Let the Walls Come Down
Joshua 5:13-6:20
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/LetTheWalls.html
The children of Israel have moved:
• From the wilderness of worry to the promised land of peace.
• From the wilderness of wandering to the promised land of progress.
• From the wilderness of despondency to the promised land of delight.
• From defeat to victory...the victorious Christian life of rising above and gaining new ground.
It is walking in the Spirit...and the fruits of that Spirit.
The first city they come to after crossing Jordan is Jericho, considered the greatest walled fortress of all time, and a militarily citadel unparalleled in those days, with walls so thick that chariots could traverse atop them. From a human perspective it was considered an unconquerable city. Improbable? No, impossible! Impregnable.
And each of us have a walled city in our lives. A place of hopeless defeat we don’t think we can conquer. A barrier that stands in our way and it seems to give up on that one is the only way to view it.
What is your Jericho? It shouts at you in defiance when you think about it, “If not for me, you’d have made it! All your dreams stopped cold when you crossed my path! God’s perfect will was within reach if not for me! The ambitions of your heart might have been accomplished, but you couldn’t get over me!”
Maybe it is a besetting sin that seems to haunt you and you can’t seem to get the victory. The devil uses it on you time and again because it works so well on you. For others it might be an unhealthy attitude. Maybe you were genuinely done wrong by someone, but now your heart has bitterness toward them and it is eating at you from the inside out. You can’t seem to let go of that grudge. What is your Jericho? An unhappy marriage? Guilt over past sins? A lack of education? A lack of motivation? A lack of confidence? A lack of money! A financial downfall? The devil wants to erect a fortress around your personal success...but don’t let Him keep you from entering in to the abundant Christian life. Don’t let him keep you home from PM services or from Sunday school. [salvation / baptism / discipleship / faithfulness / service / tithing / missions / surrendering to the ministry / achieving your dreams!]
When you come to your Jericho, you have only two choices: flee from it or face it.
To flee, there’s only 1 place to go...back into the wilderness. And that should not be an option. We must face our Jericho, and we’re gonna have to do it God’s way, because humanly speaking it may be true, that there’s no way I can get past this!
Hebrews 11:30
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
“By faith...” Victory over Jericho came only by faith.
“Victory is not achieved thru fighting...it is received thru faith!”
When God has a big job to do He always gives faith the contract.
1 John 5:4
...this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1. Faith and its object.
5:13-14a Joshua is out in the field on a reconnaissance mission, surveying the situation. He looks up at those high walls of Jericho, and no doubt trying to strategize as the general of this army. He turned around to see a man who came out of nowhere. He just appeared!
Joshua asks the first logical question: Are you for us or them? Good guy or bad guy? Black cowboy hat or white? Are you for us or for our enemies? The man gives a unique answer: No.
Who is this mysterious character? None other than the Lord Jesus Christ making an appearance in the OT.
v. 14 An angel would have turned down that worship.
Here’s a valuable lesson: We should stop trying to get God on our side, and we should get on God’s side! We should take off our sword, lay it in the dust at the feet of our captain, and when we do so our Jericho is no longer our problem...it’s God’s problem...and that’s no problem!
It’s an attitude change.
When you realize that you cannot get victory over that stubborn sin in your life you are in a great position to give it to the Lord and to see victory happen thru Christ by faith!
When you’ve tried everything in your marriage and nothing is working, that’s great news if you will now learn to turn it over to God! It’s victory thru surrender. Not surrendering to the enemy but to God. Drowning in debt? Hopeless at work? Clueless at childrearing? Restless at worry? LET GO AND LET GOD!
Before we can be a conqueror we must first be conquered ourselves. All that we are and all that we have must stand at attention before the captain of our souls, the Lord Jesus! We must lay our worldly weapons of warfare at His feet, and like little David, cast off the bulky armor of human wisdom and pick up the shield of faith! And then we’ll see giants fall and walls collapse.
Joshua was out looking at the problem...those insurmountable walls. But now he’s face to face with God. He’s looking at the right object now. Looking at the walls led to fear. Looking at God led him to faith. Faith is only as good as its object. Get your eyes off the problem and keep your eyes on the Lord.
Ill.—In the NT Peter walked on the water as long as he kept his eyes on the Lord, but when he started looking at the storm he began to sink...but just a look back up at the Savior and he again rose above.
Fear is looking at God thru your problems. Faith is looking at your problems thru God!
Some people spend their whole lives gazing up at the walls of their Jericho saying, it can’t be done, it can’t be done, it can’t be done!
Ill.—first steamboat was invented, and legend says that at the launching a man present was reciting all the while, “They’ll never get it going”. Over and again he said it. Then they got it going and he started saying, “They’ll never get it stopped!”
Some people are just programmed that way, I guess. But though we must glance at our problems, we must gaze at Jesus.
No doubt some here are still waiting for their walls to fall but God won’t do it because He’s waiting for you to get to the place where you say God I can’t do it, it’s bigger than I am, but you are bigger than it is!
“Dear God, I can’t, you never said I could.
Dear God, you can, you always said you would!” Ian Thomas
The Christian life isn’t just hard...it’s impossible! So stop trying and start trusting. Allow God to give you an attitude adjustment [side ‘da head!] and you’re in prime position to see with your own eyes the walls of your Jericho fall down flat!
1. Faith and its object...
2. Faith and obedience.
6:1-5 What strange instructions! From a military standpoint they made no sense. Maybe a catapult or a battering ram, or fiery arrows could do something for starters. How about ladders, Lord? “No. Just walk around the city and be patient...then shout when I tell you to.”
God was testing their obedience. It’s easy to say you have faith, but you SHOW it thru obeying whatever God says, whether it makes sense to you or not.
Obey God even when it doesn’t make sense.
Ill.—much of a pastor’s Biblical counseling includes challenging people to return good for evil, to turn the other cheek, to wait and be patient, to forgive an evildoer, or to open yourself up to be crucified...and that counsel doesn’t make sense! Sadly, many times people walk out and try it their own way and never find victory. But the wise realize that God’s ways are higher than our ways and that we want to win this war, not in the natural, but in the supernatural!
The Bible says ‘give and it shall be given unto you.’ You can give your way out of debt by following Scripural principles in good stewardship, including adding another bill to your budget! That doesn’t make sense to me either, but it has always worked because it’s God’s way!
Much of what the Bible tells us is contrary to human logic and reasoning. It’s not our job to understand it all, it’s our job to undertake obedience. We don’t have to understand God’s commands in order to trust Him and obey them. Too many say they have to understand in order to obey, but it’s the other way around. You won’t understand it until you obey it.
“The Bible is not a book to be explained as much as a book to be obeyed.”
The people of Jericho were seasoned warriors. Oh how they must’ve laughed as they looked down from those walls. The insults they must’ve shouted. Be honest, if you spit on cars from an overpass when you were a kid don’t you know they spit off those walls?! I’m sure some bedpans were poured over the side on those ‘fools down below.’ “Want me to get the door for you? Maybe next time around! ... Ring around the rosy!”
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
They may have felt like fools, but they followed God’s command to do nothing and say nothing.
1 Corinthians 4:10
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ;
1. Faith and its object...
2. Faith and obedience...
3. Faith ongoing.
6:13 Note words ‘continually’ and ‘going on’.
Their faith and perseverance are being tested here. Each day they would make their circular trek and nothing would happen. Day after day, and after a week of it they are told ‘today’s the day!’ ... but as they went around on that 7th day again nothing happened. Then they are told to go around again and again as if they need to keep trying. I wonder how tested their patience became.
‘Waiting time’ is not wasting time. God’s delays are not necessarily denials. God doesn’t work on our timetable. He doesn’t consult our schedule...we need to wait on the Lord and get on His schedule.
I’m so glad these people didn’t give up and lose their faith as they walked around in circles around Jericho. Because just when God willed it...the wall fell down flat! [picture slides] Archaeology again demonstrates this to be fact, not fiction.
Some of you have done your rounds with your Jericho many times and you’re about to quit just before God moves.
Ill.—Naaman the leper was told to dip 7 times in Jordan to be healed of his leprosy. Each time he came up he must’ve looked at himself to see if it is progressively getting better, but it wasn’t. Nothing seemed to be happening. But I know he was glad he kept at it until the 7th time when he was cleansed and healed!
Ill.—it’s a good thing that Abraham Lincoln wasn’t a quitter...losing 9 elections, losing his fiancée, having a nervous breakdown, going bankrupt twice...and all before he became president and ended the atrocity of slavery. A lesser man would have given up long before.
Ill.—Thomas Edison invented hundreds of filaments that failed, and they say his 2nd floor lab had a window out of which he would toss the materials which didn’t work. Eventually the junk pile reached the window! Someone asked, “How does it feel to fail 700 times?” He said, “I have not failed, I have succeeded at finding 700 ways a light bulb will not work!”
Poems:
I want to let go but I won’t let go,
There are battles to fight,
By day and by night,
for God and the right and I’ll never let go.
I want to let go but I won’t let go,
I’m sick ‘tis true and weary and blue and
Worn through and through
But I’ll never let go.
I want to let go but I won’t let go,
No I will not yield,
What, lie down on the field,
And surrender my shield?
NO! I’LL NEVER let go.
I want to let go but I won’t let go,
May this be my song
Mid legions of wrong,
O, God, keep me strong,
So that I will never let go.
Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl. One, an optimistic soul,
the other took a gloomy view, ’we’ll drown’ he said with much ado.
And with a last despairing cry, he flung his legs and said ’goodbye’.
The other frog said with a grin, ’ I can’t get out, but won’t give in!’.
’I’ll swim until my strength is spent, then I will die the more content’.
Bravely he swam to work his scheme,
as his struggles began to churn the cream!
The more he swam, his legs a flutter.
The more the cream turned into butter!
On top of the butter at last he stopped,
and out of the bowl he happily hopped.
What is the moral? It’s easily found,
If you can’t hop out, keep swimming around!
Lessons:
Take your eyes off the problem and fix them upon God.
Obey God even when it doesn’t make sense.
Don’t quit. Keep the faith. Wait on the Lord for the victory!
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/LetTheWalls.html
