Topic: Sunday Sermon Series – Living by Faith
Title: Joshua’s Conquering Faith (Part 2)
Text: Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. – NIV
Proposition: The event referred to in Hebrews 11:30 points us to the principles by which we can have a conquering faith!
IV. The Footing for a Conquering Faith
A) Footing = basis or foundation upon which anything is established
1. The presence of God
a) But we can only be assured of this is we apply:
2. The precepts of God!
a) Precept is a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought.
b) Precept – Gk ??t??? -en-to-la
i. an order, command, charge, a commandment!
Joshua 1: 7a “Be strong and very courageous.
a) Basis?
i. Strength?
ii. Courage?
Joshua 1: 7b Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
NLT-Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them,
NLT - Then you will be successful in everything you do.
ESV- you may have good success wherever you go.
Hampton Keathley III- The victory and possession of the land which follows is a direct result of the Word of God and of man, in this case Joshua, hearing and responding to His Word. This should illustrate for us that there is absolutely no victory or chance for us to experience the blessings of our new life in Christ apart from the Word of God. Whenever any believer begins to turn away from the Word through indifference or apathy for whatever reason, he is turning away from the Lord and into defeat.
And also….
3. Preaching or promoting the precepts of God!
Joshua 1:8a Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips;
a) The picture is that of vocalizing the Words of God!
i. In your pulpit
ii. In your counseling
iii. In the exercising of your leadership and ministry!
a. Paul reiterate this in the NT to Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:1 I charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: 2a Herald and preach the Word!
The Message -proclaim the Message with intensity!
JB Phillips- Preach the Word of God. Never lose your sense of urgency, in season or out of season.
2 Timothy 4:3b correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Timothy 4: 3-5 You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant. – The Message
b. Also shall not depart from your mouth means that this book of the law should be the constant topic of your conversation.
c. Yes , its ok to talk about other things, but the wisdom of the Word should guide us!
d. God said Joshua even more than that:
Joshua 1:8b meditate on it day and night,
Meditate – ????? -hagah
1) To moan, growl, groan, utter, muse, mutter, meditate, devise, plot, imagine
Bruce Hurst - Meditation is the act of focusing one’s thoughts, of pondering, of reflecting, and of reviewing various thoughts by mulling them over in the mind and heart. The picture is one of "chewing" upon a thought, deliberately and thoroughly, providing a vital link between theory and action. Meditation consists of reflective thinking, rumination or contemplation, usually on a specific subject with the purpose of discerning its meaning or significance or a plan of action. What metabolism is to the physical body of the cow, meditation is to a saint's mental and spiritual life
Q: Do you ever mediate or muse over God’s precepts, in your mind?
A: You may thing that meditation is so hard, but If you know how to worry, then you know how to meditate. If your good at worrying you’ll be good at meditating!
Danger if you don’t mediate on the ways of God you just may find yourself walking in the wrongs counsel, path and way!
Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
e.How do you avoid that?
Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
f. Doesn’t matter what he does or where he is!
Psalm 1:4 The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
William Gurnall - Meditation is prayer's handmaid.
John Piper - If you want to be filled with the Spirit of passion and exultation over the great things of God, you must fill your mind day and night with the Word of God. Pour over it. Memorize it. Chew it. Put it like a lozenge under the tongue of your soul and let it flavor your affections day and night.
Matthew Henry - If we willingly banish holy meditations in our solitary hours, Satan will soon occupy our minds with sinful imaginations.
g. That verse shows that there is a close connection between meditating on God’s Word and acting on it!
Q: Why do we meditate, muse over the Word of God?
Joshua 1:8c so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
h. Doing is the key to possessing!
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Joshua 1:8d Then you will be prosperous and successful.
James 1:25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it--not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it--they will be blessed in what they do.
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament - In conclusion, the Lord not only repeats His exhortation to firmness, but the promise that He gave in Joshua 1:5 and Joshua 1:6. “ Have I not” is a rhetorical mode of saying, “Behold, I have,” the assurance being clothed in the form of an affirmative question.
h. Be strong and courageous echoes down the corridors of time, for God’s people, God told Moses, Moses tells Joshua,
Deuteronomy 31: 7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. 8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
i. God tells Joshua, Paul tells the Corinthians!
Ok so that is the foundation, of an overcoming, victorious faith, but let’s consider…
V. The FALLACY to an overcoming, conquering, victorious faith:
A) Fallacy = is a mistaken belief, a failure in reasoning based on an invalid inaccurate argument!
1. GOD IS ALWAYS WITH ME, IN WHATEVER I DO, ISN’T THAT TRUE?
a) Well yes, but not in the way you think that He is!
b) What do I mean?
c) Well there is an incident in 2 Chronicles 14, where a King named Asa just defeats the Cushite Army.
2 Chronicles 15:1 The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. 2 He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. _NIV
Matthew Poole-The Lord is with you, to defend you against all your enemies, as now you have seen, and you may hereafter expect, if you persist in that good course into which you are entered. If ye forsake him, he will forsake you…let not this victory make you presumptuous or self-confident, for you are upon your good behavior…if you leave God, he will leave and destroy you after he hath done you good
Q: Why even bring this up?
W. Clarkson - There is a practical danger of spiritual and, therefore, of moral declension. Such is our nature, that we are apt to let love become cold; to allow zeal to wane and wither; to permit our best habits to be encroached upon by the pressure of lower cares and pleasures; to forsake God. The records of Christian experience contain only too many instances of such departure.
That’s why you see? And that is exactly what happened to Asa..
2 Chronicles 16:1a In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign…(When the kingdoms were divided)
2 Chronicles 16:1b Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.
2 Chronicles 16:2 Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. 3 “Let there be a treaty between me and you,” he said, “as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.”
2 Chronicles 16:4 Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim and all the store cities of Naphtali. 5 When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and abandoned his work. 6 Then King Asa brought all the men of Judah, and they carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using. With them he built up Geba and Mizpah.
2 Chronicles 16:7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. 8 Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. 9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”10 Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.
11 The events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. 13 Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors.
John Piper - There is a great lesson here. So many times when we rely on ourselves and our own resources, things seem to go well for a season. But things are not well when we have stopped hoping in God and started hoping in what man can do. We miss tremendous blessings and we bring unnecessary hardship on ourselves.
John Piper - It seems that Asa carried his folly with him to the grave. Asa Never Repents. Trusting God, relying on God, hoping in God were not part of his life any more.
John Piper - Two Reasons Why This Is a Great Folly
1. What God Had Proved to Asa in the Past
2. God's Eagerness to Help Those Who Trust Him
God—just because he is God—loves to show off his power on behalf of the weak who trust him. I get this from verse 9. It's one of my favorite verses in all the Bible. I hope you will all learn it by heart. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless [= whole, i.e., wholly relying on him, that's what the context requires] toward him."
John Piper -. When the prophet says that, what he means is that this is God's job, and he is really out to do it. It belongs to the very nature of God that he will overflow with divine power in the lives of people who trust him. This is right at the heart of what it means to be God.
John Piper - This is not something God does on the weekends. It is not something he does just in church or holy places. It's not his hobby or after-hours recreation. This is what God is doing all the time everywhere God's eyes are everywhere always, so that he never misses one single opportunity any time, anywhere to demonstrate his power on behalf of weak people who rely on him and not man. This is why Asa's unbelief was folly.
Finally look at what I would call…
VI. The Flow/Follow – Thru to an overcoming of an Overcoming faith!
Joshua 1:10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 11 “Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare….
A) Preparation!
1. What? In this case:
Joshua 1:10b provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. – NIV
a) This was necessary, as they were about to undergo considerable fatigue in marching, and in making preparations for the passage of the Jordan;
b) The manna was going to stop in 3 days.
c) Physical preparation
d) But what is even more important is the:
2. Spiritual preparation?
a) A lot of “End time talk” in light of the pandemic…
Matthew 3 (NIV)
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
Kenneth Wuest - "That was the character of the preaching of the Baptist. His was no pussy-footing, no beating about the bush, no smooth, oily, namby-pamby preaching. The Baptist was a man among men, and his preaching was straight from the shoulder." He is speaking figuratively of course and not calling for them to make a literal path but to make their hearts ready to receive the Lord Jesus. John’s ministry was to see to it that Israel was ready to welcome its Messiah."
That’s mine too!
Amos 4:12b “ prepare to meet your God.”
Q: Why should we prepare?
J. M. Burton. - Because we shall most certainly be summoned to His tribunal, a We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." Do you believe this awful fact? You shall meet God, to give an account of every thought, word, and deed. Are you seeking a preparation for this dreadful period? The very idea of standing before the judgment-seat of Christ should so overpower the mind with its awfulness that every moment should be busily employed in preparing for that hour.
J. M. Burton. - Because we shall then receive our everlasting destiny. Then we shall know our irreversible fate. The condition after judgment is unchangeable.
J. M. Burton. - Because our time on earth is short and uncertain.
J. M. Burton. - Because of the promised blessedness and happiness of heaven. The reward of glory, honour, and
eternal life awaits those who have made due preparation to dwell in the celestial kingdom.
"Tracts for the Times. "- The whole business which we have in the world is this, to prepare to meet God. This is the meaning of the whole Bible, to warn us that we must meet God, and to afford us every assistance and encouragement in this preparation.
"Tracts for the Times. "- It is this in which mankind differs from all other creatures of God which we know of. Angels have not this call made to them. Brute creatures have not to appear before Him. Every man that is born must at last come into His presence.
"Tracts for the Times. "- "Our Lord's warning is, "Be ye ready!" What it will be to "meet our God" no heart of man can conceive; for what thought of man can ever understand what God is?
"Tracts for the Times. "-The thought of meeting God is of itself so awful, that we might have been disposed to sit down in despair at the contemplation of it, were it not for this access to the Father which we have in Jesus Christ.
"Tracts for the Times. "- It is of infinite consequence that we should be prepared, "lest that day should overtake us unawares." And we know in what way we are to be prepared, what the things are which will be required of us. We cannot undo the past, which must all come before the all-seeing eye of the Judge; but during the little time that remains to us we can earnestly ask forgiveness, with fastings, and prayers, and tears, for the sake of Christ; and thus we may, with God's mercy, gain some hope and comfort before we die.
B) Part of the Preparation?
Joshua 5:2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.
1. Circumcision is a sign!
2. That we are the covenant people of God
Gen 17:11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
a) The circumcision however that counts is the one done by God in Christ!
Col 2:11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ
Conclude:
1. Is the Word of God your foundation?
2. Have you allowed it to "circumcise" your heart, cut away at anything displeasing to God?
3. Communicating it to others?
4. If, so your on the road of victory!
