Joshua 6. Joshua 6. Verse 26. And Joshua adjured them at that
time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up
and buildeth this city Jericho. He shall lay the foundation thereof
in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set the
gates of it, set up the gates of it. Joshua gives a prophecy. Whoever rebuilds this city, they're
going to lose their firstborn. They're going to lose their youngest
son. And that could mean everybody
in between. They're going to lose all their
children. Now turn to first King 16. This is 550 years
later. And I was thinking about this
550 years. 550 years ago, it was 14, well,
what would that be, 14? 1468, okay, 1468, that's it. And I was thinking at that time,
Martin Luther hadn't even been born. The Protestant Reformation
had not taken place. This is actually 550 years later. this prophecy takes place. 1 Kings 16, verse 34, and in
his days, the days of Ahab, did Hael, the Bethlite, build Jericho. He laid the foundation thereof
in Abiram, his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his
youngest son, Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which
he spake by Joshua, the son of Nun. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, and Lord, we ask for your spirit. We ask for
your blessing. We ask that you would be pleased
to speak in power to our hearts. and reveal the gospel of thy
son unto us. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness. We pray for cleansing. Lord,
we ask that you would deliver us from sin, from sins, from
temptation. Lord, cause us to look to thy
son only in glory in him. Cause your gospel to be preached
in the power of your spirit. Grant us your blessing for Christ's
sake. And Lord, be with all your people
wherever they meet together. Cause your gospel to go forth
in power. We pray for your blessing on
Aaron as he preaches in Harrodsburg, that you would enable him to
preach your gospel in that place and wherever your people meet
together. Lord, unite our hearts together to fear thy name, to
love you more, to love one another more. Bless us for Christ's sake.
In his name we pray, amen. Now when it says in our text,
in his days, it's talking about Ahab's days. Ahab was the worst
king up to this point. And respect for the scriptures
and the word of God had eroded to where what was written was
not feared. Now it was written, whoever tries
to rebuild Jericho, and that's not talking about inhabiting
it, because we can find many examples throughout the scripture
where Jericho was inhabited. During David's days in 2 Samuel
10, we read of the inhabitants of Jericho. We read of the inhabitants
of Jericho trying to help rebuild the wall in Jerusalem in both
Nehemiah and Ezra. You remember during the Lord's
days when he walked upon this earth, you remember Zacchaeus?
Where was that? Jericho. You remember blind Bartimaeus? Where was that? Jericho. So Jericho
was inhabited, but what the Lord was forbidding was for anyone
to rebuild the walls of Jericho. And let me give you a hint before
we get into this. We're never to try to rebuild
what the Lord has torn down. And that's the whole point of
this. We are never to seek to rebuild what the Lord has torn
down. Now, do you remember the story
of Jericho? How the children of Israel marched
around it six days, one time. And on the seventh day, they
marched around it seven times with the ark out front, and they
gave a shout. And what happened? The walls
fell down. They didn't do anything to tear
the walls down. It's what the Lord tore down. Joshua says, anyone who tries
to rebuild these walls and rebuild this city, they're going to do
so to their own peril. They're going to do so and they're
going to have their firstborn in the foundation. the end of
the construction project is the gates, their youngest son will
be destroyed in the gates. And as a matter of fact, there's
archaeological evidence that quite often when someone would
build something, they would lay their children in the foundation
and have them as a sacrifice to supposedly help the goodness or whatever, the blessing
of this building project, it would end up working. But that
happened a lot. But this man, Heil, he became
so indifferent about what God said. For 550 years people were
afraid to do it. They saw it in the Scripture.
It was recorded. But this man grows hard-hearted. Perhaps he
saw great economic development and impetus to do this. So he rebuilt this and that is
what took place with him. Now let's go back to Joshua chapter
6. Joshua chapter 6 and let's look
what led up to this statement. Let's start in verse 13 of chapter
5. This is where this begins. 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 his sword drawn in his
hand. And Joshua went unto him and
said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? Whose
side are you on? Now, as we go on reading, we're
going to see this was a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is Christ he was speaking to. And he asked this
question, whose side are you on? Are you on our side or are
you on the side of our adversaries? And I love the Lord's answer.
Verse 14, and he said, nay, neither. Lord doesn't take sides. Don't
you love that? The Lord doesn't take sides.
He said, I'm the captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come?
The Lord doesn't take sides. The question is not, is he on
your side or you on his side? You see, he doesn't take sides
with anybody. He's the Lord. He's an absolute
sovereign control of everything. He's the Lord. Nay, I'm not on
either side. I'm the captain of the Lord of
hosts. I'm the king of Israel. I'm the God of glory. I don't
take sides. Nay, but as the captain of the
host of the Lord, am I now come? And Joshua fell on his face on
the earth and did worship. Now here is exactly what you
and I will do if we see who the Lord is. We're gonna fall on
our face and we're gonna worship. That is the issue. Worship. You will only worship
one in whose hands you are. And he can do with you whatever
he's pleased to do. All there will be is worship.
And he fell on his face and did worship and said unto him, What
saith my Lord unto his servant? Now, remember this. Prayer is
important. I wouldn't in any way take away
for the importance of prayer, beseeching the Lord's blessing.
But let me remind you this, what he has to say to you is a whole
lot more important than what you've got to say to him. So
what does Joshua say? What do you say to me? What sayeth my Lord unto me? 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. Same thing the Lord
said to Moses from the burning bush. Same thing is taking place.
And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was straightly shut
up because of the children of Israel. None went out, none came
in. This was this walled city. And
the Lord said unto Joshua, see, I have given unto thy hand Jericho. Now that's very important. He
didn't say, I will give Jericho into your hand. He said, I've
already done it. I've already done it. Now remember, salvation
is what Christ has already done. What's God doing in your life?
I don't know. I don't know, but I know what
he's done. He's accomplished my salvation. It's already finished. It's done. That's what he's done. What's he doing? Well, he's doing
his will, I know that. Everything is according to his
purpose, but I'm relying on what he's done. And that's what he
says in verse two, the Lord said unto Joshua, see, I've given
unto thy hand Jericho and the king thereof. This is that one
who he was speaking with and the one who said, I'm the captain
and the Lord of hosts. Take your shoes off. The place
you're standing is holy because I'm here. Same conversations
going on. He says in verse three, and you
shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about
the city once. Thou shalt do this six days.
And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets
of ram's horns. In 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
ascend up, every man straight before him." Now you remember
from Joshua 2 that the harlot Rahab was saved. She's the one
who received the spies and peace when they came to Jericho to
look at it. She was saved, but the Walls
are going to come down, God's going to bring them down, and
the city's going to be destroyed. You go on reading in that chapter
what took place. Verse 7. 20. So the people shouted when the
police priest blew with the trumpet. 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 that the people
went up into the city, every man straight before him. And
they took the city and they utterly destroyed all that was in the
city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and ass
with the edge of the sword. But Joshua had 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 ye swear unto her. And the young men that were spies
went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother,
and her brethren, and all that she had. And they brought out
all her kindred and left them without the camp of Israel. And
they burnt the city with fire and all that was therein, only
the silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and of iron
they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua
saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and
all that she had. And she dwelleth in Israel even
unto this day because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent
to spy out Jericho." And as a matter of fact, she ends up being one
of the ancestors of the Lord. You can read about her in Matthew
1 in the list of the ancestors of the Lord, this harlot. And
Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before
the Lord that riseth up and builteth the city of Jericho. He shall
lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and his youngest
son shall he set up the gates of it. And 550 years later, this man
by the name of Hiel, rebuilds the walls, and what happens? Just what God said. He loses
his firstborn, he loses his youngest son, and this could represent
all of his children were killed during this construction project. Now, what has God torn down? When our Lord said, it is finished. And he gave up the ghost. He
allowed death to come and take him and he died. What was torn
down? You remember the veil in the
temple was ripped in half from the top to the bottom. That is what God has torn down. The complete doing away with
of the old covenant, the animal sacrifices, the Sabbath, the
annual feasts, the physical temple, the law, it's all been taken
away. It's been torn down by God himself. You're including the Ten Commandments? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. God's law
has been done away with by God himself. Turn with me to Romans
chapter six for a moment. Verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion. And that word dominion is lordship.
Lordship. For sin shall not have lordship
over you, for you are not under the law, but you are under grace. If I'm under law, if any part
of my salvation is dependent upon me doing anything. If I am under law, that means
I'm under the complete dominion and lordship of sin. Complete. Turn with me for a second 1 Timothy chapter 1, and while
you're turning there, let me remind you of Paul's statement
about the law in 1 Corinthians 15. The strength of sin is the
law. The strength, the power, the
dominion of sin is the law. All the law does is expose sin. Nothing more. Now, I love God's
law. If you're a believer, you love
God's law. It's holy, it reflects God's character. But all the
law does is expose sin. And if you see it in any other
light, you prove by that you have no understanding of the
law of God. In 1 Timothy 1, verse eight, or verse seven, Desiring to be
teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof
they affirm. But we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made
for a righteous man, but for the lawless. and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured person, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine. Now all the law does is expose
my sin. All the law is for is for a man
described like that. But if I'm under grace, the law doesn't have any jurisdiction
over me. If I'm under grace, the law has nothing to say to
me. The law can't condemn me. The law can't accuse me because
I stand before that law justified, without guilt, without sin, perfect
in Christ Jesus. Now, isn't that wonderful? You're
not under law. If you're under law, all it does
is expose sin, but you're under grace. Now, if I'm under grace,
that means I'm not under the dominion, the lordship of sin.
Now, what's meant by that? Somebody says, seems like sin's
got a lot of power in my life. Well, if you're a believer, there's
a time when you could not believe. You didn't even know what it
meant. And then you found yourself believing the gospel. How is
that? You're no longer under the lordship
of sin. You're no longer under its dominion
and control. You've been delivered. There
was a time when you didn't know what repentance was. Now you're
repenting right now. You're in a state of repentance.
Why? You've been delivered from the dominion, the lordship of
sin. How come? Because you're under
grace. Salvation has absolutely nothing to do with what you do
to make it complete. That's what grace is. That means
Christ does it all. Christ does it all. Now, under
grace, sin is no more my Lord because I'm saved by grace. Now,
if I go back to law and try to build that up, what am I doing? Turn with me for a moment to
Galatians chapter two. Now, if I go back in my salvation,
let me make this statement, I want you to think about this. Chew
on this, meditate upon this. If I go back to law in any way,
saying salvation in some respect is dependent upon me doing something,
I say to the Lord Jesus Christ, what you did was nice, but it's
not enough. I'm glad for what you did. I
couldn't have been saved without that, but it was not enough. There's something I need to do
to complete what you did in order for me to be saved. Now that
is the ultimate insult to the God of grace. That's the ultimate
insult to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in Galatians chapter two, Verse 18, Paul says, for if I
build again the things which I destroyed, he's talking about
the law. If I try to raise that up again,
all I do is make myself a transgressor. Now, let's see the context of
this statement. Look in verse 11 of Galatians
chapter two. But when Peter was come to Antioch,
I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. For before
that certain came from James, he's talking about the Church
of Jerusalem, which was made up mainly of Jewish believers.
Before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles.
He didn't see any need for separation from the Gentiles, and he was
eating pork or whatever it was they were having, and he was
having a good time fellowshipping with the Gentiles. He was enjoying
himself. But when they were come, He withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Now he thought, they're going to think less of me because I'm
not showing the same respect for the law that they do. They're
going to think less of me. So what did he do? He didn't
say anything. He just got up and left that
table. That's all he did. He feared them at the circumcision.
He thought, well, they're going to think ill of me. They're going
to think I have no respect for the law of God and for the traditions. So all he did was get up and
move tables. Didn't say a word. Verse 13,
and the other Jews dissembled. That word dissemble means played
the hypocrite. The other Jews played the hypocrite
likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away
with their dissimulation, with their hypocrisy. Now, what did
Paul do at this time? This is very important. Most folks probably just wouldn't
say anything. Just keep their mouth shut. And
most of the time, that's the thing to do. I wish I would learn
that. Most the time, that's the thing to do. But not here. Here, Paul feels a need to make
an open, public rebuke of Peter. Now that's pretty severe, isn't
it? What if I did something like that with you, or you did that
with me in front of a bunch of people? I mean, this is as severe
a thing as Paul's ever done. And who was it he was rebuking?
Peter. Peter. Now let's look what took
place. But when I saw, verse 14, that
they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I
said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew livest after
the manner of Gentiles, and that's what he was doing before the
Jews came, and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles
to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature are
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, not
by anything we do. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But if when we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? Is there something we need to
do about that? God forbid. Or if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
If I try to bring the law, look, we're still sinning, even though
we're justified by Christ, we're still sinning. Why do we need
to bring the law in to take care of that? God forbid. God forbid. For I through the
law, being honored by Christ, am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. Now what Peter was guilty of
doing, he was saying, true, these Gentiles are saved. They're saved. But you're more pleasing to God
by keeping these Jewish laws. And Paul said he had to rebuke
that, that the truth of the gospel might remain. You see, that action
took away the truth of the gospel. And what Peter was doing was
building again those things which had been destroyed, salvation
by law. Now that's what God has destroyed.
Aren't you thankful for that? Aren't you eternally thankful
that salvation is by grace? That it's not by our works? That
He does it all? That it's not up to us to complete
anything? That He completed our salvation? That He finished it and there's
nothing to do? Now why would I want to build
up again law? What I'm saying by that is I'm
afraid grace is not enough to motivate somebody. I'm afraid
grace is not enough to make somebody want to be obedient. I'm afraid
this stuff of grace will open wide the gate to sin. And when
I say something like that, I prove I don't really believe grace
at all. Turn with me to the book of Jude. Right before Revelation. I thought
of this scripture this morning while I was considering this. Not very long ago, I listened
to a message, I've mentioned this once, a man was preaching
on grace and his first point in this message was grace is
not a license to sin. That was his first point, grace
is not a license to sin. Well, he's right, I agree with
that, grace is not a license to sin, but why would you make
that your first point? Because you're afraid it is.
You don't really believe grace. You're afraid it is. Now look
in Jude verse four. For there are certain men crept
in, unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Somebody says, what's that mean?
Exactly what it says. I'm not gonna apologize for that.
I don't understand it all, but I don't need to. I just believe
what God says. What's that meaning exactly what it says? And if
you've got a problem with it, take it up with the Lord. That's
a problem you don't wanna have. But there it's written, ungodly
men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Now, does that mean these men
are saying salvation is by grace, therefore you can live any way
you want to, you can commit any kind of sin you want to because
salvation's all of grace, so you don't need to worry about
that? Is that what these men are saying? No. That word turning
is translating. It's actually translated, translated. They say if you preach free grace,
That'll lead to ungodliness and lasciviousness. That's what they're
saying. It's not saying grace makes sin
okay. Grace doesn't make sin okay.
Nothing makes sin okay. But what they're saying is if
you preach free grace, it's gonna lead people to sin. And what
that is is building up the walls of law again. Now, what did this
man do? 550 years later, he built back
up that which God had torn down. May the Lord give us such a love
and belief of grace that we won't dare try to do what this man
did.