There are stories in the Bible that sound like myths and legends and fairy tales if we put on the ears of agnostics and skeptics. And many of these stories are our favorites from our Sunday school days. I mean, I don't believe in the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. Or any of the myths of the Greeks and Romans that I read extensively when I was a teenager. And yet I firmly believe that Samson killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. I believe without doubt that David killed the giant Goliath with a stone and a sling. I affirm as historical fact that Daniel survived a night in the lion's den and that his three friends survived a furnace heated seven times hotter by Nebuchadnezzar. And I believe what the Bible says here in Joshua chapters 5 and 6, that the walls of Jericho fell down when the children of Israel circled them seven times and blew the trumpets and shouted." Now, most of us know this story here in Joshua 5 and 6, if not from our own Sunday school days, then from reading Bible story books to our children and our grandchildren. But let's take a few moments and read some of the parts of this passage so that the scripture is actually before us. We're going to begin in Joshua 5 and verse 13. The full story here actually begins in chapter 5 and verse 13 and runs on through the end of chapter 6. This is one of those One of those chapters where I wish they had put the chapter break a little bit sooner so that we would have captured the full story. So let's begin our reading, Joshua chapter 5 and verse 13. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sworn drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? So he said, no, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Now we really ought to go on with verse 2 here. Verse 1 is something that ought to be in parentheses. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord, that same person, the commander of the Lord's army, the person he was talking to here, And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war. You shall go all around it, the city, once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horn before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass when they make a long blast on the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout, then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up, every man straight before him." And then to round out the story, let's read verses 20 and 21. So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. Then 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 donkey, with the edge of the sword." Now this story does indeed sound like something that the Brothers Grimm might have written, if you've ever actually read those stories. And this story, therefore, inspires a question. Why did God choose to orchestrate the conquest of Jericho in this way? Why does this story sound like a fairy tale? I mean, if God did something this improbable, and He did, there must have been good reason. And I believe we can find the reasons if we look through the length and breadth of Scripture, and those reasons are most instructive. They're most important. The why here is important. Because God worked with the Israelites in this way in order to teach us, as New Testament believers, certain truths. That's what 1 Corinthians 10 teaches us. And so this morning, we're going to seek those truths that explain why God would have done what He did here in Joshua 6. Now the New Testament gives one very clear explanation of why God orchestrated the conquest of Jericho in this way. God reveals the why to us in a single brief sentence that's found in Hebrews 11 and verse 30. I've put it there right in your outline. Hebrews 11, 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. Here, the New Testament teaches us that God intended the story of the conquest of Jericho to teach us lessons of faith. Hebrews 11 is the great hall of faith. The entire chapter is about the faith which pleases God, what we would call today genuine biblical faith. And by pointing here in verse 30 back to Joshua chapter 6 and the story of Jericho, this New Testament author teaches us that true biblical faith is demonstrated by obedience. True biblical faith is demonstrated by obedience to God. This passage teaches us the same truth about genuine faith that the book of James does. You're familiar, James chapter 2, there we read, what does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that kind of faith save him? Show me your faith without your works. I will show you my faith by my works. That is what the story of Jericho is all about. The people of Israel demonstrating their faith by their works, demonstrating their faith by their obedience to God. And I think that's important today. We live in a day when a lot of people are making professions of faith in evangelical churches. They're claiming the grace of God, and then they're living as they please. Now, this isn't in liberal churches. This isn't in evangelical churches. They profess a faith without works. And the story before us this morning reminds us that if we're going to profess faith in Jesus Christ, then God expects us to demonstrate the reality of that faith, the genuineness of that faith by our works, by our obedience to Him. The story here in Joshua 6 carries this truth to the nth degree. You see, true biblical faith obeys to the very end, to the very limit. The great expositor of yesteryear, Alexander McLaren, you often hear me speak of Charles Spurgeon, great preacher. There's one preacher of yesteryear that could hold a candle to Charles Spurgeon, it was Alexander McLaren. And McLaren points out a fact about this story that's easy to overlook. You probably didn't hear it in Sunday school. God told Joshua the plan. We just read that a few moments ago in verses 3 through 5. But the passage seems to indicate that Joshua did not share that information with the rest of the nation of Israel. So now use a little bit of sanctified imagination. Joshua comes to the nation and he says, I want you to get up today, you men in the army. I want you to take your arms and I want you to muster. We're going to march around the city. And then there's going to be seven priests with ram's horns, with the shofar, and then the ark of the Lord, and then we're going to have a rear guard, and I want you to go march around the city. So they did that, they marched around the city. The whole rigamarole probably took an hour. They came back and went to their tents. And nothing happened. What do you think about that? Second day, he said, I want you to get up, march around the city. Nothing happened. Now, use a little imagination. If this had been the group of Israelites that had followed Moses out of Egypt, by this time, they would have rioted. They would have elected new leaders and gotten out of there. We're not having any of this. But the Israelites that had spent 40 years marching through the desert, they were a different breed. They had learned the lesson of obedience, even when God did not tell them why. God told Joshua, Joshua told Israel, and Israel obeyed. It was that simple. Listen, God tells us what to do, but He doesn't always tell us why. And again, it seems to me that we live in a day, and this is particularly true of the millennial generation that's coming on. One of their characteristics, they want to be collaborators. And I think there's a lot of people out there today that have the idea they want God to treat them like collaborators rather than creatures. They want God to share all of His reasoning and why He's doing and why He's planned this and then they'll decide if they want to sign on. Listen, God is God and you're not and neither am I. There are times when God says, thus saith the Lord, go do this, and he doesn't tell us why. When it comes to obedience with God, ours is not to reason why. And then use your imagination a little bit more. Suppose the Israelites had done that the second day, the third day. How would you have been feeling when nothing happened on that sixth day? I'm doing what God says and nothing is happening. Israel obeyed God even when nothing happened. Is there anything more difficult than that? Have you ever heard somebody say, have you ever, have this ever come out of your mouth? I obeyed God. I did everything he said in his word and nothing happened. You know, I think oftentimes we expect God to act like a coke machine. I put in my act of obedience, and automatically, like a machine instead of a person, God does what I think He ought to do. Listen, God has His plan, and He is working it, and oftentimes it isn't according to our schedule. See, God had scheduled to work on the seventh day. Not the third, not the fifth, not the second, not even the sixth. God's schedule said, I'm going to work on the seventh day. Israel obeyed even when nothing happened that they expected to happen, and God expects the same of us, folks. It isn't about results always, is it? See, that's pragmatism. I do what I do in order to get results. God says, no, you do what you do in order to obey me. Well, this story that seems so much like a fairy tale teaches us a second great truth, a second reason why God orchestrated all of this as He did. It's not a matter of whether God is on our side, it's a matter of whether we are on God's side. Joshua 5 and verse 13 indicates that Joshua was out scouting around Jericho. I think he was giving some thought to how Israel was going to conquer this city. And I think it was probably a pretty tough nut to crack. It says the walls were shut up, nobody going in, nobody coming out. He couldn't even get spies in there again. And as he was contemplating how he as General Joshua was going to approach Jericho, here comes this man with a sword drawn in his hand. Now, what would you think if you had been in Joshua's shoes? I mean, again, use a little imagination here. Joshua didn't know every soldier of Israel, I'm sure. So he challenged this man, he wasn't any coward, he challenged this man, and this person identified himself as the commander of the Lord's army. Now you need to understand that the word there in the New King James Version that's translated army, I actually like the translation of the Old King James better, it's the commander of the Lord's hosts. Because that word host refers not to human armies, it refers to angelic armies. Okay? So there was definitely something different about this person. I mean, who exactly is this that Joshua encountered here? Well, there seems very little doubt when we think about it that Joshua came face to face with the second member of the Trinity before he had been born to the Virgin Mary. Joshua met God the Son here. Two facts, I think, make that clear here in the text. First of all, this person accepted Joshua's worship. That's something we don't see angels do. You go to the book of Revelation, Apostle John fell down before an angel to worship him, and the angel ripped him up off the ground and said, don't do that. We don't see that here. But even more important than that, as Joshua continues to converse with this person, in chapter 6 and verse 2, he is called the Lord. And that title there is the word Jehovah. It's the word Yahweh. This is the covenant title of God. So there seems very little doubt that Joshua here is dealing with God the Son face to face. And so this story is what I would call Joshua's burning bush experience. There's a very direct parallel here between what's recorded of Joshua at the end of Joshua 5 and what was recorded of Moses back in Exodus chapters 3 and 4. The circumstances were different. Moses was a shepherd. Joshua was a soldier. But both met God face to face. And in both cases, God said, take off your sandals because where you're standing is holy ground. So what this person had to say to Joshua is extremely important because he is, when all is said and done, God in pre-incarnate human form. So Joshua asks him, are you for us or against us? Are you on our side? Now, if some of us had been in charge of writing this story, the words that we would have put in the mouth of God the Son would have gone something like this. Yes, I am by all means on your side. I've come to assure you of victory. Just get behind me, follow me, and I'll lead you on. I'm telling you the truth. If we had written it, that's the way we would have written this story. That's not the words we find here, is it? God the Son says, no, no, no, no. You've got it backwards. It's not a matter of me signing on for your cause or even the cause of your enemies. It's a matter of you and Israel following me. I am the commander of the Lord's armies. Now folks, this is one of those aha moments that all of us need to have. It is so easy for us to make our plans and then assume that we can somehow manipulate God to sign up to help us put them over. I can tell you that this is the kind of teaching that you'll hear just about every week from Joel Osteen. This is why there are 30,000 people in his church. This is why millions watch him on television every week. This is the gospel that he preaches. Just figure out what you want to do and God will sign on. I mean, what could be better? No wonder so many people listen to him. The story that we've got here in Joshua chapter 5 and 6 teaches us that that's not the way God works. And I don't want you to get the idea that it's only people that listen to Joel Osteen that has this problem. If you're a human being, you have this problem. All of us are egocentric enough to think that we can hatch plans and get God to sign on to them. This isn't something that just happens out there. This is something that happens in all of our lives. This is one of those blind spots that all of us have. You know, most of you know that I read quite a bit, and I like to read history, I like to read biography. And when I read about the Civil War, there's always a question that kind of nibbles at the back of my mind while I'm reading. How many people were there in the north, north of the Mason-Dixon line, that for the four years of that war, prayed fervently, believing that God was behind their cause? And yet, how many people who lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, were fervently praying to the same God, confidently believing that God was for their cause. Years back, I read an excellent biography of Stonewall Jackson. What made it so great is that it quoted so many of his letters. And his letters were full of his evangelical faith. He was a strong man of Christian faith. And the kind of prayers that this man prayed, confident that God was going to hear and answer. And of course, ultimately, God did not sign on to that cause, did He? How many times have any of us been in the middle of some kind of interpersonal conflict and we have taken ourselves to God in prayer with the unquestioning assumption that God is on my side in this thing. And of course I'm just praying so God will take care of the other person. Get them straightened out. I mean of course God is on my side. God sees it my way. You know, it's like when you see both Clemson and South Carolina before their big football game, each of them kneeling in prayer. It just always gets me when I see that. Do they not both realize that they're praying for God to sign on to their cause, both of them at the same time? Folks, this happens with countries. It happens with denominations. My denomination could not be wrong. It happens with churches. God is certainly for us. It happens with companies. It happens with organizations. It happens with families. It certainly happens with individuals. See, we all ask the wrong question. We ask, is God on my side? That's always the wrong question. That's always the wrong question. The right question is always, am I on God's side? The first task in any situation is to figure out what God's will is, what God's direction is, where God is headed according to His Word, and then to make sure we're lined up with that. That's the place of blessing. And I love Joshua's response. He fell down before the Lord. And he basically said, lead the way. Lead the way. Well, why did God direct the Israelites to take such odd steps? and then bring the wall down by His own miraculous power. The New Testament suggests one further answer to the question why. I'm going to read 2 Corinthians 4-7 from the English Standard Version from the ESV. Again, I've got the verse there on your outline so you don't need to turn. I like the ESV translation much better than the New King James on this particular verse. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. This story in Joshua 6 illustrates that God is determined to teach His people that their sufficiency is found in Him alone. Our sufficiency is found in God alone. Now, there are two sides to this principle, two sides to this coin. It's a two-fold principle. First, God often reminds His people that they are insufficient, insufficient in and of themselves. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7 teaches us that God wants to remind us that we are nothing but clay pots. I heard someone say recently some of us might even be cracked pots. Now you need to understand that statement there, clay pots. You need to understand that in terms that we can understand in 2015. A clay pot was something that you could find in any town or village in the Near East in that day. Dime a dozen. Every household had a number of them, even the poorest. This was something you could find in any marketplace. Kind of like the equivalent of Tupperware. Some of you know I had a vacation here for a couple weeks, a few weeks back. I want you to know I spent my vacation along with my lovely wife preparing for the largest yard sale in Greenville's history. That's how I spent my vacation this year. And one of the bins that we found was filled with Tupperware. My wife remarked as we were looking at it that she could remember the Tupperware parties she had and how dearly we paid for that Tupperware that we were now going to sell for 50 cents or a dollar. God wants us to keep in mind, folks, that we're nothing but old Tupperware. Nothing real special about us. We have our uses, but you can get them for 50 cents or a dollar at any yard sale. See, that's the lesson that God intended to teach His people at Jericho. At Jericho, God purposely put the spotlight on the insufficiency of the Israelites to conquer the city. Again, use a little bit of imagination with this story. Think about what it must have been like for the Israelites to march around Jericho every day for seven days. This was warfare by parade. And I think it was a good thing that Joshua told them to keep silence, because can you imagine the hoots and the jeers and the catcalls that came over the top of the wall from Jericho? Hey, you goofy slaves, what are you doing? I think maybe there were a few other things thrown over the wall besides words. Can you not imagine this? Think about, God said, don't say a word. What do you think was going through the Israelites' minds the whole time they're marching around those walls? Man, there is no way we're getting through these walls. There's no way we're getting over these walls. This whole thing was orchestrated to make it extremely clear to everybody that the Israelites had no way to breach the walls of Jericho. Now, as difficult as those days must have been for the Israelites, I believe that God often purposely brings us into similar circumstances. There are days when God basically says to you and me, you're going to march around the walls of Jericho today, nothing's going to happen, and you're going to keep your mouth shut. Today, in 2015, God often puts us in circumstances that are intended to teach us how insufficient we are. At times, God reminds us that we are insufficient to face sickness and certainly insufficient to face death. The Apostle Paul himself was an illustration of this principle God gave to the Apostle Paul, a thorn in the flesh, which was probably some kind of physical ailment, some kind of physical malady. Some people believe that it was his eyesight. Whatever it was, Paul fervently prayed three times that God would remove it. And God's answer is found in 2 Corinthians 12, in verse 9. Here it is, and God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness, your insufficiency. Our sickness, our infirmity, is perhaps one of the most immediate, I know it has been in my life, one of the most immediate reminders that I am completely insufficient to deal with reality, certainly the reality of death. 1 Corinthians 15 calls death the final enemy. And however healthy we may be throughout our lives, sooner or later we face our insufficiency with regard to the final enemy, death. In the second place, the Apostle Paul also had to face his insufficiency for the ministry that God had entrusted to him. In 2 Corinthians 3.5, Paul says the following concerning his ministry. He says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Paul said, I am not sufficient for these things. I'm not sufficient for this ministry. The Lord Jesus taught the same principle in John 15. He said, without me, you can do nothing. That's what we can do on our own. In ministry, for Christ, nothing. We're insufficient. And I think if we think about this for a moment, we agree. We cannot convert a soul to Christ, however eloquent or persuasive we may be. We cannot cause spiritual growth. We can plant and we can water, but God gives the increase. He alone can cause spiritual growth. We can't fix people. We can give them counsel, but we can't force them to take that counsel. We can manipulate people, but we cannot make them more like Christ. That's God's work. You know, after nearly 30 years in pastoral ministry, I am still impressed almost daily with how impossible it is for me to do what God has given me to do. With the Apostle Paul, I say, I am not sufficient for these things. And if you're seriously engaged in ministry, you're teaching a Sunday school class, you're out there trying to lead people to the Lord, you're even giving counsel to friends, you know what I'm talking about. And then we're insufficient to overcome temptation. This is the point that Paul makes in Romans chapter 7. And his cry there in Romans chapter 7 is so often the cry of our hearts. Paul says, what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good, but now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil that I will not to do, that I practice. Paul seems to indicate there in Romans 7 that as long as we are in these bodies we're going to find that we are insufficient to deal with temptation. We're insufficient for the battle with the flesh and the devil. And then I can just kinda cap all of this off with You know, most of us, I think, have to admit that we're insufficient just for plain old life. How often is there too much month left at the end of the money? How often do we fail in the relationships that are dearest to us? How often are we frustrated by the work that we have chosen to do? How often do we just want to shrug our shoulders and throw up our hands and say, I quit. I'm not sufficient even to live life day in and day out. You know, it's a mark of spiritual immaturity to hold the illusion that God wants His people to be happy and successful and healthy all the time. I'm sorry, but Christians who have that idea just don't get it. They don't understand God. As I said earlier, sometimes God directs us to march around Jericho. just to get it very deep in our hearts that we are not sufficient to bring the walls down. Now, we don't want to stop here, folks. I mean, if this were all that the Bible teaches, we of all men would be most miserable. But this truth has two sides. What God desires to teach us here is twofold. And here's the other side of the truth. God also reminds His people that He is always sufficient. Our God is always sufficient. I said a moment ago that Israel seemed to be trying to conquer Jericho by holding a parade. But let's take a little closer look at that parade. Joshua 6 and verse 9 tells us the order of march in this parade. The order of march is always important. I used to live in a little town in western Pennsylvania, Greensburg. And I lived next door to the National Guard Armory, and I lived one street away from Main Street. And so often on the grounds of that National Guard Armory, that was where the parades began in Greensburg. That's where they formed things up. And of course, there was always somebody there putting the parade in order. And so the order of this parade is important. So first of all, you had the army. You had the armed men who marched out. And then you had seven priests with ram's horns who were blowing them, what they called shofar. Now, I don't think that this was, you know, I don't think that they were capable of, you know, like playing a Sousa march, okay? those ram's horns. This was not trumpet volunteer. I think probably what came out of those ram's horns was rather discordant, but it did one thing. The blasts on those ram's horns would have drawn attention to what immediately followed those seven priests, which was the Ark of the Covenant. And then there came the rear guard. So again, if you use a little bit of imagination here, it's very obvious that what God wanted the attention to be centered on in this parade was the Ark of the Covenant. Now, the Ark of the Covenant was symbolic of the presence of God Himself with the children of Israel. So do you get it now? It wasn't just a bunch of erstwhile slaves who were marching around Jericho. God Himself was encircling the city each day. And of course, in the end, it was not the shout of the people that brought the walls down. It was the miraculous power of that God who brought the walls down. And by the way, there are some Bible scholars who try to explain what happened at Jericho as sympathetic vibration. Do you know what sympathetic vibration is? You know, that's when the soprano hits the high C and the glass shatters. They say, when all the people shouted, it was sympathetic vibration that caused the walls to fall down. There's an old Hebrew word that I say in response to that, in a pig's eye. The whole point of this seven-day performance was to emphasize that God alone in His sovereign power brought the walls of Jericho down. A moment ago, I emphasized to you the number of ways in which we are insufficient in our own strength. But in all of those same areas, our God is sufficient. I read to you a few moments ago, 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. Let me read the follow-up verses, okay? Listen carefully. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in clay pots, in Tupperware, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. What Paul tells us there in that passage is that God brings us to the end of ourselves, but He doesn't ever push us over the edge. And He brings us to the end of ourselves for a very good reason, to cause us to turn away from our insufficiency and to turn toward His all-sufficiency. To prove to us that in the very worst circumstances, when we are certain of defeat in our own strength that God can nevertheless triumph through His power. We're not sufficient for the ministry that God has given us, but He is. He saves souls. He gives the increase. His plan and His program will not fail. He will build the church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And as long as we sign up for His cause, as long as we get lined up with where He's going, then we will see His blessing. we will know His sufficiency. We're not sufficient to overcome temptation. But what does Paul say at the end of Romans 7? That passage I read to you a few moments ago. Here's what he says. Paul says, after all of that, I do what I don't want to do and what I don't want to do I end up doing. Here's what he says, a wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And what's his answer? His answer is, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are not sufficient to face temptation, but our Savior is. We talked about this truth last week. Because of our union with Jesus Christ in His death and His resurrection, we are finished with sin. And when we run to Christ in the face of temptation, when we turn our hearts to what happened at the cross, when we preach the gospel to ourselves, we can overcome temptation. Not in our own strength, but because of Jesus Christ. It's the same when we resist Satan. James says, resist Satan and he will flee from you. Why? Because Jesus Christ has already conquered him through his death and his resurrection. His is the sufficiency. Ultimately, unless the Lord comes first, not one of us sitting here will be sufficient to overcome the power of death. Sickness and disease will ultimately take us all, but our Lord Jesus is sufficient even to conquer death. We will know victory over death, not on this side of death, There are Christians that want victory over death on this side of death. They have this idea that Jesus doesn't ever want us to be sick. I'm sorry, it just doesn't hold water. We all sicken and die. But Jesus says, I am sufficient to give you victory on the other side of death. When He returns, He will raise our bodies and we will share in His resurrection. And we shall know the sufficiency of His victory over death. Do you see the balance here? It's a wonderful balance. We're insufficient. We can do nothing. We cannot bring the walls down. But God is sufficient. And He's sufficient for us. God brought the walls down for the nation of Israel. God is sufficient for us. When we run to Him, When we place our trust in Him, then we experience His sufficiency, His victory. I can summarize this passage in a very simple little saying. This passage teaches us to trust and obey, and then to obey and trust. It teaches us to trust and obey. It teaches us that if we have genuine faith, we're going to obey God. But when we set out to obey God, just as the Israelites did, we're going to find we're insufficient. And so as we seek to obey, we must trust in the sufficiency of God. We must trust and obey, and then we must obey and trust. and the walls will come down and we will know victory.