Well, it is such a delight to
be with all of you this evening. I've looked forward to it so
much. So many friends have been friends
a long time. Many years ago, when my brother
was in college here at UK, I would come here, and I was known as
Jonathan's brother. Now I come, and I'm known as
Holly and Savannah's daddy. So I've taken a big step up in
the world. And I'm thankful for that. How many buttons am I supposed
to turn on here, Dwayne? There we go. If you would, open
your Bibles with me first to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter
11. I titled the message this evening,
The Walls Came Tumbling Down. The writer to the Hebrews says
in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 30, By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were encompassed about seven days. Now how is
it that these giant walls of Jericho fell down by faith? What does faith have to do with
what some people might call an engineering disaster? Walls,
gigantic walls falling down. Well, if you would, turn in your
Bibles back to Joshua chapter six. Let's look at this story
that's told to us in Joshua chapter six and see if maybe we can find
out what faith has to do with these walls falling down. And
this evening, what I would like us to see is how the walls of
the hearts of God's elect come tumbling down when they are conquered
by the Lord. And I can tell you how that happens.
It's by faith. It happens through the preaching
of the gospel when God the Holy Spirit gives faith and enables
us to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what is happening
in picture in Joshua chapter six. Now, Jericho was a very
large city surrounded by huge walls. I read that there were
actually two walls. There was an inner wall and an
outer wall. The outer wall was six feet thick
and 30 feet tall. The inner wall was 12 feet thick,
30 feet tall. 12 feet thick has to be wide
enough for houses to be in it. Like Rahab's house was there.
Huge walls. Jericho is a powerful, well defended
city. But God Almighty had marked that
city for destruction. Before the children of Israel
could go enjoy the promised land, the land that God had given them,
the land that God had promised them, Jericho must be conquered. Jericho's at the gateway to the
land that God had promised them. The city's got to be conquered.
Those walls have to come tumbling down before the land flowing
with milk and honey can be enjoyed by God's people. And something
else, Rahab's got to be brought out of that city. Rahab's got
to come out of that city. So the walls have to come tumbling
down. Now, how are they going to do
that? The writer to the Hebrews tells us it's by faith. The walls
came down by faith. The walls of Jericho are pictures
of our hard, stony, dead hearts. Our walls of unbelief and sin
and hatred of God are tall, thick walls. They've been there a long
time. They're double walls, strongholds
of sin and Satan. and before God's elect can enjoy
the salvation that God has promised them, those walls of sin and
unbelief and hatred have got to come down. Our walls of unbelief
and hatred, sin, can only come tumbling down by God-given faith. And I can tell you how God gives
that faith. It's through the preaching of the gospel, through
the preaching of Christ. We'll believe Christ, when we
hear Him preached. See, it's pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And if there's
someone here, and I suspect there is tonight, that does not know
the Lord, and if you don't know Christ, if you don't believe
Him, in your heart you know you don't know Him, in your heart
you know you don't believe Him, well, I've got a question for
you. Would you like God to save you?
You know you don't believe him, but would you like God to give
you faith in Christ? Would you? Well, if your answer
is yes, I have some advice for you. If I was you, and I was
at one time, I would make it my business to find a man who's
preaching the gospel and be there to hear him. That's what I'd
do. Because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And that's how our walls of sin and unbelief and hatred come
tumbling down. It's by hearing the preaching
of the gospel and God giving us faith in Christ. Now let's
look at this and see that picture in Joshua chapter 6. My first
point is this. Our walls of sin and unbelief
and hatred are walls of our own making. Joshua 6 verse 1. Now Jericho was straightly shut
up because of the children of Israel. And none went out and
none came in. Now the people of Jericho had
shut themselves up behind their walls. That's what the word straightly
means. They shut themselves in there, in that city. They never
did raise the white flag of surrender. They never did open the gates
and send a delegation out to Joshua and sue for peace and
beg for mercy. They never did that. Now we know
they heard about the God of Israel, didn't they? That's what Rahab
told those spies. We've heard about you. We've heard about
your God. We heard what he did at the Red
Sea. We heard what he did to those two kings over there. And
the people are full of fear because of your God. But they still would
not surrender. They still would not beg for
mercy. And it was their own fault, wasn't
it? These walls are walls of their own making. But that didn't
stop God. In our walls of sin, our walls
of unbelief and hatred of God, our walls of our own making,
by nature, we'll never raise the white flag and surrender.
By nature, we will never come to Christ begging for mercy.
By nature, we'll never want to be saved on God's terms. Our
Lord told Pharisees that. He said, you will not come unto
me that you might have life. These walls are walls of our
own making. By nature, we refuse to come
to Christ. That's why nobody from this pulpit
ever, one time ever, in all the years it stood, has ever begged
you to make a decision for Jesus. Not one time ever. Not one time
ever has a man stood here and begged you to accept Jesus as
your personal Savior. Not one time ever. Because we
know you can't. And we won't. They're walls of
our own making. But thankfully, that will not
stop God's purpose of redemption for His people. And the reason
for that is God has a people that He chose to save. And He's
given them to His Son to redeem. And that's my second point. God
has an elect people who've been given to his son. Verse two says,
And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine
hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.
Now Joshua is such a preeminent picture of our Lord Jesus Christ
in the Old Testament. They even share a name. Joshua
is the Old Testament name for the New Testament name, Jesus.
And our Lord told Joshua, Joshua, you're gonna take the city. not
because you're so mighty, not because you're such a great general.
You're going to take the city because I've given it into your
hand. God the Father has an elect people. And those people, just like I
said a minute ago, we stubbornly hide behind our walls of sin
and unbelief and hatred. But never you fear. Don't you
worry. Those people are going to be
conquered. God is gonna conquer them in His grace. The Lord Jesus
Christ is gonna have them because the Father gave them into the
hand of His Son in the covenant of grace. Now those people don't
know it yet, but the day's coming, they're gonna willingly submit
to King Jesus because they've been given to Christ. Christ
died for them to put away their sin and He will have them for
His own. and in his time, they're gonna
willingly submit to him. You see, this is what God's purpose
is for them, but they don't know it yet. So somebody's got to
tell him. And that's my third point. The
means of giving faith and the means of conquering unbelief
is the preaching of the gospel. Verse three. And ye shall compass
the city, all ye men of war, and go round 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 you 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 you
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 send up every man straight before him.
The walls are gonna fall down flat. You're not even gonna have
to wind your way into the city. You're just gonna go straight
into the city with no obstacles, because the walls have fallen
down flat. Now, the Lord told Joshua, this
is how the walls are gonna come down now. Joshua, you get the
people and you have a parade around Jericho one time a day. They're just for six days, once
a day, you circle the city with the priest blowing on these ram's
horns. And on the seventh day, you circle
the city seven times while the priests are blowing on these
ram's horns. And then at the appointed time, all the people
are going to shout. And those walls are going to
fall down flat and you'll take the city. Now, all of that is
a picture of preaching the gospel. And that's what I want to spend
the rest of my time on this evening. First, the ram's horns are pictures
of gospel preaching. You know, ram's horns don't look
like much. They're not a shiny trumpet or
whatever great instrument. That's an impressive looking
instrument. These ram's horns aren't. They're a horn of a ram. The rams died or whatever, and
they got the horn off of that ram. That horn is tough as nails. Those horns, I'm sure, Showed
scars of battles where they fought with rams, just ramming them
horns into each other. Just really kind of ugly looking. And we'd think, this is what
we would think, well, God's promised us this land. After all this
time, we're going to go take it. You know, I'd like to have
something that looks pretty nice. You know, I'd like to have some of
these big fancy trumpets and you know. But God said, no, that's
not what you're going to use. Use these rams horns. You see,
God will never use things to impress the flesh, to convince
the flesh to come to Him, never. God always uses plain, sinful
men to preach the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, so
that the glory will be the gospel, so that the glory will be the
Savior, not the sinful man preaching it. We have this treasure in
earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Here's another thing about ram's
horns. Ram's horns just play one note. They don't have holes
in them that you can use on your fingers or valves or whatever. It's just a ram's horn. And the
priest would blow on that horn and one long, unchanging note
would come out of that ram's horn. It's the only note it's
capable of producing, just one note. Now, do you reckon these
priests are circling the city, blowing these horns, just one
note? And the people of Jericho, that had to be irritating to
them. Just, ugh! Don't they know any
other notes? I mean, can't you just play something
else? That's the flesh when it hears
the gospel preached. The flesh thinks, doesn't that
preacher have any other notes? Doesn't he have any other subject
than Christ alone? This is starting to irritate
me. Well, that one note may have been irritating to the people
of Jericho, but there was somebody in that city that that sound
was glorious to. To Rahab, that note was sweet
because that note was the sound of jubilee. Freedom's coming. That's what that note meant to
her. The sound of the gospel is the sound of freedom in Christ
to the believer. The sound of the gospel is freedom
from sin, freedom from worry, peace with God, and we rejoice. And a believer never gets tired
of hearing that one note of Christ and Him crucified, that Christ
is all. You want to talk about righteousness?
Christ is our righteousness. You want to talk about sanctification?
Christ is our sanctification. You want to talk about life?
Eternal life? Christ is our life. You want
to talk about forgiveness of sins? It's in Christ. You want
to talk about peace with God? He is our peace. Salvation is
all in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we preach
the gospel, Aaron, we just need one note. It's Christ, it's the
power of God unto salvation. All right, second, the priest
blowing these ram's horns and going before the Ark. This is
a picture of gospel preacher. Now, as this parade circled Jericho,
the first thing the people saw were the priests blowing the
ram's horns. And immediately behind them came
the Ark of the Covenant. And that's a picture of how we
first hear the gospel. See, first we hear, don't we?
Not to hear. And then we see Christ. We'll
never see Christ until we first hear the gospel. Then, once we
hear the gospel, God gives us faith, then we're gonna see the
ark, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God manifest in the flesh. First we hear, then we believe. And what is it that we believe?
What is it that we see when God gives us faith? We see that ark. The ark of the covenant was a
box, just a plain old wooden box. It was a wooden box made
out of incorruptible wood, and it was covered with gold, which
pictures the two natures in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's both
God and man. That ark contained the law. which
was kept by Christ. That law, you didn't find it
in the hands of Moses. Moses didn't die and turn the law over
in the hands of Joshua. Joshua would have got as frustrated
as Moses did and broke those tables too. You're not putting
those tables of God's law in the hands of a man. It's all
in Christ. It's all in him. He kept it.
And the only obedience that God's people have is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He kept the law. It's all in
him. That ark contained the pot of manna, which is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread of life. Christ doesn't
just give us life. Christ is our life. He is our life. He is the giver
of it. He's the sustainer of it because
he is our life. It's all in him. And that ark
contained Aaron's rod that budded. which is a picture. Remember
Aaron put that rod out? His rod budded, which shows he
is the priest appointed by God. Well, that rod was put in that
Ark of the Covenant as a picture of Christ to show us that Christ
is God's appointed priest. The only way sinful men and women
like us can ever come unto God is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only priest. He's the only mediator. And the
only way we'll ever see that Christ is all is if God sends
us a man blowing that trumpet, preaching the gospel of Christ.
We'll hear first. And when God enables us to believe,
we'll see Christ. But you've got to hear of him.
Can't believe in one whom you've not heard. You've got to hear
of him, and then we believe. And the third thing is this.
And to me, this is very, very important. is to be preached
faithfully, faithfully. For six days, Israel circled
Jericho, the priest blowing on those trumpets. And after six
days, they didn't see one stone fall out of that wall. They didn't
see that wall start to bow at any place. There was no crack
appeared in that wall, but they just kept marching. They just
kept blowing the ram's horns like God told them to. And they
would march around that city once, and then they would return
to their camps. And can't you just see this conversation happening
somewhere, somebody having this conversation. They're sitting
around a campfire, and one of the fellas said, boys, this isn't
working. I mean, do you see this? Boys,
this isn't working. Tell you what we need to do. I don't know
what Joshua's doing, but here's what we're going to do. We're
going to get us some ropes and some ladders, and we're going to climb
that wall and get into the city, because that's the only way we're
ever going in there. Now that's a picture of us thinking,
I'm not seeing any results in preaching the gospel. We better
change our methods. We just got to do something different
than plain preaching. Because plain preaching is not
getting anybody's attention. Hold it right there. The walls
came down how? By faith. By faith. Look at 2
Timothy chapter 4. So by faith, by God's grace,
we don't stop preaching the gospel. We won't change the message. We will not compromise the truth. 2 Timothy chapter four, verse one. I would imagine this
sentence in this letter got old Timothy's attention from his
mentor, the apostle Paul. And the apostle tells him, Timothy,
I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who should judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in
his kingdom, Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word. Preach
the word. Preach the word. Be instant in
season, out of season. In every season, preach the word. In every need, preach the word.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears, and they shall turn their ears away from
the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in
all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry. Now is Timothy going to keep
preaching, enduring these afflictions, enduring people turning away
from him? Enduring people who come to listen to him preach
for a while, and then they leave, and they turn away, they want
something else. How's Timothy gonna stay faithful
to that? By God-given faith. The gospel
is to be preached faithfully, especially to those who oppose
themselves. You keep preaching to them, keep
preaching the word of God. Our responsibility is to preach
the word, to preach the message that God's given us. let's leave
the results to God. And you know how I can do that
with such peace? Because you know what God said about His
Word? His Word will not return unto Him void. I can just preach
the Word and let sinners along with God in complete peace. Because
God's going to save His people. Look back in our text, Joshua
6, verse 10. Just preach the Word and don't
add your two sins to it. Don't try to use human effort
and human psychology to get people to do what you want them to do.
just preach the word and leave sinners alone with God. Verse
10, Joshua chapter 6, Joshua commanded the people saying,
you should not shout. nor make any noise with your
voice. Don't you add anything to the blowing of these ram's
horns. Neither should any word proceed out of your mouth until
the day I bid you shout. Then shall you shout. You just
don't try to add to it. You just let the note sound.
You let the note of the gospel sound and go forth in power and
you just hang on till God tells you to do something else. Just
keep sounding this one note on the ram's horns. Do it faithfully.
Do it faithfully. Preach it loud. Preach it clear. So nobody can mistake what you're
saying. Don't make an uncertain sound. Where people hear us preach and
think, well, you know, he could mean this, but he could mean
this. And I don't know what he means,
but boy, that was impressive, wasn't it? God help us not to
preach that way. And don't preach so that an unbeliever
can leave with peace. Don't sign a certain note. And don't do this. Don't preach
so that God's poor children leave with fears and doubts and uncertainty. Don't do that. the law to beat
them up and trying to get them to act the way you want them
to act. Don't use men's means to... Don't hold something back,
because you're trying to build a following. Y'all hold something
back, and well, that's going to offend these unbelievers.
I know it would comfort God's people, but I'm going to hold
it back because I want to keep a big crowd. God help us. Don't do that. Preach the Word. Do it faithfully. It's the best thing for everybody.
I don't care if it's the oldest believer. We know the newest
babe in Christ or the most stout-hearted unbeliever you know. Okay, the
message for all three of them is the word of God. Let's preach
it faithfully. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Don't use something to try to
impress people with you, you know. Sound a clear note. Verse
six of 1 Corinthians 14. Now brethren, if I come unto
you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Except I
shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or
by prophesying or by doctrine. If I come speaking in a tongue
that you don't understand, how's that gonna be a blessing to you?
You don't know what I'm saying. You're gonna be mighty impressed
I could speak with tongues. That's the problem. You're going
to be impressed with me. You're going to be impressed
with some miracle and you're not going to leave impressed
with Christ and pointed to Christ. Sound a certain note so sinners
know it's in Christ. Go to Him. Salvation's in Him.
Sound a certain note of Christ. So God's people will find their
joy and their confidence and their comfort in Christ. Look
down here at verse 8 in 1 Corinthians 14. For if a trumpet, give an
uncertain sound, Who shall prepare himself to the battle? If we
make an uncertain sound, how's somebody going to know? Go to
Christ. How are they going to know? Go to Christ naked and
empty handed with nothing about you. Trust Him and Him alone.
How are they going to know that if we don't sound an unmistakable
sound of Christ and Him crucified? Back in our text, while we're
preaching the gospel faithfully, You remember this, don't be using
anything from false religion. Think you incorporate some of
their methods into what you're doing. Look at verse 17. And the city shall be accursed,
even it and all that are therein to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot
shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because
she hid the messengers that we sent. And ye, and any wise, keep
yourselves from the accursed thing. Thus you make yourselves
accursed when you take of the accursed thing and make the camp
of Israel a curse and trouble it. See, don't use the methods
of false religion. Don't use the methods of the
world. I understand it could appeal
to the flesh, but it'll be a curse to gospel preaching. It'll be
a curse to God's people. The only thing that will bless
God's people is Christ. And don't take their money to
try to help you out. You don't need them. They got
nothing you want. Just trust the Lord to provide.
You preach his word faithfully and trust him to provide. And
the only thing you take, the only thing you take to your heart
is what's consecrated to the Lord. Verse 19, but all the silver
and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto
the Lord and they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.
Just take what's consecrated unto the Lord. And I reckon the
silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron, you know, that's
important. But I'll tell you something far more precious in
that city that was consecrated to the Lord. Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot was consecrated
to the Lord. Joshua said, you go get her.
You bring her out. She's consecrated to the Lord.
And the only means God's gonna use to do it is the preaching
of his word. He'll never use a lie. He'll
never use our psychology or something. So let's faithfully preach the
gospel. All right, here's the fourth
thing about preaching. The walls come tumbling down, and God's
people will be saved exactly at God's appointed time. Now,
seven trumpets were blown for six days, and those seven trumpets
were blown for seven times on the seventh day. Seven in scripture
is the number of perfection. The day of perfection is God's
appointed day for his people to hear the gospel, for the walls
to come tumbling down. And you might wonder, I've got
a lost friend or loved one. I invite them to hear the gospel. How many times do I have to hear
the gospel before God will save me? I don't know, I don't know. Duane, in my case, there's thousands
of times, I don't know. But I know this, it'll be at
God's appointed time, and it won't be one second late. We
won't always hear the first time. Matter of fact, we seldom do,
seldom. But God's people will hear at
God's appointed time. Now does that give you some confidence? Does that encourage you? Y'all
bring your children here to the surface. I heard already this
evening prayers that God save our children. We invite our lost
friends and loved ones to hear the gospel. Were you wasting
your time? You just wasting your time? No,
no. We continue. We continue preaching. We continue inviting people and
bringing people to hear the gospel with this confidence The Lord
will save his people. He will. And he's going to do
it through the preaching of the gospel. And he's going to do
it in his time. I tell you, that just gives me
such peace of heart to continually, as best as the Lord enables me
to do it, faithfully preach the gospel and wait on the Lord.
He can save his people. All right, here's the fifth thing.
Every member of Israel, had a part in preaching the gospel. Here
at verse 9, and the armed men went before the priest that blew
with the trumpets, and the re-reward came after the ark, the priest
going on and blowing with the trumpets. Now that word re-reward
means gathering host. It's all the gathering host of
all the people of Israel coming in behind that Ark of the Covenant.
Their presence mattered. Even if they weren't blowing
the trumpets, even if they weren't carrying the ark, even if they
weren't shouting, their presence mattered. Now, seems like, especially
religious people, everybody in religion wants to be seen as
loving. You know, God loves you and so
do I. We love you no matter who you are and what you're doing,
you know. And I tell you, I weary of it. I weary of it when people
keep saying it, but they don't show it by their actions. By
their actions, I know they're lying. Do you want to be loving? Every
believer in this room in their heart said, yes, I do. Yes, because
God's given you that heart. David prayed, Lord, give us a
heart that truly loves, loves you, loves God's people. Well,
you want to show your love for God? You want to show your love
for God's people? I'll tell you how you do it.
Show up. That's right. That's true in
your life, in your family life. I told a young man who in our
congregation is getting married in a couple of weeks, and I told
him, I'm going to give you some free marital advice. You get
married here in a couple of weeks, and you got your new bride home,
and you go off to work, you want to show her you love her? You
want to prove your love to her? When you get off of work, show
up. Show up at home. And all through your life, raising
your family. Raising a family is a daily grind. I mean, Jan and I look back at
it and we think, how do we do that? I mean, how do we do that?
It was a, oh, what a grind it was. Brothers, show up for it. Show up and do the work. Get
your hands dirty. Do the work. Show up. Show up
for those special occasions. That's how we show our love for
one for another. Well, the same thing's true spiritually. If
you want to show your love for God, show up these worship services. That shows your respect and love
for the Lord. It shows your love for your brethren.
Your presence here encourages your brethren. I'm pretty confident
I can speak for your pastor. Your presence here encourages
him. Wouldn't you like to do that? That's how we do it, by
showing up. And there's not one child of
God anywhere who can think, I don't matter, it don't matter what
I do, it don't matter. What if the people of Israel
felt that way? The walls of Jericho would still be standing. That's
right. Every member of God's church
has something to do in the service of God's kingdom. And I don't
know what it is God's giving you to do, but I tell you this,
whatever it is, do it faithfully. And a mighty good way to start
is by showing up. That's right. All right, sixth,
we preach the gospel knowing that the salvation of the sinner
is a supernatural work of God. Right at God's appointed time,
those walls fell flat. Verse 20 of Joshua chapter six.
So the people shouted when the priest blew with the trumpets
and it came to pass. When the people heard the sound
of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout, that
the wall fell down flat. So the people went up into the
city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
Now those walls falling down flat, the only way you can explain
it, that's a supernatural work of God. There's no other explanation
for it. The walls didn't just like, they
fell down flat. Those walls couldn't have fallen
down flat any other way than God's people following His command
to march around that city and to blow those trumpets. And the
reason that the people marched around that city blowing those
horns is they believed God because faith acts. And salvation is
the same way. Salvation is a supernatural event. It's not a decision. It's not
a change. It's a supernatural event that
comes through faith. Somebody, somewhere preached
the gospel because they believe God. And at God's appointed time,
God the Holy Spirit gives his elect faith in Christ. And that faith always sees the
victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, seventh, the gospel.
declare salvation and judgment. Everybody who would not surrender
was killed. Verse 21, and they utterly destroyed
all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old,
and ox and sheep and ass with the edge of the sword. Now I want you to listen to me. This matter of believing Christ
is a matter of life and death. We're not playing games in this
matter of preaching the gospel. Let's not play at preaching it,
and let's not play at hearing it. Let's not try to gain a following
for ourselves at the expense of the souls of men and women
and boys and girls, but preach the gospel honestly. Deal honestly with the scriptures. Always preach, thus saith the
Lord. because that's what's best for
people. To hear thus saith the Lord. It's best for people to
know Christ. Then let's tell them who he is,
regardless how they feel about us. It really doesn't matter
what anybody thinks about me. I would like for you to like
me. You know, I would. But that's
not my goal. My goal was not to get you to
like me. My goal is that you would leave here tonight knowing
Christ, knowing Him. And if you don't remember my
name, that don't matter. But if you know His name, God
saved you. The gospel declares judgment
and everybody who refuses to believe it is going to be damned. That's serious business, serious
business. But the gospel also declares
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody in that city who believed
God, without exception, everybody in that city who believed God
was saved alive. Verse 22, but Joshua said unto
the two men that had spied out the country, go into the harlot's
house and bring out thence the woman and all that she hath as
you swear unto her. Rahab the harlot was saved alive. just like God promised she would.
Rahab believed God. She had God-given faith. You
know how I know that? When those spies gave her that
red line, she hung it in the window. She didn't wait till
she heard the sound of the trumpets. She didn't wait till she saw
that reward coming and gather around the city. She immediately
hung that line in the window to be identified with God. And
everybody in that city who believed God was saved alive. And everybody
who was under the blood was saved alive. And you know they were
the same people? That scarlet line represents
the blood of Christ. Everybody who believed God was
under the blood. Everybody who's under the blood of Christ is
gonna be saved alive. Because Christ has washed them
white as snow. And God the Holy Spirit's gonna
give them, supernaturally, he's gonna give them faith in Christ. And they'll be saved alive. Then
here's the last thing. In the preaching of the gospel,
Joshua got all the glory. Verse 27. So the Lord was with
Joshua, and his fame was noise throughout all the country. Now
the gospel, when it's preached, gives the Lord Jesus Christ all
the glory. And faith gives Christ all the
glory. It says, I've been preaching
this, your spirits bear witness with my spirit. This is the gospel,
that's faith. giving Christ all the glory.
And if the gospel that you hear, I know this does not apply to
anyone who attends here regularly, but someone may be visiting or
from someplace else. If the gospel you hear gives
you any credit for any part of your salvation, for getting it
or for keeping it, it's not the gospel. And you get away from
it. If you believe it, you'll be
damned for believing a lie. But if the gospel you hear gives
Christ all the credit. He gets all the glory for doing
all the work of salvation from beginning to end by himself without
any input from you. That's the gospel. And you believe
it. You believe it. Now, I know I
just told you to do something that by nature you cannot do.
I understand that. And as I said a little bit ago,
if you're here tonight and you don't believe Christ, you know
it. Well, friend, pray. Pray for the faith. Pray that
God would give you faith to believe. Faith's a gift of God, isn't
it? Nothing wrong with asking for it, is there? I remember trying to believe. I mean, and I couldn't do it. I mean,
I could not do it. And one day, I thought, I believe that. Our brother Henry's
preaching the gospel, I thought. I believe that. And I thought
about it. And I could not believe it. I
just believed. What happened? God, the Holy
Spirit, gave life. And he gave faith. Pray and ask
God to give it to you, and you'll be saved. And you'll find that
your walls of sin and unbelief and hatred fell down flat because
of the preaching of Christ our Savior. All right, let's bow
together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this, your word. How we thank you for this clear
declaration of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. through the
preaching of Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you would
bless your word as it's been preached tonight. It's been preached
by just an old earthen vessel, but Father, in your power and
the power of your spirit, I beg of it, you'd send your word forth
in power to get glory to your name, to reach the hearts of
your people, to give life and faith and to comfort and encourage
us along the way that you've called us to go. Father, bless
us for Christ's sake. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks. Amen.