Remember That You Fight From Victory

The Journey Begins   •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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The Christian life involves challenge and conflict whether we like it or not. Our enemies are constantly waging war against us and trying to keep us from claiming our inheritance in Jesus Christ. The world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph. 2:1–3) are united against Christ and His people.

Notes
Transcript
Joshua 6:2 ESV
2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
Joshua 6:16 ESV
16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city.
A pastor attended a court hearing to protest the building of a tavern near his church and a public school. The lawyer for the tavern owners said to him, “I’m surprised to see you here today, Reverend. As a shepherd, shouldn’t you be out taking care of the sheep?”
The pastor replied, “Today I’m fighting the wolf!”
Intro:
Your are a soldier in Christ’s army but it’s sad that some of us think we can overcome without fighting and we can have a crown without conflict.
The Christian life involves challenge and conflict whether we like it or not.
Our enemies are constantly waging war against us and trying to keep us from claiming our inheritance in Jesus Christ. The world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph. 2:1–3) are united against Christ and His people just as the nations in Canaan were united against Joshua and the Jewish nation.
It’s unfortunate that the thought of warfare disturbs a lot of people because the thought of conflict contradicts their thoughts of Jesus words and works.
But what we seem to forget is that the main theme of the Bible is God’s holy warfare against satan and sin.
In Genesis 3:15, God declared war on Satan, and one day He will declare the victory when Jesus comes as Conqueror to establish His kingdom (Rev. 19:11–21).
If you eliminate Christian warfare (which is contenting for the faith), then you must abandon the cross; for it was on the cross that Jesus won the victory over sin and Satan (Col. 2:13–15).

Remember That You Fight From Victory, and not for victory (Josh. 6:1–5)

The Christian soldier stands in a position of guaranteed victory because Jesus Christ has already defeated every spiritual enemy (John 12:31). Jesus defeated Satan not only in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11), but also during His earthly ministry (12:22–29), on the cross (Col. 2:13–15), and in His resurrection and ascension (Eph. 1:19–23). As He intercedes for His people in heaven, He helps us mature and accomplish His will (Heb. 13:20–21); and “if God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31)
Consider the factors involved in Joshua’s victory:
Joshua 6:1 ESV
1 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in.

1. The Fear of the Lord

The City of Jericho indicate that the city covered perhaps eight acres and was protected by two high parallel walls, which stood about fifteen feet apart and surrounded the city.
It was the sight of cities like Jericho that convinced ten of the Jewish spies that Israel could never conquer the land (Num. 13:28).
But the news of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their recent victories east of the Jordan had already spread to Canaan and put the people in panic.
Exodus 23:27 NLT
27 “I will send my terror ahead of you and create panic among all the people whose lands you invade. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
It was said that Mary Queen of Scots feared John Knox’s prayers more than she feared an enemy army.
But is today’s society afraid of what God’s people may do?
Probably not, and it’s mainly because the church hasn’t done very much to display the power of God to a skeptical world.
The church is no longer “terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:4, 10).
In fact, the church is so much like the world that the world takes little notice of what we do. We imitate the world’s methods; we cater to the world’s appetites; we solicit the world’s approval; and we measure what we do according to the world’s standards. Is it any wonder that we don’t gain the world’s respect?
But not so with Joshua and Israel! They were a conquering people who made no compromise with the enemy but trusted God to give them the victory. Theirs was a march of triumph that put the fear of God into the hearts of the enemy.
Joshua 6:2 ESV
2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.

2. The promise of the Lord

“I have given Jericho into your hand”
The victory had already been won! All Joshua and his people had to do was claim the promise and obey the Lord.
Victorious Christians are people who:
know the promises of God, because they spend time meditating on God’s Word (1:8);
they believe the promises of God, because the Word of God generates faith in their hearts (Rom. 10:17);
and they reckon on these promises and obey what God tells them to do.
To “reckon” means to count as true in your life what God says about you in His Word.
“Be of good cheer, Jesus said,
John 16:33 NLT
33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
“And
“Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31).
Christ has conquered the world, the flesh, and the devil; and if we reckon on this truth, we can conquer through Him.
It’s possible to believe a promise and still not reckon on it and obey the Lord. Believing a promise is like accepting a check, but reckoning is like endorsing the check and cashing it.
Joshua 6:3–5 NLT
3 You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

3. The instructions of the Lord

Joshua did not take the city merely by a clever, human military tactic, The strategy was the Lord’s.
No situation is too great for the Lord to handle, and no problem is too much for Him to solve. When He saw more than 5,000 hungry people before Him, Jesus asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Then John adds, “But this He said to test him; for He Himself knew what He would do” (John 6:5–6, NKJV).
God always knows what He will do. Our responsibility is to wait for Him to tell us all that we need to know and then obey it.
When ever we are called to serve the Lord there are different ways to handle it:
(1) to make the best plans we can and hope they succeed;
(2) to make our own plans and ask God to bless them;
(3) to ask God for His plans and then do what He tells us to do.
Joshua received his orders from the Lord, and that’s why Israel succeeded.
God’s plan for the conquest of Jericho was seemingly foolish, but it worked. God’s wisdom is far above ours (Isa. 55:8–9) and He delights in using people and plans that seem foolish to the world (1 Cor. 1:26–29). Whether it’s Joshua with trumpets, Gideon with torches and pitchers (Jud. 7), or David with his sling (1 Sam. 17), God delights in using weakness and seeming foolishness to defeat His enemies and glorify His name. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chron. 16:9).
God’s instructions were that the armed men march around Jericho once a day for six days, followed by seven priests each blowing a trumpet. The priests carrying the ark of the Lord would come next, and the rear guard would complete the procession. The only noise permitted was the sound of the trumpets. On the seventh day the procession would march around the city seven times, the priests would give a long blast on the trumpets, and then the marchers would all shout. God would then cause the walls to fall down flat so that the soldiers could easily enter the city.
In this plan the emphasis is on the number seven: seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days of marching, and seven circuits of the city on the seventh day. The number seven is written clearly into the life of Israel: The Sabbath celebrated on the seventh day of the week; seven weeks from Passover is Pentecost; the seventh year is the Sabbatical Year; and after forty-nine years (seven times seven) comes the Year of Jubilee. Three of Israel’s feasts fall in the seventh month: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16), and the Feast of Tabernacles. (For details about this remarkable calendar, see Lev. 23.)
In biblical numerology the number seven represents completeness or perfection. The Hebrew word translated “seven” (shevah) comes from a root that means “to be full, to be satisfied.” When God finished His work of creation, He rested on the seventh day and sanctified it (Gen. 2:3); and this helped give the number seven its sacred significance. The Jews noted that there were seven promises in God’s covenant with Abraham (12:1–3) and seven branches on the candlestick in the tabernacle (Ex. 37:17–24). Anything involving the number seven was especially sacred to them. It spoke of God’s ability to finish whatever He started.
The Jews used two different kinds of trumpets, those made of silver and those made of ram’s horns. The silver trumpets were used especially by the priests to signal the camp when something important was happening (Num. 10). The ram’s horns were used primarily for celebrations. The common Hebrew word for “trumpet” is shofar; for “ram’s horn,” it is jobel, which is the root of the word jubilee. The “Year of Jubilee” was the fiftieth year after seven Sabbaticals, and was a special time of celebration in Israel (Lev. 25; 27:14–17). The priests blew the ram’s horns to “proclaim liberty throughout all the land” (25:10).
The priests didn’t use the silver trumpets in this event because Israel was not declaring war on Jericho, for there was no war! The Jews were announcing the arrival of the “Year of Jubilee” for Israel in their new land. God’s people today can march in triumphal procession because of the victory of Jesus Christ over all the enemies of God (Rom. 8:37; 2 Cor. 2:14; Col. 2:15). We should be living like victors, not victims.
“The wall of the city shall fall down!” (Josh. 6:5) was God’s promise, and His promises never fail (21:45; 23:14). God’s people don’t simply fight for victory but from victory, because the Lord has already won the battle. Reckon on His promises and obey what He tells you to do, and you shall have the victory.
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