Let's Let The Walls Fall – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The enemy had it all, a walled city, superior arms, but Israel had God, Jericho didn't stand a chance. Sometimes the race of life brings us to pivotal points of proving God's faithfulness. For Joshua, that point was a seemingly impregnable city and that day was now. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, you and I have stood in Jericho and witnessed the remains of walls that fell outward millennia ago.

Yes, indeed. You know, archaeologists have investigated Jericho and they've discovered that it appears as if the walls fell out, which of course I think would confirm the book of Joshua. It's a remarkable story. But you know, when Joshua conquered Jericho, it was not a matter of how high the walls were, it was whether or not God wanted him to conquer the city and how he would do it. And of course, as all of us know, he did it in obedience to Christ, marching around the walls the last day, marching around seven times, blowing the trumpet and the walls fell down. What God was saying is the walls that are around your life, or let me put it differently, the walls that you are facing can actually collapse in such a way that they can be stepping stones to victory. I've written a book entitled Conquering the Fear of Failure, Lessons from the Life of Joshua. All of this is made clear in the book. I think it's going to be a great blessing to you.

For a gift of any amount, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. What are the walls in your life? Are you willing to trust God to knock them down? All right, let me begin today by asking you that question. What walls are there in your life that are preventing you from experiencing God?

That's the question. What walls have you built in your life? What walls have others built for you?

What prison are you in today emotionally and spiritually that you can't seem to get out of? Well, today our agenda is to lead the way out, to see the walls fall down, and to be able to understand some of God's principles of seeing beyond those walls to him. Last time I gave you a brief lesson in spiritual geography. Remember that Egypt represents the world. Egypt represents bondage to the children of Israel. That's where they were enslaved.

And how do you get out of the bondage of Egypt? Well, you're redeemed by the blood of the lamb, and you pass through the Red Sea. The desert represents unbelief. It's redemption without the frills.

It's redemption without the joy. It's that part of our lives where we go on with unending sand and gravel, where spiritually speaking we are shriveled up and we don't really experience God. That's the desert. Now mind you, God takes care of people in the desert.

Just last night I was speaking to someone who had been living in disobedience and is living with those consequences of disobedience, but she said, why is it that God is still taking care of me? Well, God takes care of his people even when they are in the desert, but it's not the place where God wants us to be. What does Canaan represent? Canaan represents not heaven. It is this life, but it's entering into the fullness of God.

It is experiencing those battles, but thank God winning some of them. And it's beginning to enter into the promises that God has given. Now here's the agenda for today, and thank you for being on board with me for it. What we're going to do is to see from Joshua chapter 6, and you can take your Bibles and turn to that passage of scripture, Joshua chapter 6. We're going to see how God enabled the Israelites to take Jericho, and then we're going to go take our own Jericho's. That's the agenda. How does God do it?

Well, first of all, I want you to know he always begins with a promise. And by the way, speaking of the walls that have to come down, I should say that there are personal walls. I've already referred to that. You know, on the other side of those walls of Jericho, there was the occult. Those people were into false religions, and some of you have been dabbling with the devil, and you find those strongholds in your life. There was a false religion. There was occultism.

There was immorality, all kinds of things. And it could well be that you're facing your own private world today, that private wall that is keeping you. There is also such a thing as, what shall we say, cultural walls.

Today we speak still about racism and some of the divisions that we artificially make and unscripturally make. And then there's also corporate walls. We'll be talking about our own challenges as a church. But now, how does God enable us to take down those walls? If you say, Pastor Luther, if you can tell me today how those walls can collapse, it most assuredly will change my life. Well, I want you to know that my intention, whenever I preach, is to change your life. It may not always happen, but that's the intention.

So we're on the same page, aren't we? Number one, God always begins with a promise. He begins with a promise. Chapter six, verse one, now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites.

No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have delivered Jericho into your hands along with its king and its fighting men. And you read it and you want to say it taint soul. God says it's done.

Past tense. I have delivered Jericho into your hands. What do you mean you've delivered Jericho into our hands?

There is the city with its high walls. Here are we on the other side of the walls. And here is an enemy that is just waiting for an opportunity to zap us.

And you're saying that it's a done deal. God says, yes, it is. I love it when God uses the past tense. Isaiah writing about Jesus Christ. He does not say he shall be wounded for our transgressions, but he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. It is already completed. That's why Paul says in the book of Romans that God calls those things which are not as if they are. God says it's done. Now I want you to know that it's a past tense it's a complete promise. He says even the mighty men. Just to make sure that this victory is going to be complete. God says the whole thing is a done deal. There's another text in which the Lord says regarding the enemy.

I love this. He says I have removed their protection from them. In other words, they've got all these walls and it looks as if it's formidable, but God says I've removed their protection. And when Jesus came and died on that cross, according to the book of Colossians, he crushed principalities and powers. And I like to think of Jesus as having removed the devil's protection from him.

He is vulnerable because of Christ. Now I want you to notice a principle here that will change your life. And that is this. Whatever God asks us to do something, everything that God asks us to do is based on what God has already done. He does something and says because I have done something, because I have given you this promise, you now can do something. And we always want to do, do, do, do. And if we do it in our own strength, you know what happens. So keep that in mind.

You say, well, how can I have the faith to believe these promises? That's our big problem. And the answer is D.L. Moody, who I think his name is known to many of us here.

D.L. Moody said on one occasion he prayed for faith and said, oh, God, give me faith, give me faith, give me faith. And nothing was happening. And then he read in the book of Romans that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And he began to read God's word and God builds faith in our hearts. God always begins with a promise. Now, it has to be a promise that applies to us.

This is a totally different subject, but I need to throw it in at no extra cost. You know that not every promise in the book is mine. You know, we used to sing that song. I don't know, Dave, do you remember that song when you were growing up? Every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line.

That's not true. All kinds of promises that God made to Abraham that were not made to me. There are various promises that are made in context. But what we need is a promise. And once we find that promise that applies to us and there are hundreds of those, then we can begin to say we're finally ready now to take a second look at the walls that hem us in. All right, there's the promise. Now there's the procedure.

You'll notice that the Lord says, I'm picking it up in verse three. March around the city once with all of the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of ram's horns in the front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times with the priest blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout. Then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up every man straight in. And what I'd like to do is to help us a little bit with the procedure.

And it's going to be the means to lead us to capture those walls that I talked about. The procedure is this. First of all, God says, what I want you to do is to go around the city for six days once each. So that's six times. But then he says, on the seventh day, go seven times around the city. I think that's 13, isn't it?

13 times. The Lord says, I want you to march around this city. But now what is the procedure and how can that be applied to our walls?

How can this be applied? You know, we say, well, what we need to do is to find some territory and march around it. And many of us have gone to that lot over there that is known as the bank lot and we've stood on it and we've prayed that it will be ours and we're quite confident it will be. But actually, I have to tell you that I did not lead a group of people marching around it. I have a pastor friend who on two occasions invited his entire congregation to march around the plots of land that he wanted for the church.

And I have to tell you that so far he hasn't gotten any of them and never will, as a matter of fact, because other things are built on that property and he's no longer the pastor there. So I guess there's another lesson there too that I hadn't thought of. What is the application?

Let me give you the procedure. And this is a good time to take notes, just like Jerry Edmonds is doing right in front of me, you know, because Jerry always sits behind me. I didn't know that he's taking notes furiously. It's a good example. Number one, they marched around helplessly, helplessly. They did not have swords as such.

They had a few staves, a few pieces of wood that they had picked up throughout the years. They did not have themselves walled cities. They lived in tents. Militarily, they were totally helpless.

They were naked in the presence of their enemies. It was not as if there was any possibility that they could overcome the walls. In those days, when they would take a city, they would use a battering ram. That's a huge contraption that would throw stones at the walls, large stones. And as they kept doing that, the walls would weaken and eventually the walls would collapse. Those of you who have been to Masada and you've had that lecture on how Masada was eventually taken, that's an idea as to how it happened. But these folks had none of that.

No equipment, nothing. Jehoshaphat one day in the Old Testament was facing an incredible enemy and he had no resources. And this was what he prayed in Second Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 12. For we, oh Lord, he says, we have no power to face the vast army that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

Wow. Helplessness. There's nothing wrong with helplessness as long as it directs our eyes to God and we say, I do not know what to do. Today I speak to somebody and you're in a situation in which you say, I do not know what to do.

Well, Jehoshaphat was too in that situation. But our eyes are on you. We've got these promises. We're going to go on believing no matter what. So don't be intimidated by the size of your walls because you see walls can intimidate, but not in the presence of almighty God.

Big walls, small God, big God, small walls. First, they did it helplessly. Secondly, they did it patiently.

Seven days. And around the walls they had to go those first six days. And I could imagine afterwards in the campfire kids would say, now of what value was that? What possible good could come out of us going around the city? The walls are just as strong, just as high.

We haven't seen any enemies being slain. Why should we bother doing this again? Well, God had said, you do it 13 times.

You know, I may be speaking to somebody here today. Sometimes, by the way, in counseling, what happens is somebody says, now here's my problem and this is what I'm doing. And they're doing the right thing. And they're still not experiencing the deliverance that they seek. And sometimes the only answer is you have to keep doing what you're doing because who knows, but maybe you have gone around your personal Jericho 12 times. Don't give up now because who knows what will happen on the 13th time. Don't give up. Keep doing it.

If you're doing the right thing, keep doing the right thing. They had to do it patiently. Seven times around Jericho.

13 times in all. They did it silently. Now this is picked up in verse 10. But Joshua had commanded the people, do not give a war cry. Do not raise your voices. Do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout, he says.

Notice he goes progressively. Now no war cry. Do not raise your voice. Do not say a word.

Not a mumbling word until I tell you to. Why I think a couple of reasons. First of all, he wanted to keep them focused. Someone has suggested that maybe it was because the people, if they had been talking and whispering would have murmured among themselves. Some of them would have said, well, you know, this is just ridiculous. And pretty soon, you know, that nest of criticism could have taken hold of people and fear could have been engendered from one person to another and the whole company demoralized. So Joshua says, when you're going around saying nothing, be quiet. Of course, you know that that can happen today too, can't you? When you have people who murmur, sometimes it's possible to take what happened on Sunday and to destroy it on Monday. If people murmur and that spreads throughout the camp. So God says, I want you to do it silently.

He says, I want you to go around the wall. Important now, unitedly. This was not to be Joshua's victory. This was not to be the victory of one person. Now God could have spoken the word. The man with a sword drawn in his hand, as we noticed last time, could have spoken the word.

The walls could have collapsed without them going around at all. And of course, God could have given the victory to Joshua. Listen to me very carefully. There are few battles that you fight in life that can be fought alone.

Some, but few. There are some of you who are facing personal walls that you will never get around over or through until somebody comes alongside and you begin to pray together and you begin to yield together. Even though we've got the promises, God says to apply the promises, there must be a sense of unity and togetherness. In fact, there's a verse in Colossians that says, if you want to enter into all of the inheritance that you have in Christ, I'm paraphrasing now, your hearts must be knit together in love. You can't do it alone.

Now that's true personally for those walls that we want to scale. You can't do it alone. Some of you are in a pit and you can't dig yourself out of the pit alone. We can't do what we as a church want to do unless we do it unitedly.

But here's the point. God will make sure that we will not do this unless we do it together. So the question that I want to ask you is this. Why is it that God seldom allows us to win battles alone? Well, the answer is that when we seek the help of others, it shows our humility. Even Jesus, of course, in the Garden of Gethsemane asked that the disciples come, three of them, to be with him when he prayed in his agony. So let's remember that God wins battles when we are together.

Israel certainly learned that. All of these lessons and more are in the book I've written entitled Conquering the Fear of Failure, Lessons from the Life of Joshua. We're making this resource available to you because we think it's going to be a tremendous blessing and a help as you confront your own battles.

Now here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And I want to thank from the bottom of my heart the many of you who support this ministry. And as I keep reminding you, it's because of people just like you that this ministry is able to continue to grow.

Right now you can go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. A listener named Lewis has been paying close attention when reading the Gospel of Matthew. Here's what he has to say. Praise God for running to win.

I've been a Running to Win listener for over 10 years. I have a question concerning Matthew 27 verses 52 and 53. It states that the tombs were broken and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. This is after Christ gave up His Spirit in verse 50. I don't understand verses 52 and 3 because I thought that Jesus was the first to be raised from the dead. Pastor, can you help? Well first of all, Louie, let me say how pleased I am that you've been listening to Running to Win for so many years. God bless you. And you know, the reason that we have this broadcast is so that we might be able to communicate and help people to build them up in the faith. And by the way, good question.

Couple of comments. First of all, we have no idea what this was like when the tombs were opened after Jesus died and some of the saints went into Jerusalem. That is certainly an anomaly. Apparently it happened because God wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Jesus Christ indeed was the Messiah and His death was so dramatic that God actually did this miracle and some of the saints came out of their tombs. But more specifically to your question, is Jesus Christ the first born from the dead as the Bible says? Is He the first to be raised?

Well, let's think carefully. Jesus Christ was not the first to be raised if we look at it only physically, you think for example of the resurrection of Lazarus. But Jesus was the first to be raised with His new resurrection body.

That's the key that you need to keep in mind. No one has ever been raised like Jesus with a resurrection body that has a different molecular structure, a body that can go through doors, a body that can go from one part of Palestine to another in a moment of time. Jesus has the first such body. Even people who die today, Christians, do not yet have their permanent bodies. So Jesus Christ is the first one. As for those other people in Jerusalem that got out of their tombs, they had to die a natural death. And they too are still awaiting the body that they shall someday have.

Like Christ, the Bible says, for we shall see Him as He is. Thank you Lewis for your question. Thank you Dr. Lutzer for those very perceptive thoughts.

If you'd like to hear one of your questions answered, you can. Go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer. Or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago, to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. On our next broadcast, Why Doing Things God's Way may appear odd to the outsider, but it's all part of ensuring who gets the credit for victory. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.