Welcome to the epistle to the Hebrews for our text this morning, verse 30. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. Well, we've had some encouragements over this past twelve months. with the various sermons that have been placed upon the internet through sermon audio. We have now had over 3,000 downloads in the past 12 months. The most listened to of them was Apocalypto and Bible Accuracy. And then the other Three following those in the top 10 were quite surprising to me. But our series on animals and birds has been very popular. 127 downloads of the deer, 109 downloads of cattle, and 86 downloads of the mule. Surprising subjects indeed. Now most of these downloads take place in the United States of America. Those who are older among us here this morning, we are familiar with Alistair Cooke's Letter from America. He used to write that. It was broadcast on the BBC. It would give a penetrating analysis of some topical subject in the affairs, particularly of Western society. So we're going to seek to send a letter back this morning, a letter to America, we might say, with respect to the Holy War. only I'm using America here not in the geographical sense so much as for our own Western society. But as you know the United States of America leads Western civilization. It is in many respects the greatest nation on earth. The positions that it takes politically and so on affect the entire globe. But there is now a sense that something is going wrong. Whether it be the war in Iraq or the war in Afghanistan, things at home, the economy, and so on, something is going wrong. And there's a great deal to help us here in our text, though the circumstances took place so Long ago, 3,000 years ago by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. Do you remember this particular story, true story, of how Joshua, when he led the Israelites into the land of Canaan where they had to fight the enemy and take by battle and warfare the promised land encountered this great city for those times called Jericho. Well, in looking at this particular situation, we find various fundamentals that are timeless. Principles that have to do not only with then, but with now. And particularly when we look at these things from a spiritual point of view. Now, the first and important thing to realize with respect to this war that took place between the invading Israelites and the Canaanites who were then in possession of what is now known as Israel and Palestine, that this war was a holy war. It really and truly was a holy war. Now you know from your newspapers that many Muslims today see the Middle East conflicts as a holy war. As far as they are concerned, the infidel, that is the unbeliever, from their point of view is on the holy ground, the ground that belongs to Islam and must be repulsed. As far as Iraq is concerned, the removal of a tyrannical regime fades into the background and is not seen as absolving this crime of occupation. To many Muslims the presence of Allied troops in Iraq is seen as blasphemy and to them it is a holy war. Now it is not this holy war that we find in the scripture, this spiritual warfare, right from the beginning through to the end of the scripture, we can rightly say that the theme of the Bible is this holy warfare. We read those verses there in Ephesians and chapter 6. And there the Apostle makes it perfectly plain that every believer is engaged in this holy warfare. No believer can opt out of it. You are necessarily involved in it if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ if you have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says here in Ephesians 6 and 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Let me make it perfectly plain to you this morning, if you personally are not in a warfare fighting against Satan, against the world, against the flesh, against sin. If you are not engaged in that warfare against evil, then you are not saved. You do not belong to Christ and you do not really and truly know the God of the Bible. Because the Apostle Paul makes it perfectly plain that this holy warfare, this spiritual warfare, is so part and parcel of the Christian life that everyone who is a Christian is engaged in it and must be fighting against these powers of darkness. Now you need to ask yourself this morning whether this is the case with you. Are you really engaged? in a holy warfare against Satan and against sin. For if you are not, you have not yet been saved. And your great need is to come to Christ, and to trust in Christ, and to look to Christ, and to believe in Christ, that you might know the beginning of these things. The Apostle Paul elsewhere speaks of it as an inward spiritual warfare. When he says, the good that I would, I do not, and that which I would not, that I do. He's conscious of this battle within, as he must do battle against indwelling sin. Are you conscious of that battle, or is sin reigning in your life? Is sin in control in your life? you must face these questions, must you not? Well, what is this holy warfare? Would you turn to the book of Joshua and chapter 5. Here in the book of Joshua and chapter 5 we have the record of how Joshua himself was brought to see what were the fundamentals of the battle in which he was to be engaged. Joshua 5, verse 13, And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, are thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Doubtless this was a pre-incarnation appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ as the great captain of our salvation. And there, on that occasion, Joshua, he who was the commander of the Israelites, saw the Lord. Now in Joshua's time, the warfare, the holy warfare, was certainly about swords. For many centuries the heroes of the faith fought with body armor, swords, shields, and spears, the ancient counterparts of our automatic rifles, grenades, tanks, and so on. But I think that you can see that this incident pointed to something deeper than the weaponry. This war was not going to be won in the first instance by force of arms. Usually when there is warfare, immediately the thinking is about how many soldiers do we have, what sort of equipment do they have, how many tanks, how many airplanes, battleships, and so on. How different this was. The captain of the Lord's host does not require Joshua to take some inventory of the army. so that it would be clear how many soldiers he was commanding and so on, and in what way they were equipped. But the words to Joshua are, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. This man is a soldier, But when the Savior speaks to him, he speaks to him in a spiritual way about something deeper than conflict and warfare by force of arms. This man, Joshua, must not go into battle as an unbeliever with no higher standards than human value. He had to learn that the war was spiritual. It was a holy warfare. Now the Apostle sees the same with respect to the Christians' warfare at this present time. Turn to 2 Corinthians 10. And verse 3 and following. And there he says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. You remember how when Peter drew the physical sword, the literal sword, cut off the ear of Marcus, the Lord Jesus Christ told him to put away his sword. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. That is not the way in which the warfare of Christ is to be conducted. And so the apostle, likewise speaking at this particular point, is emphasizing that the Christian does not go into battle with these kinds of weapons, whether they be ancient swords or whether they be knives, whether they be revolvers, whether they be automatic rifles and so on. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they are not of this world. We are engaging in a holy warfare, a spiritual warfare. It has to do with obedience to Christ It has to do with holiness of life and it has to do with sharing this message of the gospel of God's grace. That whosoever will may come and drink of the waters of life freely. This is our message. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now this is the message that changes the life of the sinner and sets the sinner free from Satan, sin and death. And that terrible prospect of eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord in the here Christ is our captain, the captain of our salvation. His life is our standard. You know what it was. He was sinless. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Look how His life was spent. He went about doing good. He did not harm people. He was not a terrorist. He was not seeking to secure power by force of arms. He was not like Barabbas and others who would resort to violence in order to achieve their ends. Holy, harmless, undefiled. Such was the Savior. separate from sinners, the friend of sinners indeed, mixing with them, spending time with them, teaching them, but never a partaker in their sins. And so the Savior appears as the captain of the hosts of the Lord. Now I wonder if you see him this morning by fear. Do you see him as your captain, and do you hear what he has to say? He said to Joshua, put off your shoes from off your feet, for the ground on which you stand is holy ground. Do you understand that? Every place that you go, everything that you do, it is holiness, and the holiness of the Lord that matters in that situation. In your every thought, in your every word, in your every deed, reverence for God must come first. You know that Peter was a man of some impetuosity, and often the way in which he would do things was not the way that the Lord Jesus Christ would approve of. He had an earnestness, he had a zeal, but often it was misguided. And he had to learn that holiness must come first, reverence for God must come first, spiritual preparation for the battle must come first, and worship must come before action. And so it was that Joshua worshipped the Lord there before he ever went into the battle. And so it must be with us in our daily lives. They must have their basis and their foundation in this reverence of God and this worship of God or all will be in vain. Now these are the fundamentals of our holy warfare. Now we consider in the second place this historical occasion the fall of Jericho. By fate, we are told, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encompassed about seven days. This victory was quick and decisive. For six days the Israelites walked around the city of Jericho in silence. And then on the seventh day, the priests were to blow with the trumpets, the people were to shout, and you remember that it was the walls of the city fell down. The defenses were ruined. It was the kind of battle that modern Western electorates can cope with. They can cope with such warfare, shock and awe, we might say. First this quiet encircling, unusual and mystifying, no doubt, for the inhabitants of Jericho. But the end came quickly and it was an overwhelming victory. Such kinds of battles appeal to an electorate conditioned by the sports field, by football and such things. Decisive, complete, finished, as it were, the battle over and won. Well, it looked as though the Coalition's victory was going to be that kind of thing, decisive and brisk but it proved to be a quagmire and the battle is still going on in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in various other locations as the West seeks to master the terrorism which is in our midst and threatens our whole way. of life. It causes us to ask the question, if this battle of Joshua against Jericho was so decisive and complete, is there some missing ingredient in the manner of our warfare these days? Well, I leave to the socio-political commentators, the things that have to do with sociology and politics and so on in connection with these things. We have a more important comment to make, a theological comment, a comment that has to do with God, the things of God and the ways of God. What is this missing ingredient? Well, it goes back to that meeting of Joshua with the Lord, what was said to him on that occasion, and how he responded. He realized that although he was, humanly speaking, in the position of being the commander of the army of Israel, that in reality the Lord Himself is the captain of His people. The need is for obedience to Him. The need is for righteousness. Christian people are not to enter into this holy warfare guided by their own understanding. You know, we're told in the scriptures, lean not to thine own understanding. We are to look to the Lord, we are to trust in the Lord, and we are to rest in his guidance, in his direction. And what is needful on our part is that obedience, the obedience of faith. Now Israel had to relearn this lesson over their defeat at Ai. a town which was much smaller than Jericho, and you'll read about it in Joshua in chapter 7. And they got defeated there. After this wonderful victory at Jericho, which was a huge city in comparison with Ai, they got defeated at Ai. Now the Christian is well familiar in personal life with this particular problem, that we can go along, that we have certain achievements and successes as it were against the enemy by the grace of God, and then it is as though we take a tumble. We have been walking straight as it were, but then we trip. And something has gone terribly wrong. You have a vivid picture of it there in the life of David. Things are going well on the battlefield. His kingdom is being established. And then such a terrible tumble on his part, unrighteousness in his own life. And he commits adultery with another man's wife, with Bathsheba. He takes the wife of one of his faithful servants and commits adultery with her. Righteousness, this issue of holiness, godliness of life, being faithful to the truth and being faithful to God, it receded in his life. It's called backsliding. He slid away backward from where he should be. And when things were going well, And when achievements were being made for the kingdom of heaven, in his own life there was this inner decay, he was slipping away, and then this terrible event. You know it is there in the life of Peter. Though a matter of shame to him, he would want us to know about it. if that was going to be for our instruction and to help us not to follow into that sin into which he himself fell. But there he was when he was faced with the enemies of Christ, saying to him, Oh, you are a follower of Jesus Christ as well. You remember how he denied it. He denied that three times out of fear of men. He denied it with cursing and swearing. His heart was not where it should have been. This issue of righteousness had not been a priority for him. Now, dear friends, you must take this very, very seriously. Because one of the easiest things for the Christian to do, one of the easiest traps of Satan to fall into, is to carry on living one's life, doing the things that one has to do, pursuing the particular objectives that one has for one's life, and all the while the priority of righteousness is declining in your heart. The Lord Jesus Christ put it to that church there, as we have the record in the book of Revelation. One thing he has against them, thou hast left thy first love. In all of the busyness of life, in all of the preoccupation with the battles against the world, the flesh and the devil, something terrible has happened. Decline. of love in a heart for the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation. Now you know that the explanation with respect to this defeat at Ai went back to the Battle of Jericho and this man Achan who forsook the path of righteousness and holiness And he took up the forbidden spoil. You can read about that in Joshua 7, verse 21 and following. He took this Babylonish garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold, and he hid them. He hid them, but God saw them. Is that not a great foolishness on the part of sinners, converted and unconverted? With respect to this or that in their lives which is sinful, and we think to hide it away as the proverbial skeleton in the cupboard. Nobody's seen it. Nobody knows that it's there. We feel secure that things are all right. But God has seen it. Achan took these things that he ought not to have taken because all of the spoil was devoted to God on this occasion. But he took what was of interest to him because of his covetousness and he hid it and nobody knew that it was there. But God had seen it. Now we ask the question, is there some missing ingredient? Is there something wrong with Western society as it prosecutes its wars in the interests of justice, and democracy, and freedom, and so on? The answer is yes, dear friends. There is something wrong. There is a missing ingredient. And the missing ingredient is righteousness, holiness. the things which are pleasing to God. We're sending our soldiers onto foreign battlefields in the interests of justice, democracy, and so on. But when you come back home and you look at the situation in the land, what have we got? We have unrighteousness. Do we think that God does not see how many abortions have taken place in the last 40 years in our nation? Do we think that God does not see the fraudulent dealings that are taking place in many organizations today? whether they are in the public or the private sector? Do we think that God has to wait until this or that newspaper breaks the news that it's on the front page about this or that executive or these executives who have acted improperly? Do we think that when a man takes another man's wife, and lies with her as though she is his wife? And nobody knows, nobody in the world knows, apart from these two, do we think it's invisible to Almighty God? That the God who could see the Babylonian garment buried, the shekels of silver, the wedge of gold, that the God who could see these things, do we think that he is blind to iniquity today? Dear friends, it would be the height of folly, would it not, to think in such a way. And that is why I say there is a missing ingredient. And this missing ingredient is righteousness. And I say this to our people and to our rulers. It is dangerous to send soldiers to war abroad in the interests of democracy. while denying God at home. As far as this country of Britain is concerned, look at the legislation of the last ten years. Let us not pretend that God has not seen it. And let us not pretend that God is not offended by various parts of that legislation. That's where the problem is. The deepest problem lies in the absence of righteousness. By faith, says the apostle, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. The walls fell down, but he says it was through faith. This whole epistle to the Hebrews is an exhortation to faith in Christ, and to continuing in faith in Christ, and to stirring up our souls to a most urgent and devoted faith in Christ, not faith in general. You know, there has been this debate in connection with Prince Charles. Should he come to the throne, he wants to be known as the Defender of Faith. But the constitutional title of the monarch in this country is the Defender of The Faith. Not Defender of Faith in general, but defender of this specific faith. It is not the Koran or some other holy book which is put into the hand of the monarch in this nation when they are crowned. That's not what happened when Her Majesty the Queen had her coronation. It was the Bible that was put into her hand when she was crowned with those words, this is the royal law. This is the law above all laws, the law of God, the Word of God. And you see, she's not the defender of faith in general, but she is the defender of the faith, the faith of the Bible, the faith which has to do with salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul speaks of a specific faith. this faith which is a justifying faith. Just before he has launched out in chapter 11 with this description of all of these heroes of the faith that have gone before, he mentions there in chapter 10 and verse 38 that quote from the prophet Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith. This faith of which the Apostle is speaking is the faith which justifies. And for him there is only one faith which justifies. It is this faith in Jesus Christ. We cannot concede to any other religion. that it will answer to the needs of sinners and bring them to God, reconciled and enjoying His love. The Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly plain about this. He said, I am the way, the truth and the No man comes to the Father but by me. There is no other way. That is one way. One way of salvation. One way of acceptance with God. The Apostle puts it like this in Romans chapter 3. Romans in chapter 3. And verse 21, But now the righteousness of God without the Lord is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. This is the message of the Old Testament and the New Testament, he says. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, that which appeases wrath, through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. You see, you are a sinner, and the necessity is for the covering of your sin. And that which covers sin is the atonement, the sacrifice, the shedding of the blood of atonement. And the sacrifice appointed by God is this death of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. And you may seek all of your life in every place throughout this wide world that you can think of for some other way, but there is no other way. For you, your loved ones, your neighbours, the people of your nation can only be saved through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. This is the only way of forgiveness. This is the only way of reconciliation. And yet in Iraq at the present time, this faith, this Christian faith, faces extinction. In 18 years, the number of Christians in Iraq has decreased from 15 million down to half a million as a result of the murders, the terrorism, the persecutions, and the consequent flight of those who are still alive from that country. Now the faith of the humanist is a non-specific faith. It is not faith in Jesus Christ. The faith of a secularist is a vague confidence that somehow everything will come right in the end, notwithstanding personal failings. When you talk to people about ultimate things, eternal things, these spiritual things, how many you find that have some vague confidence that somehow everything will come right in the end. If we believe the statistics, our part of the country is the most Christian part of the United Kingdom. Eighty percent of the people in the northeast of England respond to questions about religion by saying that they are Christians. You're not likely to see that on the high street during an open air meeting. Eighty percent of the people certainly do not stop and listen. Now secular humanism shuns these absolutes that we have been talking about. People want room to maneuver. They want room to manoeuvre in connection with unwanted babies. They want room to manoeuvre these days in connection with unwanted parents. They want room to manoeuvre in connection with their unwanted marriage ties. And none of this is consistent with the righteousness of God. We are now seeing in our own day a retreat of secular humanism, and possibly shortly its defeat. For very many in the world today have no confidence in human rights that are not based in an absolute morality. They have sufficient common sense to see that if there is no absolute morality undergirding the behaviour and the legislation, well, what is it worth anyway? They can see that it is just sentimentality or manipulation. Such theories will never give us security. They will never persuade suicide bombers. These people are committed to what they believe. That there is a fast track to heaven via martyrdom. We do not say that what they believe is right, but we do say that they are committed to what they believe. Can we say the same for many who profess to be Christians? Are they really committed to what they believe? Well, let's not look at others, let's look at ourselves. Are we really committed to what we believe? The message of the Mass is, you must have righteousness. You must have the Moses of the Scriptures who gives that absolute standard of the moral law of God that evokes commitment in the hearts of men and women for the work of the law is already written in them, as the Apostle teaches in Romans 2. The issue is this, my friends. Will you have the Pharisees, Moses? For the Pharisee, Moses gave a law that they might keep that law and please God by their own merit. They were so blinded to their own unrighteousness that they assumed that Moses would give to them what would enable them to commend themselves to God. Or will you have the Sharia Moses? The Moses to which those Muslims look who believe in Sharia law. What changes that would introduce in the United Kingdom If this Sharia law that has been contended for in other Islamic nations were to be introduced here, make no mistake about it, there are those who want that, and they want that in this country. Or will you have the Christ honoring Moses, the true Moses of the Holy Scriptures? The Moses that we read about in this 11th chapter of Hebrews there at verse 24 and 5. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Is that how it is with your soul this morning? That whatever this world might be able to give to you, you acknowledge that it is nothing in comparison with the possession of Jesus Christ. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And you see what need you have, I trust, of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you might come to Christ and put your trust in Christ, and look to Christ, only Christ, and seek that forgiveness of all of your sins, your terrible, your terrible unrighteousness, that you might walk in a new way through the enabling of the Spirit of Christ and live godly in Christ Jesus. That's the kind of men and women we need today, and that's the kind of man or woman, boy or girl, you need to be throughout your lifetime, for this is the only way For this is God's way, and let us take that way. It is the way of life, and life forevermore. Amen.