Tearing Down the Walls — Darwin Hostetler

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Greetings to all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is indeed a pleasure for us to be here tonight and to share here a bit with you. First, I would like to say thank you to the local brothers here and sisters that have so faithfully spent time in the Word, in teaching, preaching to us, cooks that cook and homes that put up with everyone.

It really has been a good week for me. And I think from our brothers that are here, I can say likewise, it has been a blessing for us. As I came towards the end of the week and pondered the fact that I had the last message and spent some time in thinking and praying and asking God, what do I say?

You know, I thought about all the preaching, the messages that have been given time after time. And I just, I was, I guess, awestruck as I considered the accountability that you and I will go home with this week.

Responding to the Word After the Revival Meeting

All of the words of truth that were spoken. And it is, it has been said here a number of times that this is the Bible is a book that demands a response. And for each one of us, if you have heard the messages, if we heard the preaching of the words, it filtered down into our hearts, it made called a response out of many of you.

Out of many of us found our way back to a prayer room back here and found ourselves responding to the word of God. But it doesn't stop here. Just for some of you, most of us, I guess I'll say it only started here.

It still calls for a response. In the days to come as you go home from here, it still calls for a response. And we've been living here in a pretty greenhouse, generic environment, haven't we? You know, it's been pretty easy to lean on the brothers and find your way to a prayer room.

And when you have a struggle, you know, you could just pretty easily go to one of the brothers and say, Brother, you know, can you pray for me? Can you help me here? And, you know, you found that little place of prayer, of refuge in Christ.

And your brothers helped you do that. Well, you're going to go home to a real world. It's a real world out there and there'll be some real struggles for all of you. But I'd like to be an encouragement for you tonight.

You know, I want to assure you again, you know, the messages that Brother Denny brought to you about Christ and Christ focused theology and centered theology. More than theology, life. You know, that's really what you have to look forward to.

And what a joy it is to know that you can go home and the details, whatever it is that you might face, you can just, with a focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, taking Him and wrapping Him into everything that you have.

You have everything that it takes to fight the fight. And I enjoy that. As I thought of that, I'd like to open with a couple of verses out of Second Timothy. Second Timothy, chapter two. Then I'd like you to just bow your heads and have a word of prayer here as we begin.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this privilege that we have this evening to again look into your word. Lord, help me be an encouragement to someone along the way today. Lord, might someone see Jesus tonight?

Lord, that's our heart. That's our desire. We don't want to go home, any of us, empty. We don't want to go home with a life that is still blocked up and tied up. But we want deliverance from you, Father, tonight.

Lord, and I pray that if there's anyone here tonight that isn't free, might they see the cleansing power of the blood of Christ tonight to set them free. Lord, I just pray that you would take this message, protect us tonight, shelter us under the blood of Jesus Christ.

Father, we need your protection. We need you to guide us, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, in Second Timothy, chapter two, the first four verses. These are verses that Paul gave here to Timothy.

And he said,. That sounds like it fits us this week, I think. We heard many things. And many of you are leaders. You have a responsibility to take these things home and commit them to other faithful men.

Enduring Hardship Without Becoming Entangled

But he has some instruction regarding that. He says,. And I'll stop there. But I'd like to just focus in a bit on these last two verses. Thou therefore endure hardness. You know, it's not just for missionary personnel or somewhere in another culture somewhere that has to endure hardness.

We're asked to endure hardness. I talked to someone not so long ago that was in the army, and they were telling me a bit about the things that they faced and the things that they were doing in Iraq. And among other things, this individual told me that the gear that she wears every day, just the clothes, just the gear weighs almost a hundred pounds.

Can you imagine that in 120 degrees or something? You know, that's just the clothes that they wear without all the other things that they have to go through and so on. And they're enduring something. Endure hardness here means to endure afflictions or to suffer trouble.

And we may face that. Some of us will face those kind of things in the days ahead. And he was telling Timothy, as I'm telling you here tonight, that you should prepare yourself as a good soldier of Jesus Christ to be willing to endure hardness.

We don't have to do it ourselves. Then he goes on and he says, No man that woreth, and we're in a war, brethren. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. You know, you are involved in many affairs.

Many of you had businesses. Many of you have other things that occupy your mind. And, you know, he says here that you don't have to be entangled with those things. If you're going to fight a good fight, don't be entangled.

Don't let them wrap you up and hold you captive or in bondage. You know, I still remember some time ago, some years ago actually at home with my family one time, I had a skein of yarn that was, I think it had fell out of a basket or something there in my living room.

And, you know, I was going to put this thing away and somehow I saw an end that was sticking out. And I don't know what all I did, but I pulled the wrong end there somewhere. Until I was done, I had a heap of a mess in front of me.

You know, and it was just kind of, before I knew it, it just kind of went everywhere. And it seemed like the harder I tried to patch things up again, the more tangled the mess became. And that's the way many things are in life.

And if we're not, if we don't take our minds and keep them going in the right direction with our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, we soon lose out and we soon get entangled with many things. And He says you shouldn't do that if you're going to be, if we're going to fight a good fight.

Don't do that. Don't entangle yourselves. So this morning, or this evening, I'm thinking here, as we go home from this place, as we engage ourselves with some more of the ammunition that we got, some more of the learning, the things that came and settled down over our heart, as we go and engage these things and put them to practice, one of the ways that we need to do that is we need to be careful not to entangle ourselves with everything else that is out there shouting at us, trying to get our attention.

It happens far too easily, brethren. That we may please Him. That's our heart. That's what we're here for. We're here to bring honor and glory to Him. We want to please Him. You know, we don't want to just raise a, have a godly family here of some kind so that we can look good when we go to Walmart.

We want a godly family to please Him. One that will speak with the enemies at the gate. One that we will be able to send out into God's work. Not just for fun. It's to please Him. That's what we're really wanting to do here.

All right. That's not where I'm preaching about. That was just kind of a beginning there. Turn to the book of Joshua. I'd like to look at a couple of different accounts here, as they kind of just flow here back to back.

Joshua Meets the Captain of the Lord’s Host

Joshua chapter 5. Joshua chapter 5. And this is the time here when the children of Israel, they would come up to Jericho. They had won some previous battles. Things that went fairly well for them. And in chapter 5, in verse 13, just a few verses I'll read there first.

It says, It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes, and he 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, Art 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 servants? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose the shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.

And Joshua did so. And here Joshua, as they're coming up to Jericho, and they probably have this city surrounded or close, or they were camped there. And I'm sure the people of Jericho, they heard of these people.

They heard of this mighty group of people coming up through the land. And it seems like they kind of holed up here behind the walls. It says they were straightly shut up there in the next verse. And here Joshua, he goes to the Lord and he asks Him, goes there and he's wanting to know what he's to do next.

He's trying to go there to get an answer and he saw a man standing there. Now, just picture in your mind what you might do. There's a man that is standing there. It says, a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hands.

So as he's going to seek God, and here Joshua, he stands out there and he sees this man. This man that is looking at him as an angel and had a sword drawn. And it says Joshua walked towards him. He went towards him.

Do you see the faith and fearlessness of Joshua? You know, that he is willing to just walk towards this man, this individual with a sword. And he asked, who is this? Who are you? Are you for us or are you against us?

And he said, I'm for you. And Joshua fell on his face and worshiped. As I read that, I realized that many of you met up with a man this week with a sword that did some cutting. You know, he did some cutting in your heart, didn't he?

He took out some dross, some self, pride. Took out a lot of things this week, didn't he? As I was back in the little prayer room tonight, I heard someone walking by and I heard the man telling his wife, this was holy ground back here.

This is where sins got dumped this week. That's right. But you know, you need to take that home with you too. You need to take it home with you. You know, Ephrathah doesn't have a corner on those holy spots.

You take them right home with you. Alright, now let's look here at Jericho. There's a few chapters here. We're going to not go through all of it. But we're just going to look here. The children of Israel are coming up against this city.

God’s Instructions for Taking Jericho

And they're wanting to know what to do here. And they have some specific instructions in verse 1. I'll read a few verses. Now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in.

The Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given unto thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. So, here God is speaking to him and He's telling him, this is what I'm going to give you.

I will give you Jericho. This city that is all fenced in. And not just the city, but the king too. He said, this is yours. You can have it. I want you to keep that in mind as we go through here. Because there might be some of you in a group this size.

There is very likely some sitting in this room that still have some walled cities that are in there in their lives. Very likely you have some walls built around some very protected spots in your life that you didn't uncover this week, or still just hanging in there and that are protected by a wall.

You may think the wall is too big. You may think you don't know how to take it. But Joshua, as God told him, that you can have this city and you can have the king therein, he moved in faith and he went right to action.

He sprang right to action and said, I'm going to tell my people what to do. And we're going to line this thing up. And we're going to begin marching. We're going to do whatever you tell us to do. If you have a wall around something that God has been slowly probing onto your heart this week, you know, an area of your life that you haven't uncovered, an area of your life that you know it's there, but you have not went there.

Your prayer group leader might have poked around on you all week long trying to find out, you know, is there something else? And he may have seen in your eyes there's something else. And he has pried and poked and asked and fussed, and you have refused to go into that room because the mountain looked too big.

But the mountain is not too big for God. And I tell you, I would just plead with you tonight that you don't go home without getting into that room. Because there is a man that holds a key for that door and you can get in.

And you can be free. The walls can just disappear. They'll crumble. You might have to... Maybe you're one that has just simply cracked the walls pretty good so far. Well, they'll come down. Let's keep going.

That's my focus this evening. That would be the title of my message is tearing down the walls. He gives them instructions in verse 3. And ye shall come past the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once.

Thus shalt thou do six days. So here he's pretty specific about things. The seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns. And the seventh day, ye shall come past the city seven times.

And the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout.

And the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up, every man straight before Him. So here, as he got his instructions, then in verse 6 it says, Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant.

Let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. And he said unto the people, Pass on and come past the city and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord.

So here he's giving his instructions. And I'm going to move on down here. I'm going to skip some of that and go on down to where they began to. They began to go around this city. And I can imagine that the people that are inside these walls, that are watching this huge company of people march around this city one time.

Jericho is a big city. Or it was a big city at that time. Jericho is still a big city. Jericho, by the way, is a very wicked city. Jericho was a very ungodly place, full of idolatry, false religions everywhere, witchcraft, many things.

Jericho was full of. And today actually, Jericho is still known to be a corrupt city. And you drive into Jericho, which I did once or so, maybe more than once, and there is an evil, nearly spirit in the air of the place.

I actually saw the very broken down foundations that are still remaining from some of these walls. Okay, here we are, getting ready to walk around this thing where these walls, and I can imagine inside, the people are trembling.

They had just heard how these people came across the river, came across the Jordan, and God had dried it up for them just a few weeks back, or whatever it might have been. I can imagine they're trembling and wondering what will these people do.

What are they going to do to us? You know, watch this sight, that these men are marching around here holding trumpets and having the ark of God and just marching around the wall as if nothing is strange.

That's no way to fight a battle. You know, that's a different kind of situation. It's a different kind of fight. And we are in a different kind of fight. We're in a very different kind of fight. It looks very different.

And many times, the ones around us, they do look on us and they wonder, what is going on? What is it that is so different about you? But what's even better, I believe that inside, I believe Satan trembles as well when he sees what's going on.

Much like I believe that the people were trembling behind these walls, I believe Satan trembles as well. It came to pass that the seventh time when the priest blew at the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout!

For the Lord has given you this city. The Lord has given you this city. You know, I don't know. I believe that they could have very well said, well, shout! Why should we shout? What will that do? What will that gain us?

I believe the walls would have went down. But Joshua knew what would happen. Joshua said, shout like God said. And it will happen. And verse 20, it says, the people shouted when the priest blew at 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.

So here, after they were walking in obedience to God, they took the instructions that God gave. They believed what God said. They had never fought a battle this way before. They had never walked around any walls and watched them just collapse.

This was a new thing for them. They had not been there before. But there they were willing to do that and watch God work. Maybe for you here tonight as well, maybe this is the kind of battle that you haven't fought.

Maybe this is something that you haven't allowed God to stir in your heart. You haven't taken down the walls that still stand there. Walls of bitterness. Walls of jealousy. Anger. You know, the bitterness that comes from hurt feelings.

Hurt when a brother says something that you think he shouldn't have said. The bitterness that sometimes exists to stay between husbands and wives. You know, those kind of walls. They need to come down.

They all need to come down. They need to be destroyed, disintegrated, so you can have that fellowship with God. The victory that these people had. You know, it's only when the walls are destroyed out of our life that we can be effective.

Do you notice here? This was one that I just rejoiced in as I pondered it a little just this morning. As I noticed that as soon as these walls went, you know, the people went right straight to the place and they took the city.

You know, one of the things that I saw that they did is those two spies, they went in here and they salvaged Rahab out of this whole deal. You know, and when the walls come down in our lives, people can get saved.

People can get free. And this, for the first time this morning, I saw missionaries going to Jericho. You know, people that were going, someone was because of their obedience. Someone because of what they had done.

You know, their willingness to walk this thing. And I realized Rahab had some other things that happened before that. But they were able to save her life and her family's life. That was kind of exciting for me to see that this morning.

Sin in the Camp and the Defeat at Ai

But here we're looking at the victory that they won. This was a miraculous victory that they won. But here, because these things were, even though they won such a beautiful victory, it's not very long, just in the next chapter, that they go up against Ai.

They think we can easily win this thing. You know, it's going to be a piece of cake for us. You don't even have to send very many men. We can easily take it. And they go up there against Ai. And what happens?

They lose the battle. They lose the battle. And you might wonder, why did they go and make such a mistake after they had just had a miraculous victory? That could be like you and I this week. You might have had a miraculous victory this week.

You might have knocked some walls down this week. But you know, if you don't have your eyes set on the Father, if you don't keep a clear heart before God, you could well go into the battle just like they did to Ai and be destroyed.

And again, find yourself crushed. But it doesn't have to be that way. And that's my heart tonight, that we can go on beyond that so that when you hit the Ai's this week, that they can be destroyed. It doesn't have to be that way.

They really got whooped here. And here, without reading all of chapter 7, you know very much the story of Achan, but I'm going to read some of that and we're going to look at some of these areas in our lives.

We're going to look at some of these areas that are so prevalent to us. A few things in particular that God has laid on my heart that I'd like to just share with you and trust that God will stir there in your heart on these things.

Joshua, after he knew that they were in trouble, Joshua, after he knew that they had been defeated, he is crying out to God. He is desperate. He's knowing that something has went bad wrong and God was just simply going to reveal to him, God was going to tell him what happened, that there's sin in the camp of God here.

Something has taken place and this is why you have lost the battle. This is why the battle isn't yours or why Ai had defeated you. Joshua 7, he said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast Thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?

Would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it and shall environ us round and cut off our name from the earth.

And what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name? Joshua is asking, what will people think of us? What will they say of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ if they see that we were defeated? And that's a good question for you to ask tonight.

What do people say of your testimony and our testimony when we're living defeated lives and call ourselves Christians? Little Christ, children of God, yet the testimony doesn't show it. When the testimony shows that we have sin that is hiding behind walls, that we have bitterness among us, and we have unforgiving spirits and anger and the list goes on.

Lust and you name it. They see the name of God is at stake. The name of God is at stake. And Joshua here is asking about that. The Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?

Israel has sinned, and they have transgressed My covenant which I have commended them, for they have taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled also and have put it even among their own stuff.

Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore except you destroy the accursed from among you.

So here we have a situation here where God is again having mercy on Joshua here and telling him what has happened and telling him, this is why you're in trouble. This is why you've lost the battle. Because of the children of Israel, someone here has sinned and you're in trouble.

Remember the victory that they just had. Remember the victory that was marvelous that just took place. Never before or since that has a city been taken like that. Going on to verse 19, Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel.

This is after they had brought family by family along the way until they came to Achan here to find out who this was, to find out what happened. And he said, My son, give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto Him and tell me now what all thou hast done.

Hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus, and thus have I done. Now, the next two verses, I want to spend just a little bit of time here on them.

Achan’s Four Fatal Mistakes

The next two verses, I see there were four fatal mistakes that Achan made. There were four fatal mistakes that Achan made and I think probably many of you can identify with them. I can identify with them.

I have made some of those mistakes already. And Achan certainly made them and he is confessing them here. And I'll read them. I'll read verse 21 there and then I'll go back and talk about them. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them and behold, they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it.

Four fatal mistakes and they lost the battle. This is a learning lesson for us. When you go out of here this week, brethren, some of you have probably been here every night and maybe there's some of you, maybe there's visitors here that haven't been here every night.

But these, nonetheless, these are four fatal mistakes that happen to humanity that causes many a battle to be lost. The first one that I see here, he says, when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment.

When I saw among the spoils. I don't believe that Achan just happened to glance down and just happened to see this. Achan saw them. Achan was looking. Achan's eyes were going that way. I believe he had a bent to see that.

He was looking. He was allowing his eyes to look out to see if he could find something, I do believe. When I saw among the spoils, I believe he probably, as they were going through the spoil and they were seeing the things that these ungodly, heathen people had, he was looking around there and he was probably kicking through some of this stuff and seeing what could I find.

Is there something that I could take home with me? Is there something that would be of value to me? Is there something that I could have? By the way, notice all of these things are very selfish. They're very eye-oriented.

My brother Ron calls it the unholy trinity. Me, myself, and I. And that's really what it is. It's all about I here. Just watch them. When I saw, and I'm just going to ask you, where are your eyes tonight?

And I don't know how much of this has been covered in Brother Rick's sessions, but where are your eyes, the commitment that you have made with your eyes to guard them, to watch over them so they don't go into these places?

If he would have had a covenant with his eyes, he wouldn't have been kicking through the stuff trying to see if he could find some nice clothes and some gold and silver. You know, and if his heart would have been in a right place, that wouldn't have even been a draw on him.

But instead, his eyes were looking. There was something wrong. Where are your eyes tonight? You know, when you walk into the grocery store. You know what I'm talking about. You walk into the grocery store and you walk past the book rack and the magazine rack and you walk past all those things and you know, he just happened to see.

And I realize there are occasions where you walk onto something that you didn't know was there and you quickly back out of it as fast as you can. But where are our eyes? If we guard our eyes by the Spirit of God, you know, we don't have those problems.

And we ask God to close our eyes. Ask God to turn our heads. Ask God to protect us from the garbage and the filth that is out there. The billboards that are out along the road, you know. Many of them.

The magazines that lay around, you know. And maybe the Walmart sale paper that comes in the mail every week. You know, those kind of things. Are you watching your eyes? Men, young men, fathers. Are you teaching your children, your young men, to watch their eyes?

The Internet as well. And many, many other things. When I saw among the spoils a goodlish Babylonish garment. You know, this is heathen, these things. Things that your eyes want to look at. Then he said he coveted.

He found some things there that he saw them. He found some, I believe. And he says, I coveted them. He began to let his heart go after them. He began to reach out in his mind. He began to think, you know, if I just look a little bit, you know.

If no one sees me. Obviously, he was going to hide them. So, you know, he took of these things. And for you and I, it's after we have saw something, it has begun to work in our minds. The mind has begun to go.

The wheels of our mind, you know, as we're looking. And then the next move is for us to take this into ourselves to covet or desire it, to want it. You know, some of you have done that in the past. Some of you are clear of that this week now, after the end.

You know, some of you have gotten free from that and have confessed and repented of your sin. But there may be someone out there that still finds a draw. You know, when someone begins to speak and they begin to speak about some things that aren't even quite right, that are just a little off color.

You know, and you begin to wonder what he's going to say. Or maybe you begin to speak with your wife and you begin to talk about the things that are on your past. You know, and you just kind of enjoy it just a little bit.

You begin to just entertain some of these things. Sin isn't exceeding sinful in most places anymore. Just begin to desire and to covet and to slowly, slowly your conscience gets desensitized. Slowly, after you think about it and after you desire it, you know, maybe just a little bit.

I can just look once. You know, I can just take a little puff. Slowly your conscience gets to be seared. Slowly your conscience... Well, maybe it's not so bad. Maybe I can handle it. Maybe it's not like those preachers keep telling us.

Maybe I can do it. He saw. He coveted them. And then He took them. He took those things. He took them into His possession. I thought of the little Scripture that said, Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned?

He took those things. He brought them into His... He took them. It was more than just looking. It was more than desiring. It was more than opening your heart. It was action now. Now He's bringing this into His life.

Some of you have done that. You know, you found it somewhere in a road ditch and you looked and you looked a little more and then you began to take it, you know. He took them into His life. He took these things.

Then He brought them and He hid them. He took them and hid them. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper. We heard that many times this week, didn't we? But it's still true tonight. We didn't wear it out.

It's still true. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper. The walls will never go down in your life if you're covering your sin. If you're still hiding and you're still covering, it won't work for you.

It just simply won't. And many of you have some of those that are probably... some of you at least have some of those in your life. I'd like to talk to you about some of those things that are very likely possible to be there.

The things that build walls in your life. And there are many of them and I just have a handful of them that I feel that God laid on my heart to share with you. And some of them are from personal testimony to let you know a little who I am and where I come from.

And some of those things and some of the walls that I experienced in my life that needed to come down. And so I'd like to begin with just sharing with you a little bit about my background, where I come from.

Deliverance From Occultic and Extra-Biblical Bondage

I don't know how many of you have heard of what we call the sleeping preacher or shlok prerihah people. I don't know if you've heard of those. But that's my background. That's where I come from. And I was there until I was probably around 20 years old.

And I'd like to just explain to you a little what that is so that you have a little bit of an idea of what kind of a bondage it brings into your life. Because these things had a deep effect on my life for years.