Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Tell the message. Tonight this is is one that I
hope will be an encouragement to you.
And it's called the Two Keys to victory by talking about the
victorious Christian life. And I know I've mentioned.
On Wednesday nights, I came in right before 7:00 because I was
calling a baseball game right before I got to church.
So certainly something that I've never done before on a Wednesday
to. Leave a field at six. 45 and
stand on a platform at 7:00 and start church and something
hopefully I never have to do again.
Hopefully I don't mind doing them together, but maybe a
little bit of distance between being on a field and say just
outside and then, you know, say open your Bibles.
You know, it's just a, it was a very awkward transition a lot of
ways, particularly considering how serious the message was on
Wednesday night, of which I preach.
But one of the things that we do during the broadcast over the
last few years as we have ad reads or certain people that
have sponsored Easton Community Access Television to do what we
do. And just as you know, that's a
volunteer effort on my part and the others, we don't get paid to
do it. It's just something we enjoy to
do to help the town and for me to be able to meet people in
town. But there are sponsors and I've
turned those sponsors into ad reads because I enjoy that
aspect of broadcasting and those things.
And you'll watch baseball sports online or sports on TV all these
years. And so one of those is ad reads
is for the keys of the game. It's in the middle of the
second. Any of the keys of the game are
brought to you by the Easton Lions Club.
Where there's a need, there's a line.
To find out more, go to eastonlions.com.
I like that. That's pretty good, isn't?
That's pretty good, isn't. Yeah, that's true.
Don't quit your day job, though. I'd rather do this, all things
considered. But during that middle portion
of the second inning, I and the commentator that's with me, we
go over what we have considered to be the keys of the game.
We have looked at the strengths of the all of the Rings Tigers.
We've looked at the strengths of the visiting team, whoever that
may be. And so we have tried within our
mind to figure out what is the best way for all of our Ames to
win and what are the keys for them to be able to be
victorious. But I'll be honest with you,
more often than not, my keys to victory have nothing to do with
that ends up happening in the game because the game, you just
don't know what's going to happen, right?
I mean, there was the time last year when they were playing the
best team in the league. All of our aims were the worst
teams the league. The key to victory was kind of
like, we'll just survive. I mean, that was it.
I couldn't say that on the television, but that's what it
was. And they ended up winning and
end up winning big. There are times that I think the
key to victory is they need to have more offense and they end
up not having none. There's times that it's about
pitching and it really has nothing to do with pitching.
On Wednesday night, I said the umpires have a big strike zone
because you try to get the game in before darkness around 7:00,
and so the hitters just need to hit away because the strike
zones would be big. That was a small strike zone
we've had all year. It's like the umpire just want
to be out there till dark. I don't know what it was.
What I'm saying is I may think that I know the keys, but I
don't. A broadcaster may think that
they know the keys to victory and they don't.
But you know, when we consider the victorious Christian life, I
am so thankful that when it comes to victorious Christian
life, it is not a moving target like the keys to victory in a
ball game. That when it comes to the issue
of how you can live victorious in Jesus Christ, I don't have to
stand up here tonight and say, well, I hope this is it.
I wonder if this will work. I hope you can have success and
then find out later that I was completely wrong.
Because if it's in my mind, my thoughts, my heart, well, we
know that that just isn't exactly what is going to get you
where you need to go in your spiritual life.
But yet, as we look at Joshua chapter #6 this evening, and as
you may know, that chapter is a pivotal chapter in the life of
Israel because it was where Joshua fought the battle of
Jericho. And there's some very key helps
for us not to win. Physical battles in this life.
But rather to win the spiritual battles that we go through.
And I want us to look at these keys to victory tonight because
what Joshua went through with the Angel of the Lord, as well
as the game plan, if you will, that was given to him.
There's some very real principles that will help us
here and now to be able to have success, good success, as it's
called, Joshua chapter 1, the Lord's success in our spiritual
life. So would you stand please, to
read God's Word? It's going to be a little bit of
a longer section this evening, if so, if you're able.
John. John, that was this morning.
Joshua chapter #6. Verse #8.
And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that
the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of Ram's horns
passed on before the Lord, and blew with the trumpets, And the
ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.
And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the
trumpets. And the re reward came after the
ark, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets, And
Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor
make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed
out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout.
Then shall you shout so the. Ark of the.
Lord can pass the city going about it once.
And they came into the camp and lodged in the camp.
And Joshua rose early in the morning and the priest took up
the ark of the Lord. The seven priests bearing 7
trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on
continuing blew with the trumpets, and the armed men went
before them. But the re reward came after the
ark of the Lord, the priest going on and blowing with the
trumpets. And the second day they can pass
the city once and return into the camp.
So they did six days, you said? Pastor, I thought you said there
was a battle here. Well, this is the Battle of
Jericho, but it certainly looks different than what we would
call a normal battle. Wouldn't we?
Well, let's continue. And it says, And it came to pass
verse 15 on the 7th day, that they rose early about the
dawning of the day, and could pass the city after the same
manner 7 times. Only on that day they can pass
the city 7 times. And it came to pass the 7th time
when the priest blew with the trumpets, Joshua said, And the
people shout, For the Lord hath given you the city, 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 were sent.
And ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed
thing, lest you make yourselves. Accursed, when you take of the
accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel cursed and
trouble it. But all the silver and gold and
vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord, they
shall come into the treasury of the Lord.
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 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, the 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
you 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, the gold, the
vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of
the House of the Lord. And Joshua save Rahab the harlot
alive, her father's household, and all that she had.
And she dwelt in Israel even unto this day, because she hid
the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
You may be seated what you. SAW was no ordinary battle.
And that's because Jericho was no ordinary city, and the people
of Israel on their own had no business winning this battle.
But yet when God intervened. Could we put it this way when
God gave the keys to victory that Israel could not lose if
they followed that which the Lord had placed before them So I
wanted to look at that here tonight, the 2 keys to victory
how you can have victory in your.
Spiritual life, Heavenly Father, be with us as we continue this
message. Help me to portray these
principles right as they are, through the Word of God,
straight and true. Help us to be able to hear, to
learn, to understand and to put into practice that which we
received tonight. And we do ask it in Jesus name,
Amen. Well, Joshua is fresh off an
encounter with the. Lord, the host of the Lord,
rather, the captain of the host of the Lord.
You might remember that Joshua had met this man and seemingly
was a man. I do believe it was a.
Pre Incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ he comes before him
and he says, Joshua says whose side are you on?
On my side, on Israel's side or the side of our enemies and the
captain of. The Lord of the of the host of
the Lord says nay and that really wasn't one of the options
that Joshua gave him. It was either one or the other
and the Lord says no, I am not. So the reason why was because
the Lord wasn't on someone's side.
This is really a principle for us in our lives that we don't
just get to quote get the Lord on our side.
We need to be on the Lord's side that we make sure that we don't
just carry them around in our pocket or carry them around on
our neck as well. I have the Lord on my side
because I've done XYZ. You know, you need to be, and I
need to be exactly where the Lord wants us to be.
That's the desire of the Lord's heart.
Well, all of this has taken place and now a plan has been
given from the Lord directly to Joshua, and that plan has been
communicated. We saw it right here in the
text. And interestingly enough, you
know, you and I, maybe not, we don't blink at this too much
because as always, when we're reading the Word of God, these
are events that have already happened.
And we get to see a whole week's worth of events take place in a
reading of about two or three minutes, right?
So there's really no mystery that's involved when we read the
word of God. Even if you have read this for
the first time, let's say you've never read it before.
Still, there's not a lot left to the imagination because we went
from the beginning of the end of these seven days in just a few
minutes. Now imagine are the people of
Israel. They are ready to go into their
first battle across the promised land.
They've crossed the Jordan River.
They've wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
It is finally time to get to battle these, these amoral,
these ungodly nations that are there, that have been defiant to
God for generation after generation.
The Bible says their cup of iniquity is now full and
judgment is about to come, and God is going to use the
Israelites to do just that. But their very first stop is
Jericho. And Jericho is a very formidable
place in so many ways. Why?
Because Jericho was a large walled city and walled in such a
way that it seemed to be at that time, impenetrable.
Now I have some perspective on this type of thing from going to
Scotland just a few weeks ago and getting to see, for
instance, Edinburgh Castle. Kaylee's been to Edinburgh
Castle before. He's seen Edinburgh Castle and
there is right there in the middle of the city, just this
old city on top of a rock, on top of a inactive volcano.
There it is, a castle that's sitting right there with walls
around it. And you look at it even in
modern day and think, how would I scale something like this?
How would I get to the top? How would we take over something
like this? No, I wasn't planning a coup.
All right, I want to make sure I wasn't thinking that way.
I would like to get a visa again if I'd go, but in the future, So
I'm being careful what I say. But if you were just to look at
it, you think, humanly speaking, how on earth could we scale
something like this? How on earth could somebody
break into something like this? And that's why something like
that has stood there for well over 1000 years because of the
walls that were there. Well, the walls of Jericho were
some of the most impenetrable, if not the most impenetrable
that you would find anywhere. In fact, according to Answers of
Genesis, the idea of the walls of Jericho as it is portrayed in
the Word of God, giving more a little bit more understanding
because of modern archaeology, which has confirmed that which
has been found in the Word of God.
And we shouldn't be surprised if archaeology confirms the word of
God, Amen. Because the word of God is true.
The Word of God is not a history book, but yet when it speaks of
history, it always speaks truthfully.
The Word of God is not an archaeological book, but when it
speaks of archaeology, it speaks truthfully and we can go right
down the line. The Word of God is not any of
those types of books. I would say this, the Word of
God is a life book more than anything.
It's by what we live our lives. But when it talks about any
other subject, it always speaks truthfully because the book is
perfect. But Answers in Genesis is the
mound or tell of Jericho was surrounded by a great earth and
ram part or embankment with a stone retaining wall at its
base. The retaining wall was some four
or five meters, about 12 to 15 feet high.
On top of that was a mud brick wall. 2 meters or 6 feet thick,
and about 6 to 8 meters 20 to 26 feet high.
At the crust of the embankment was a.
Similar mud brick wall whose base was roughly 14 meters or 46
feet above the ground level outside the retaining wall.
This is what loomed high above the Israelites as they marched
around the city each day for. Seven days and they added.
Humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to
penetrate the impregnable bastion of Jericho.
Think of this impressive structure that would have.
Risen somewhere around 7 to 8 stories high at the very least.
It was also quite thick. They said Chariots could run
several abreast a top of the Walls of Jericho.
We know that it was thick enough that Rahab could have had a
household that was literally built inside of the wall, that
there were apartments, if you will, that were built inside of
that wall where people were able to live.
These walls were tall. These walls were thick.
We're not talking about the ways of Modern Warfare that you could
break down such a wall. What we have here is something
that seems impenetrable in so many ways.
What was it going to take for them to be able to win?
Well, it was going to take courage.
It would have taken courage to get the victory.
Why? Because as we saw here just a
moment ago, they were going to wander around, weren't they?
They were going to wander for six days, once a day around the
city, and then on the 7th day, 7 times around.
Could you imagine the courage it would have taken to have to walk
around knowing that you weren't able to use your sword, that you
weren't able to be able to defend yourself?
Now, sure, again, we've read the story.
We know how it ends, but I'm talking about these people who
haven't read the story because they're living it now.
What are they doing when they are told that the rules of
engagement of this don't use your sword, don't talk.
All that's going to happen is the shofar.
That's the ram's horn is going to blow, but that's it.
Now, the shofar was something that was very affordable.
I don't know how many of you heard a shofar blow before.
I know, brother. Dan and I are.
Privy to it Evangelist who blows the shofar he sometimes.
Struggles being able to blow it because it's not an easy
instrument to be able to blow, but it's literally a hollowed
out ram's horn. And once it's blown in a proper
way, it's a pretty amazing sound.
But yet that's all. I mean, in modern history, we
know that there are sometimes music that's incorporated or
even in in history past in warfare, that history or that
music is a part of that. To be able to rally the troops,
but to rally them to do what? Just walk and that's it took
courage. It would have taken endurance.
They had to March for six days persisting in something that
didn't make a whole lot of sense in their mind.
They had to have discipline. Why was that?
Because they were told there's some things that are there that
you're not allowed to touch. Things that were called the
first things that will end up being a problem in the next
chapter. When someone decides that they
are to take of those things that God told them not to take.
It wouldn't just take courage and endurance and discipline,
but it would also cause them to recognize their helplessness.
They were utterly helpless on their own.
There was nothing they could do. Now we find other place in the
word of God that there were times that people who were
inside a walled city would attack by dropping a millstone
on someone who was walking around the outside of the wall.
Could you imagine their helplessness?
They looked up that wall and thought all they have to do is
just drop. Something down from there and
I'm dead and there's nothing I can do.
How could they win such a battle?
Humanly speaking, it was impossible.
But as we look at the keys to victory tonight, there's two
that I want to make clear to us because we are not fighting a
physical battle this evening. This is not a message for me to
incite you to be able to say that we need to go out and fight
some sort of physical battle tonight.
That is not what I am Speaking of in any way, shape or form.
But I am saying this, that the Christian life itself is full of
spiritual battles, that there are spiritual victories that we
must win, that we must overcome sin, we must overcome
temptation, we must overcome difficulty.
We must overcome those things that have been brought into our
life. Well, what are the quote, UN
quote, keys to victory for us? Well, the Bible makes it clear
that there are two. We find them both here in our
text. I'd encourage you to write these
down for your own edification tonight.
And the first is this. The victorious Christian life
requires God's leadership. The victorious Christian life
requires God's leadership. Let me be clear with you
something this evening. On their own, Israel had no
chance of winning this battle. We have to start from this place
tonight. Israel on their own had no
chance to win this battle. Now in ancient warfare, there
were probably 3 different ways that Israel could have
conceivably won a victory against.
Actually more than three, but several ways that they could
have won the victory against such a defense city.
The first would be a full frontal assault.
Knowing that many people would die, you could have lost a great
portion of your force as you're throwing them in the meat
grinder of the battle. You could siege, have a siege
around a city like that, try to starve them off, be able to
surround them to make sure that they didn't have any more
resources. And eventually there would have
to be some level of conciliation between the people who are being
sieged and the people on the outside.
There were times that they tried to invaders tried to weaken the
stone walls with fire or by tunneling.
Sometimes they would. Heap Earth.
Just dirt up and try to make a ramp up to the top of the wall
so that men could just literally run up to the top of the wall.
It's certainly that would be possible with smaller walls, but
not one that was. 75 feet. Or so tall.
And each of these methods of assault could take weeks or
months. And the attacking force usually
suffered great, great losses. So we look at this and we say,
how on earth could they have won?
Well, we know because there was a reckoning, A census that was
taken some time for that. Israel's fighting for some time
around right where we are in Joshua chapter 6.
Their manpower would have been somewhere around 600,000
soldiers. Most certainly they would have
had more soldiers than those who were contained inside of
Jericho. There was no way that there
would have been a fighting force of 600,000 inside the walls of
Jericho. So he has some choices.
Humanly speaking, as I mentioned, he can just throw
those men into a meat grinder. And I think of the Civil War and
I think of men like Ulysses S Grant that literally just threw
men in the middle of a battle and knew that it was going to
come at great. Cost.
But yet that was the only way that victory would be secured.
And that was one of the reasons Abraham Lincoln elevated Ulysses
S Grant was he said. What I like about him is he
knows how to fight. But he also understood that it
came at a great human cost. I would submit to you that even
with 600,000 men, it would have been near impossible, if not
impossible for a full frontal assault to breach those types of
walls because still you have the problem of you can't get through
the walls no matter how many men you have.
Now, the second is the siege. And there's a part of you that
says, well, maybe the siege would have worked out well
because there were so many of Israel on the outside and there
was so little comparatively speaking, of Jericho on the
inside. And that is true.
And so there was the possibility.
Of a siege. But here's the problem that we
find out as we continue to read the book of Joshua, which we
won't do tonight, but you could do this on your own, that sure,
there were fewer inside of Jericho than the Israelites on
the outside. But here's the problem.
If the Israelites tried to apply a siege, there was more of the
Canaanites that were in the land than there were of the
Israelites that were there. So sure, the Israelites could
have applied a siege, but very quickly the other hosts of the
Canaanites that were around would have wiped Israel off the
face of the map. And there was a time when there
were several city states of Canaan that tried to come
together, new confederacy and tried to beat Israel.
So a siege is impossible because you can't.
You can't just starve out of people who are themselves could
be rescued by the other people that are outside of you.
And then we just talked about the earthen works to try to get
up to the top of the wall. It's not going to work with a
wall that's that wide and a wall that's that bit big.
Here's the issue. On their own, they can't win.
The Christian writer W Philip Keller, who wrote a wonderful
book about Joshua. I would encourage you to read
it. I have it in my office.
It's one of those that I've read multiple times.
He said this In reality. It was God's wisdom.
God's spirit, God's power, God's presence, God's hand at work
behind the walls of Jericho that finally flattened them.
It was in truth. And an actual.
Fact that God who gave Israel this tremendous triumph.
The only way Israel could win was by following God's plan.
What was the plan? March, be quiet, blow the
trumpet. Day 7, March 7 times when the
trumpet blows its final blow, shout and the walls will fall.
Now again, they're spent one day in the military.
I've hung around Dave a lot, but other than that, I've never
spent one day in the military. But I know this.
That is one of the, humanly speaking, worst battle plans you
can find. I can't imagine the Secretary of
Defense or the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth.
Say we've got a plan, guys. This is what we're going to do.
We're we're just going to March around and then we're going to
blow trumpets. You say, well, well, that's an
awful idea. Well, it's it is an awful idea
no matter who it is, no matter what administration it is.
If anyone said that and the word was leaked out to the media,
everybody would go crazy. Why?
Because it's an awful idea. But yet this is what God told
them to do. Now why was that?
Because God was making it clear the only way you will win is
doing it my way. You will not win on your own.
Do you know the same is true for us today?
If you want to have victory in your spiritual life, the way to
do it is not to buy is by not following your own plan, by
going your own way. Doing what?
Seems right following humanistic thinking.
But rather, the way to have victory in the spiritual life is
this. Do what the Word of God says.
How do you have victory over sin?
Anyone in here tired of sin? I don't know about you, but I
am. Nobody's tired of sin.
All right, that was it was a trick question.
We're all tired of sin, aren't we?
Well, how do you how do you have?
Victory over sin? Well, do you go through?
Self help gurus, Humanistic techniques following far eastern
religious models. Do you believe in the champion
that's inside of you? Do.
You do you just realize that all you've got to do is just have
enough courage and discipline within yourself because you are
the higher power for your own self and you can make it happen.
Is this how you gain victory over sin?
Or do we submit to what the Word of God says when it comes to our
flesh, even when it doesn't always make sense?
Because the world tells us this. You want to fulfill life.
Do what you want. Do it feels good, do what makes
you happy baby. This is what the world says and
they look at us as narrow minded Bible believers who would.
Dare from a pulpit say that there's some things you ought
not to do in your life because a holy God said don't do them.
Well, who's to be believed? Well, you could follow the
world's game plan, but I can assure you, like the Israelites,
you won't win. Or you can follow God's plan and
recognize that His plan has been working for a very, very long
time, and you can have victory over sin.
What does the world say at best? You you may.
Control sin, but you'll not ever get over sin.
But what does the Bible say? He was free is free indeed.
That you can have freedom from sin in your life, that that
doesn't mean you don't need to be cautious about certain
triggers in your life that that might bring up old habits and
old ways. Again, no, no, I'm not trying to
say that. What I am saying is this, that
you can live with freedom in Christ, but you got to follow
his plan. It's a key to victory.
How does a church? Grow and have an impact in the
community in this day and age, Well, common sense and the world
would say you got to entertain people, you got to bring them in
any way you can. Draw a crowd.
Make it exciting, you know Liven.
Things up a little bit, You know, for us, livening things up
is turning this wall white and then blue again.
That's as lively as we get. We don't know what color it is
from week to week. We're mixing it up.
But the world says you got to look like the world to win the
world. But yet the model of the Bible
is this, that we're to be peculiar people, zealous of good
works. It says in Titus chapter 2.
Now many of us got that peculiar thing down.
I know that I do. But the idea is not to be.
Peculiar. As I'm going around being
strange for the sake of being strange, it means that I'm
peculiar. Peculiar.
I am. I'm different.
I'm going to be peculiar. I'm not going to do it, so I'm
not even going to try it. What was that, Belinda?
That's it. I like that.
That was Good Hope that Mike's got that different than the
world that that we are to be a haven from the world, not to be
the world. That's what this space is to be
that we're to love each other. No, no, not the way that the
world pretends to love each other, but real, genuine
fellowship and love. I was walking just last night
and I was walking in an area where there were there was a bar
and of course the Celtics game was going on.
The Celtics game is about finishing and I'm looking at all
the people that are enjoying just through the windows,
they're enjoying the game. And I looked at all the people
right about the time it ended that we're not enjoying the game
anymore and starting to pour out from the.
I thought, you know, you look inside.
And you think, boy, those people really have camaraderie.
Those people really have something together.
But then you think about it and you realize, no, they really
don't. It may look like that to the
world, but what do we have here? Fellowship in Christ and what
would you do? Follow the Lord's game plan when
it comes to a church. How do you have victory in a in
a marriage or victory in a family?
What do you need to do? Well, the world gives you all
kinds of ideas. Every influencer has their idea.
Every podcaster has their idea. Everybody's going to tell you
what to do and how to do it, and there are some ideas.
That are not bad. I'm not saying that every idea
that comes from online or every idea that comes from someone is
wrong. There's lots of truth that's out
there, and by the way, all truth.
Is God's truth, and someone that's even lost can stumble
upon God's truth of in their own life, whether they realize it's
from the word of God or not. But I will say this, when it
comes to a family, where's the plan that can help a family grow
spiritually? Where's the plan that can help a
marriage grow spiritually? Well, it's not found in a second
honeymoon. It's not found in a bigger
house. It's not found another vacation.
It's not found in buying more things.
The plan for the family is found here in the Word of God.
I go to Ephesians chapter 5, not right now, but you can read
Ephesians chapter 5 and Ephesians chapter 6.
It'll talk a lot about what the family is to do and what the
family is to be and how it's to reflect Christ in the church.
That this is what God intends for us, that God has given us a
plan. God has not left us without a
plan how to be victorious. Could you imagine that God saves
us and then says, hey, do your best till you get to heaven,
I'll see you then. Well, how cruel would that be?
Faithful is he who calleth us who also will do it.
He has called us to live the Christian life.
And as such, He will give us the plan that we need.
And the plan is found here in His Word.
And I know I've said it a lot, particularly in the last few
weeks, but This is why you need to be in the Word of God every
day. This is why you need to be in
prayer every day. This is why you need to absorb
this book. This is why you need the bread
of life in your life, so that you can have the plan, God's
plan, readily available to you in your life #1 the victorious
Christian life requires God's leadership without God's
leadership. You cannot win.
But here's the second key to victory, and that's this.
The victorious Christian life requires personal effort.
Now, maybe you're hearing this tonight.
You say? Hold on a second.
Pastor, you're saying that salvation is about God's plan
for salvation, but then our effort and my answer would be
that's exactly opposite of what? I'm saying salvation is not
about your effort, it's about what Christ already did on the
cross. If we were saying that it was
about your effort, here's what we will be doing, we would be
veering off into Catholic teaching, which is this It is
your works plus Christ's sacrifice equaling salvation.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
But we're not talking about salvation this evening.
We are talking about the victorious Christian life.
What happens after that? Well, God has put together a
plan. Well, what do we need to do?
We got to work the plan. The Bible's there for the
taking, if you will. The question is, what are you
going to do with it? That's what the victorious
Christian life is about. Both of these are equal.
God has. Given us his perfect plan, but
at the same time it is up to us. OK.
No, Yeah, what what I want to. Go home with.
Kaylee. Yeah, I know.
Well, Kaylee's back there and there's a lot of people want to
go home, all right? But anyway, all right, so all
right, just be calm for a few more minutes, OK?
All right. Yeah.
So at least. Didn't fire me this time, all
right? It requires personal effort.
What did the Israelites need to do?
God gave them the plan, but they still had to circle Jericho 13
times. They still had to carry a sword
and shield. And by the way, they needed to
use them because once the walls fell down to the supernatural
way of which they fell down, there was still a battle that
was going to commence inside those walls that had fallen
down. So they had to take the sword
and shield. They had to restrain themselves
to be able to make sure that they did not touch the accursed
thing that was there inside that gold, that silver, those vessels
that God had told them not to do.
They a listening ear to make sure that they heard the
instructions of Joshua in the 1st place.
But these are action verbs. They circled, they carried, they
restrained, they listened. These are things that they had
to do. And God has given us a plan to
have victory. But you got to work the plan
that it's not just enough to have a Bible toted under your
arm and to say I've got my shield and nothing can happen
now that I have my Bible with me.
Well, certainly it's a wonderful thing to have a Bible with you.
But you've got to do what the Bible says, and the keys to the
victory is. You follow God's.
Plan, but then you do the plan of which he gave.
How do you have victory over sin?
We'll take action. Start here.
Repent. Ask the Lord to forgive you for
that sin of which you are struggling with.
Remove that sin from your life. Get as far away from it as you
can. Take whatever steps necessary to
get it out of your way. Pray on those issues.
Pray on it every day. Pray on it every hour.
Pray on every minute as it comes up in your mind as you're
tempted. Once again, this is the plan
that God has given us. We don't also just take things
out of our life. The Bible tells us to put on as
well. Put off the old things, but put
on the Lord Jesus Christ that those things that we take out of
our life that are sinful, we need to put something inside of
our life that fills that gap that's healthful and that's good
and that can give us something that will bring restoration to
our life. Instead of continuing, break it
down by sin. How does the church grow in this
day and age? Well, action.
You know what you do? Hand out tracks, Visit people,
love people, be active in the community.
Just finding people to love on. You know it's important because
there's been a. Time that we as a particular
independent Baptist been very zealous about going door to door
in evangelism. And I believe that it's
important that we do and I hope and pray that we do more of
that. But I will say that Evangelum is
not just going on a door to door on Saturday.
It's also just trying to get to know people and love people as
you meet him every day that bank tellers you see every couple of
weeks. Do you know her name?
Have you ever had a conversation with them before?
See the same guy at the coffee shop maybe two or three times a
week. You ever told him what your name
is? Ask him what his name is.
Boy, it's a lot easier to hand someone to track if you know
him, the person at the post office, you know you see him
every once in a while you hand them an arm and a leg.
Now to be able to get a book of stamps.
Do you know who they are? Have you ever talked to him
before? It's a lot easier to influence
someone for Christ when you take time to get to know them.
What does that mean? Action.
That's how churches grow. Churches don't grow because you
pay a pastor. Say that again, churches don't
grow because you pay a pastor. Churches don't grow because then
you hire an assistant pastor or because you have more staff.
Now I'll say a pastor, assistant pastor, staff, whatever they
ought to be doing, what they should be for the Lord when it
comes to witnessing an outreach and such.
But it's up to all of us to have action.
And any time we say, you know, I wonder, I wonder if we should do
this ministry. Will the answer is, well,
somebody's got to do. It I wonder if we should go
visit this person. Somebody has to do it.
I wonder if we should start doing this in the church.
Someone has to do It requires action.
We follow God's plan to make sure we're not doing something
outside of His will, but then we have to have the action.
To do it, how do marriages and families stay strong or get
strong well? We pray as a husband.
And wife together you have family devotions with a child.
Again, child. Children need to be able to hear
the word of God, not just here, but at home as well.
Go over time, once a week, a couple times a week.
Start small to be able to teach your children the Word of God.
How do families get together? Well, they come to church
together. They learned the word of God
together. How are marriages restored?
How are marriages brought to the place where they need to be?
Well, one serves the other. In love of Christ and the Bible
says that the testimony of 1 can help win the other either to
salvation or win the other one to coming back to the Lord would
have them to be. What am I saying that it takes
some work. And you know what a lot of
people don't want in this microwave age society, this
Internet Society we live in, we want it right now.
And if we don't get it now, it doesn't work.
Well, I'm old enough to remember that there are some things that
take time, like non microwave meals or finding out information
that you didn't just ask Google or ChatGPT about and that once
you put a little effort in, it was a lot more meaningful.
You know, there's not a lot of microwave meals.
I really like, you know why they're quick and well, they're
quick. That's what they're there for.
You know, I could look up a random fact on my phone, but
I'll probably remember it a minute or forget it a minute or
two later because I looked it up quickly and I'll forget it
quickly. Some of you are old enough to
remember. If you want to find something,
you went to a library, you found a card catalog.
You. Thumb through all those cards
you went to go find the book. Then you found out you couldn't
check it out because it was a, it was a circular.
So what did you need to do? You had to go make a copy or a
mimeograph. Of it and take it home.
And then you finally knew, you know that struggle, that action
actually made all those things more meaningful than what we
have today in so many ways. And if that's true for that, how
much more so than the Word of God?
If you're looking for a microwave answer, for your
family, for a church, for your personal spiritual struggles,
it's going to be hard to find. But if you're willing to take
the plan of the Word of God and put it into action, or what
happened to Israel? They won a battle they never
should have won. You know, there are families
that are on the brink. Maybe they know it, maybe they
don't, but they follow what the Lord says for them in their
life. Maybe they get saved.
Of course, that's the first step.
Maybe they are saved. They've.
Gotten away from the Lord? You know what?
God can do miraculous things when even there's just one
person in the family, just one who's willing to follow the plan
that God has. A church can have revival.
How? Because there's just a small
group. Of people that say we're going
to do whatever we can to follow what God's plan is for us within
this church. And even with the struggles of
what you may be tempted with tonight, and I don't know what
that is, we all deal with different things.
Some of them can be big and large and outward, and some of
them are small and inward and pernicious, and they're both
just as bad. Whether the issues of the heart
or the issues that have already manifested themselves on the
outside, they're all destructive because they're all sin.
How do you get? Victory over that.
In yourself you don't. In Christ you could have
victory. The Christian life is filled
with battles, but the only way to have victory is to have
victory through Christ and, and this is really the key for us
this evening as Christians, we fight from a place of victory.
We don't need to fight for victory.
Now here's what I mean because this is important.
It might change the way you think about this we.
Fight from a place of victory, not the fact that we fight for
victory. When I call a game between
Oliver Ames and, let's say, the Mansfield Hornets, each team is
struggling to win. It's a battle of wills, isn't
it? One team is throwing the ball as
hard as they can. The other team is trying to hit
the ball as hard as they can. It's a matter of.
Who? Will will exert themselves over
the other. That's the team that will win
victory. I think a lot of times for us in
our spiritual life, we think that that is how we achieve
victory, that we have to exert our will in a greater way than
the evil 1 exerts will. And as long as we exert
ourselves in a greater way, of course with the Lord's help,
then then we can have victory. But here's the issue with that.
The victory has already been won.
We're not fighting for victory. We're fighting from a place of
victory, that victory's already been secured in Jesus Christ and
that you already have victory secured over sin, that you can
already have victory secured in a church, that you can already
have victory secured in a family.
You have everything you need because Christ has given you the
plan. All you've got to do is put it
into place. And the best part is His spirit
will help you put it into place. This chapter makes no sense but
God. And then it makes perfect sense
because it's what God willed and the people followed along and
the victory took place. In fact, that's pretty much the
testimony of the book of Joshua. God said fight this way.
They fought this way and they had victory.
There were just. Sometimes when they didn't, for
instance, there was a man named Aiken who took of the accursed
thing here in chapter #6 in Chapter 7, they went to a little
tiny place called AII call the Mayberry of Canaan.
There was nobody there. They should have won handily.
In fact, Joshua said of those 6. 100,000 men, he said send. 1000
from each tribe. That's all we need.
Never prayed, never sought the Lord and they lost.
Why? They didn't follow God's plan.
A little later, there's some Gibeonites who will come.
The Gibeonites pretend they're from a far country.
You see, the Israelites could make treaties with those who are
from a far country. God allowed that.
But the Gibeonites were from right around the corner, and
they came with old clothes and old bread, and they presented
themselves. They've been on a long journey.
They never prayed. They never asked the Lord for
guidance. And what happened?
They made a treaty with the Gibby Nights, and the Gibby
Nights became a snare to Israel for generations, as we're going
to see in Second Samuel here. In very short order, What
happened when the times they didn't follow the plan, they got
themselves into trouble. The times they followed the
plan, they couldn't lose. Now, I'm not telling you that
the magical formula for your Christian life is you do what
the word of God says and you'll never have problems.
Did I say that? I did not say that, but I did
say this. Even in the problems, you will
have victory. Why?
Because you don't need to fight for victory.
The victory has already been secured in Christ.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.