, I know what they're saying. The war's over. It's finished. And Jesus Christ is Lord. Our
captain, the captain of the host of the Lord, that's who he is.
He's the Lord of Lords. He's the King of Kings. He is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all we could think or ask.
Abundantly is, oh that's wonderful, but exceeding abundantly? Now I can think and ask some
pretty high things, but he can do much more and much higher. His promise is sure because of
who he is. It's God who makes us this promise. He is faithful that promised. He's God. He's faithful that
promised. Sometimes we promise things beyond
our ability to do, but our Lord is able to do anything and everything. That's what he told Abraham.
Is there anything too hard for me? Yeah, I know you're 100 and I
know your wife's 90, but you gonna have a child. Now, nothing
too hard for me. Nothing. Joshua chapter 6, verse
1. Now Jericho was straightly shut
up because of the children of Israel. Well, that was because
of the Lord of the children of Israel. Remember what Rahab said? She said, oh, we've heard about
your Lord. We've heard what He did in Egypt. We heard what He did at the Red
Sea. We've heard about Him. And our hearts didn't melt. Israel, Jericho was shut up.
None went in and none came out. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof,
and the mighty men of Balor. The Lord said to Joshua, See,
I have given you, the Lord Cato says. We see that Jericho was
shut up. They were prisoners behind their
own walls. GOD MADE JERICHO A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
AS TO WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO OVER THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS. BUT
NOTICE THAT IT WAS THE LORD WHO HAD GIVEN ISRAEL THE VICTORY.
THE LORD IS THE ONE THAT FIGHTS FOR US. IN VERSE 2 WE SEE THAT
GOD GAVE HIM THREE THINGS. JOSHUA GAVE HIM THREE THINGS.
JERICHO ITSELF, THE KING OF JERICHO AND THE MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR IN
JERICHO. SALVATION AND DELIVERANCE IS
THE GIFT OF GOD. God gives this gift. And that's
why the child of God can rest. Are you resting? Are you resting
in your great Joshua? God has put all things in subjection
under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection
under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. Nothing. What does that mean, everything?
It's nothing. Means everything, yes. Read on verse three, and
ye shall compass or circle the city, all ye men of war, and
go around about the city once, thus shalt thou do six days,
and seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets
of ram's horns, and the seventh day ye shall compass the city
seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with
the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all
the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city
shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every
man straight before him." What a clear picture we have that
salvation is of the Lord. And a believing sinner can rest
But here we also see that God very often uses men and women
as the means to accomplish His sovereign will and purpose. Sometimes
God does the miraculous to accomplish His will, but in many cases,
God accomplishes His will and His purpose through the service
and obedience of His people. And when we've done all that
we're required to do, we're nothing but unprofitable servants. But
Noah built the ark, and Moses delivered God's people out of
Egypt, and Samson defeated Israel's enemies, and David slew Goliath,
and Solomon built the temple, and Joseph saved Israel in time
of famine, and God's people through faith subdued kingdoms, and wrought
righteousness, and obtained promises that stopped the mouths of lions.
quenched the balance of fire, turned to flight the armies of
aliens, received their dead to life again. And it was all through
faith in God Almighty. And it was God who was behind
it all. And He gets all the glory. And we rest. Here the Lord instructs
Joshua as to how he himself would bring down the city of Jericho
and when God has finished all of Israel and everyone in it
is going to know that they didn't have anything to do with it.
The child of God would tell you quick, every believer, I didn't
have any doing in it. None. What a distinct picture
here we have of the Lord's great commission to His people to go
into all the world and preach the gospel. The outcome of God's
will and purpose is never, ever a matter of speculation. The
gospel through preaching of the Word of God will always find
success in the hearts of God's chosen because God is going to
see to it. God has ordained preaching as
the means of his word being spread. The success of the gospel is
certain. Certain. I love what the Lord
says in Isaiah chapter 55. First he says, God's thoughts
are not our thoughts. Our ways are not God's way. His
thoughts and His ways are higher than ours as the heavens are
higher than the earth. And then God says, so shall my
word that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return
unto me void. It shall not. But it shall accomplish
that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing where to
I send it. That sounds like a success story
to me. God declares, is not my word
like as a fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Oh, it sure broke this hard heart of mine. God gave Joshua Jericho
because it was God who gave it. Jericho was defeated before the
battle ever began. So is every battle of ours, if
God give us eyes to see. Every battle already won. The
king, representative of this world's government, the king
of Jericho, was also a designated target for defeat. God said,
I give you their king. I give you the land, I give you
their king. Friends, is not the king's heart
in the hand of the Lord? As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. Nations and their kings are no
match for God. No match for his gospel. For
the Lord has spoken, I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of
Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom.
And he did. Ethiopia and Saba for thee, since
thou was precious in my sight. Every time I read that, I think,
me? Yes. In Christ, I'm precious in his
sight. You are precious in my sight.
Thou hast been honorable. Me? Yes, you. And I love thee. Me? Love thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore I will give men for
thee and people for thy life. Wow. Jericho's men of valor very
well represent today's organized religion, I believe, who are
in reality enemies of the gospel. And they too are ordained to
defeat. Many of us were saved out of
religion. God will see to it that the gospel will find all
of his people. And I said it that way on purpose.
We don't find the gospel. The gospel finds us, doesn't
it? We preach the gospel boldly because we're certain of the
outcome. We know how this ends. We preach
the gospel knowing that God is faithful, that promise. God's
word will accomplish that which he sent it to accomplish. It
cannot return void. It cannot. It's impossible to
return void. Why? Because he said so. It shall
accomplish. It shall not return unto me void.
Oh, how I wish we could learn this. especially as preachers,
you know, the results of our preaching are really not our
concern. But we think about it so much.
We all do. Let's confess that we do. We're just, by nature, we want
to see results, don't we? And we often get discouraged
when we don't see results in religion today. Well, that's
all they're about. They're all about the numbers
and how many. But the people of God know that
the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. This is the Lord's
business. We plant, we water, but it's
God that gives the increase. How many's not our concern? That's
God's business. You know, I was raised in a church,
Southern Baptist. I'll go ahead and tell you, you'd
figure it out anyway after I tell you. Well, they had that plaque
on the wall. You remember those? They changed
them every week. I guess they had somebody that
that was their ministry. Count and post on the plaque. They were consumed with numbers.
They posted them. How many were in Sunday school?
How many were in church service? How many were visitors? How many
were saved? Oh, that was always a number
they were trying to get pushed up. God despises such nonsense. Why? Because that's God's business.
And I know this much. How many is how many He determines.
And it's no concern of ours. The Lord has called us to preach
and the results is his business. God told David not to take a
census, but David took one anyway. And he did so when you get really
right down to it, he did so because he was proud of all his accomplishments. And the Lord was so displeased
that he gave David three options of punishment. Seven years of
famine, being chased three months by their enemies, or pestilence
in the land. And David chose pestilence and
70,000 men died. And more would have died,
the scripture says, had the Lord not said to the angel, stay your
hand. How serious is this? Very serious. Very serious. My, my, our concern's
to preach and to plant and water and we must plant and water and
last night Gabe planted and Chris watered and Marvin just planted
and I'm trying to water, but it's God that gives the increase.
You know, evangelism today has become all about the numbers
and how many. The first question that I'm asked
when somebody finds out that I'm a pastor, you are shaking
your head, you know it too. How big a church do you have?
How many members? That's God's business. One of
these days I'm going to say none of your business. Because it's
God's business. You see, the message of the gospel
is no longer the issue. And any and every means is used
to add to numbers. Entertainment has replaced gospel
preaching. Show business has entered into
the church and replaced worship. Giving money has replaced giving
praise to Christ and Him alone. You know it and I know it. It's
sad. The preaching of the gospel is not to answer men and women's
never-ending debating questions. Personally, I don't care where
Cain's wife came from. I don't. I'm not going to debate
it. It's not the issue. Preaching the gospel is to declare
the sure, complete salvation that Christ accomplished. Salvation is accomplished by
the shedding of Christ's blood. Tell me about that. Tell me the
story of Jesus. Tell me again and again how God
saved wretched sinners like me. That's what I want to hear. We
know that God's the only one who can divinely intervene in
our lives. We know that God is the only
one who can divinely reveal the glorious truth of Christ and
Him crucified. And He does so through preaching. That's why we're here. Oh, we
love conferences. We do. I've had so many people
say, man, isn't this just wonderful? And it is. But why are we here? To hear the message of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. to hear what we heard last night
on what it is to be saved, as you so ably did. Yes, faith in Christ is a predetermined
thing, and the gospel will cross the path of every believer, and
God's elect will hear the gospel, and God's elect will be given
faith to believe. And somebody once said, the same
heat that melts the ice also hardens the clay. And yes, That's
true, but the son of righteousness is the only one who can determine
the outcome. And it's God who melts hearts
and it's God who hardens them. But that doesn't change the means.
So we keep on preaching to please God by what the world calls foolishness,
to save them that believe, and that foolishness they say is
preaching. But to the child of God, it's
the power of God unto salvation. It's the most important thing
in the world. Beginning next week in Madisonville, Kentucky,
there's a big religious crusade coming to town. For months now,
there have been signs in people's yards and in front of businesses
everywhere. And it simply says, go tell America. My question is, what are you
going to tell them? What are you going to tell them? I'd like
to know. I got an email from this organization. Let me just
read. It was very short and brief. It said, Pastor Edmondson, I
wanted to reach out to you in regards to the Go Tell Crusades
coming to our city. This crusade is modeled after
the Billy Graham Crusades. Well, that'd be enough right
there for me to not be involved in. From years past, we now have
40 plus churches linking arms together to reach our community
with the good news. Please join us in this combined
effort. And the first thing I'll say
concerning this is what they call good news is not the same
good news that you and I believe and preach. It's just not. So
what are they gonna go tell? Not good news at all to me. Their
good news is uncertain at best. Are they going to tell sinners
that God wants to save them if the sinner will let them? That's
not my God. Are they going to go tell that
God will save you if you let Jesus into your heart? Are they
going to tell if you make Jesus Lord, if you let go and let God,
or if you believe God made salvation possible? That He'll save you? Well, that's not good news for
me. You know why? Because by nature and with my wretched heart,
I will not. I won't. That's not good news.
I need somebody to bust the door down. I need somebody to divinely
intervene. I need a divine intervention
from God Almighty. We cannot come, we will not come,
and we will not believe that we might have life. We can't
link arms together. There are gods and nothing like
our God, and you can call me closed-minded, and you can call
me dogmatic, and you can call me un-evangelical, but God honors
the truth, friends. Those that worship him do so
in spirit and in truth. Religion seeks visible and recordable
results. They've invented ways by which
they can keep score. That's all it is. The invitation
system, somebody called it decisional regeneration, well that's about
all it is, was invented so that false religion could show and
prove that their existence was credible. The church altar was
invented to induce men and women to follow the crowd, to fit in
and to go along. You don't find anywhere in the
scriptures about altar calls and people moving from one place
in the church to another and call that salvation. We've come
to God in our hearts without moving a muscle. I tell men,
come to Christ and don't move a muscle. And God and his people despise
these things. Why? Because they promote sight
and not faith. I know something about this.
I was raised in such a religion. It promotes man's power, not
God's. It promotes man's will, not God's. It promotes man's decision, not
God's. It promotes man's righteousness,
not God's. Somebody asked me not long ago,
said, well, you don't believe the decision involved in salvation? I said, oh yeah, but it was made
before the foundation of the world by God and not me. Our text puts this illegitimate
notion to rest. Everything about God's commission
to Israel reveals what it is to declare the gospel. Let me
give it to you as quickly as I can. The first evident thing
to me here is that the preaching of the gospel is repetitive.
Faith comes by hearing, continually hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God, and not just any kind of hearing. True hearing. The hearing of truth by the word,
thy word is truth. I have a man in our church who's
a contractor, and he works in surrounding areas. And I have
a cousin who lives in one of those counties, and she's a real
estate agent. So he's worked with her time
and time again. She knows that I'm a pastor.
So she saw him one week and said, oh, what did David Lee preach
last week? That's what my family called
me, David Lee. Don't you call me that. But see what David Lee preached
last week, and he goes, the same thing he preaches every week.
And he said she looked at him funny, and she said, pardon me? And she said, it's the same thing
he preaches every Sunday and every Wednesday. And you know
what she said? I'm sure sorry. They don't have
an idea what we're talking about. Our message is the same, isn't
it? He preached the same message he preached last night from a
different text. Oftentimes when we're preaching
on a passage of scripture, you know, we'll get online and I'll
listen to Todd or Chris or Gabe or Donnie or any of these men,
Greg, and it's the same message. Christ and Him crucified. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now, Israel was to march around the
city for six days straight. This was hardly the practice
of making war. They didn't make any contact
with the enemy. They didn't hand out gospel tracts.
They didn't witness on the street corners. They didn't stick signs
in people's yards. They marched around the city
in silence with the exception of one thing, the blowing of
the ram's horn. Did you hear me? Some of you
shaking your head, you know what that represents. It represents
the preaching of the gospel. This is the one thing that we
must do. Preach the gospel. It's the means
that God uses to save sinners. The blowing of the gospel horn
took preeminence. And friends, it must. It must. This is the very thing that's
missing in religion today. The preaching of the gospel,
the very means that God uses to save. Everyone in Jericho,
now you try to imagine, everyone in Jericho, when they heard that
ram's horn, you know they were scared out of their minds. What
does that mean? Well, we know what their God
did to their enemies, and what are they doing? Peep out of the
window there. They're just walking around the city and then that
ram horn blow. What's that? They scared out
of their mind when they heard it. But there was a harlot living
in that city that rejoiced when she heard it. It was a single
note of the gospel of Christ that her Joshua had come to save
her. Each day she awoke to the sound
of the ram's horn. And each night she laid her head
down on that pillow with confidence and full assurance that salvation
and deliverance would soon be hers. The ram's horn struck terror
in the hearts of all those in the city that heard it. Why?
Because they didn't know what it meant. But Rahab knew. You see, she was looking out
the window and all she could see was a scarlet cord hanging
there. The sound of that one note was
the sweetest sound she ever heard. My Joshua's coming. He's coming
to save me. He's coming to redeem me. He's
coming to make me his own. Though the walls had not yet
fallen, though she had not yet been delivered, her salvation
was as sure on the first day as it was on the last. We don't
know anything about the preparatory work that God does before a sinner
effectually hears the gospel. Some call it pervenient grace.
I don't know. But I know that we cannot see
men and women hearing the gospel. Our responsibility is not to
tear down the walls and our responsibility is not to sneak into the city
and rescue the fallen and we don't unlock the prison doors
and release the prisoner. That's God's work. Just like
you said last night, God sent an earthquake and all them doors
opened. He don't need our help. You want to help God save sinners? No, I don't think so. We need
to be saved ourselves. It's all God's work. Then what
are we to do? We keep on marching. Keep on
marching. We keep on blowing the trumpet.
We keep on going forth and preaching the gospel if we know that the
victory is the Lord's. And in God's good time, the walls
will come tumbling down. The elect will be rescued. God's
enemies will be destroyed. And all the glory will go to
God. All of it. Now quickly let me
just tell you a little more about the instruments of war used.
The primary instruments here was the Ark of the Covenant.
You know what that picture is. It was carried upon the shoulders
of the priest. What a picture of Christ going
before us as we lift Him up in preaching. In preaching we declare
His perfection as Todd said in his prayer earlier. That's the
difference for it must be perfect to be accepted. Christ is our
perfection. Christ is our acceptance. We're
accepted in the Beloved. Our perfect Savior did a perfect
work. He provided a perfect sacrifice. He worked and wrought a perfect
righteousness for His imperfect people. Verse 4, we're told,
there were seven priests, seven horns, and it was on the seventh
day. As you know, seven is the number of completion. Friends,
it's finished. We have a perfect result here. The other instruments of war,
the horn, as we've already talked about, and then on the last day,
the shout. You know, I got to thinking about that. Both were
delivered by noise. And sometimes that's all preachers
are, just noise. But we're also voices crying
in the wilderness. The voice of the trumpet, the
voice of a man, just one note, it's the same note over and over.
And somebody might say, well, that don't make much a song.
The song that we preach is beautiful. And we love the fact that it's
one note. And friends, it's the Spirit
of God takes the Word of God and he plants it into the seeds
of the hearts of his people. And God causes that seed, the
seed that God's servants plant in water to give increase. And
it's then that the child of God is born again. The walls come
tumbling down. The hard walls of our, high walls
of our hearts. And we are made new creatures
and new creations in Christ. And you know, I found it very
interesting that the ram's horn in the original language doesn't
just mean the horn, but it also means the sound that it makes.
The phrase comes from that word, jubilee. It's not just preaching,
that's it. It's the sound, it's the message
of the preacher. Paul didn't say, woe unto me
if I preach not. He said, woe unto me if I preach
not the gospel. A lot of preaching being done
today, but it's not true preaching. Oh my, the Lord that the priest
blew was the same horn that was used to begin the year of Jubilee
and that the sound of that ram's horn with that singular bright
note and sound meant that the slave was now set free and that
the debtor was now forgiven and all that was lost was now returned.
That's good news. Christ is our Jubilee. Let's
blow that horn. Men and women say they believe
the salvations of the Lord, but really most don't. Because they
want to add a work of their own righteousness is the first sign
that's not so. In verse 2, God said, I have
given unto thy hand. In verse 5, God said, and it
shall come to pass. And it was God that did everything
in between those verses. Salvation is of the Lord. And it's finished. And we can
rest in that. You know, I'll leave you with
this. When God was finished with Jericho,
every man, woman, boy, girl, and small child in Israel knew
that they didn't have anything to do with it. Nothing. God is not dependent on anyone
or anything to accomplish his divine purpose. The only requirement
for us is to trust and obey. That's exactly what faith is.
It's trusting and obeying. It's proving our faith by our
works. We're not saved by our works.
Our works prove that we have faith. Faith without works is
dead, being alone. And yes, that faith is God's
gift to us. He gets all the glory, even through
the grace and the faith that He so freely bestows upon us.
We prove that we believe by doing what God says, and we plant,
and we water, and we water, and we plant, and we plant, and we
water, and we wait. And if God is pleased to give
the increase, he gives it. And it's a success story. This
is a successful gospel that we preach. And do it again today,
and do it tomorrow, and do it the next day. Do it every day
afterwards. March and march again. Blow that
single trumpet of the gospel over and over. And the wall of
some sinner's heart will come tumbling down. God said, no weapons
formed against you shall prosper. But the weapons we have are not
carnal. They're mighty to the pulling
down of stronghold. God saves sinners by the preaching
of the gospel. And that's what we're going to
do, isn't it? It's finished. God says, I'm satisfied. And
we see that God has given all things to Christ. Christ gives
the increase. Christ is the increase. Salvation's
the gift of God. Christ is salvation. And that's
where the sinner rests. Christ is the only place to rest. No other place. May God be pleased
to make it so. For his glory, our good, and
for Christ's sake. Amen.