Hebrews 11:30-40

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Theological Triplets and Justification by Faith Alone

I don�t know if you could name any famous triplets. Think about a famous triplet. Maybe you can think of famous twins, but I wonder if you have a famous triplet you could think of. I couldn�t really think of too many.

I looked online, and in this order there were the Del Rubio triplets, the Hayden triplets, the Kirshner triplets, and the Sonder triplets. I don�t really know many of those. But what would you say if I said, �Give me a theological triplet.

I would say Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. Theological triplets. And why would I say that? Because all three are focused on the refrain from Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4, �The just shall live by faith.

That is a very, very important concept, �sola fide. Justification by faith alone. The churches stand or fall based on that doctrine. So today we�re going to look at the concept of faith and justification by faith, walking by faith, because it�s important to become a believer, you have to take God at His Word and believe in the claims of Jesus Christ.

But also as a Christian you do the same thing, do you not? We have to walk by faith, and too easily we say to ourselves, �You know what, I need to change my husband, and so instead of doing it in a godly way, I�ll manipulate him.

I need to find a spouse, so instead of doing it God�s way, I�ll take matters into my own hands. Instead of just doing my taxes in a godly fashion, I�ll manipulate everything for the right outcome. In order to get promoted at work or excel at work, instead of doing things God�s way, Ephesians 6 way, I�ll do things my own way.

So justification by faith alone is important, not only for your standing before God legally, but also as a Christian in a sanctifying walk to say, �The just shall live by faith in Christ Jesus, taking God at His Word.

So instead of Hebrews 11 to start today, because we�re in the book of Hebrews, turn to the first triplet, Romans chapter 1, and I just want to talk about the importance of faith. These three books overlap a lot.

They focus on Christ Jesus, who redeemed us from the curse of the law. He is the one who obeyed the law perfectly, not for His own righteousness, because He was already righteous, but to earn righteousness for us and bestow it, and He also died for our unrighteousness and self-righteousness and was raised from the dead.

And Romans talks a lot about faith. Remember Hebrews 11, �By faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. It�s that figure of speech that just makes it kind of melodic and very memorable. This chapter as well, Romans chapter 1, talks about faith as well with this theological triplet, extolling Jesus and receiving Him by faith alone.

You know the verse, do you not, in chapter 1 verse 16? What a great introduction. Maybe the most two famous verses in all the Bible. �For I am not ashamed of the gospel Romans 1, 16, �for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith, as it is written and stands written, �The just are the righteous shall live by faith. Faith. This is a great book and a great chapter, extolling salvation by free grace alone in Christ Jesus and the free offer to everyone who believes, Jew and Gentile, boy and girl, male and female.

You say, how could Paul be so bold? How is he such a bold preacher? He gets stoned, he gets mocked, he gets scourged, he has all kinds of issues that happen to him and you think you might get kind of timid.

I mean, it's easy for me to say, I go to that church and I say, �Greetings in the name of Triune God but what if people were throwing rocks at me or beating me up in the parking lot? I probably, when it comes to Asher's wedding at another Unitarian church in June, I might be a little gun shy, if you know what I mean.

By the way, what is up with all you people getting married at Unitarian churches? Is this not beautiful? How can you be so bold? And the answer is found in the text, it's the power of God for salvation.

It's powerful and it also reveals God's righteousness. He does the right thing. Paul is confident. This is a figure of speech here, �I'm not ashamed of the gospel. A positive idea is put forth by stating the negative.

He could have said, �I'm proud of the gospel but with this great figure of speech, this Leviticus, he says, �I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm proud of the gospel. I'm confident in the gospel. Because it saves people.

It focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ. That word �ashamed� comes from a word where we'd have a disfigurement, somebody's face got disfigured or some kind of disgrace. Paul says, �That's not it for me because the gospel for me is glad tidings and joyfulness and it's the kind of thing I want to stand on my tiptoes Luther said, �if I was able to do that with his knee.

Earlier we were talking about everybody bows the knee and I thought, �There's a theme today. Everything's a theme with the knees and the bowing and the hips and the crutches. Joyful tidings. I have good news for you.

You can have all your sins forgiven and have eternal life simply by trusting in the Lord Jesus. Spurgeon said, �If the Lord's bearing our sin for us is not the gospel, I have no gospel to preach. The heart of the gospel, Spurgeon said, �is redemption and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.

And then you watch its power in the world as a bunch of hillbillies. The only city guy was Judas and he was, of course, dead and killed himself. It seems too weird that a bunch of these peasant fishermen nobodies take this message and around the world now we in West Boylston are talking about the fame of Christ Jesus, the risen Savior.

I want to remind you though here in the text, verse 17, �For the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. That's a particular translation. Or it could be translated a different way, �Nothing but faith, by faith to faith, faith from faith, nothing but faith, only faith.

That's what he's talking about. The NIV does a good job, I think, with its interpretation, �For the gospel of righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. There's never a time where you say, �You know what, I earned my merit before God, I earned my status before God by merit, by religion, by ceremony, by doing good things.

No, faith says, �I have nothing good in me. I recognize that I'm sinful and tainted and the only way God can approve of me is by having external righteousness found in Christ Jesus. So he says, �Therefore, the just shall live by faith.

That's the book of Hebrews, �The just shall live by faith. That's the book of Galatians. So with that kind of in mind, nothing but faith, from faith from first to last, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 11.

We're just going through Hebrews, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. You think we're probably going pretty slow, but I would imagine we've looked at maybe 40 chapters in the Old Testament, teaching through those chapters as we've been going through Hebrews, because the Bible for the Hebrews, the Bible for our Lord Jesus, of course, was the Old Testament, and so we've been going through Hebrews, flipping back a lot to the Old Testament, because the God of the New Testament, of course, is the God of the Old Testament, right?

The way you're approved before God is the same in the Old Testament and the New, faith. And so we come to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, and we're talking about Jesus, the high priest. Remember, the summary of all this great sermon letter is chapter 8, verse 1.

Now the point in what we're saying is this, we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high. This life of Jesus was so perfect, that death was so substitutionary, his resurrection, death could not hold him, and he's ascended into this place of honor before God the Father.

And we come now to this great section in Hebrews chapter 11, and we are up to verse 30. Remember, we've gone from Abraham, in a sense, the last few weeks, of promise to Moses and law, and now we come to Jericho.

It says in verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Here's what we're going to do today, we're going to look at Jericho, the people outside of Jericho to start, verse 30, the person inside Jericho to finish, Rahab, verse 31. Now only one time so far since I've preached in this pulpit, for coming up now in a couple of weeks, 23 years, have I ever used a prop?

Well I guess maybe two times now with a crutch or something. Some of you are probably saying if you had enough faith you could throw that crutch. If I knew who was going to say that, I'd throw it at you, see if you had enough faith to catch it.

P .S., biblical miracles and healings were instantaneous, were organic, were perfect, and were verified by unbelievers. Don't you let anybody tell you there's some special healing, leg lengthening and all these other things, unless they're healings like Jesus and the Apostles, organic, instantaneous, verifiable by unbelievers.

We're going to look at Jericho and Rahab. Now remember, this is not faithfulness, by faithfulness Abraham, by faithfulness Rahab, by faithfulness the people marching around the walls, this is by faith, it's shorthand, by faith in the Messiah, the high priest, prophet, priest and king, the Lord Jesus.

Secondly, don't forget, this is forward looking faith. This is faith that says, you know what, I'm looking to the future, because all of God's promises aren't necessarily fulfilled in my lifetime. But it's still true, even though I'm waiting for the final consummation.

For Abraham, he was waiting, he didn't see fulfillment. For Moses, he was waiting, he didn't see fulfillment. And for some sense, in some sense, we're waiting too if we die before the Lord returns. There's still this future that God has promised.

So faith is in the right object, and it's forward looking, and finally, it's in spite of circumstances. Well, you don't know what I'm going through, you don't know how difficult it is. That's true, I don't, but I do know that in spite of circumstances, the just should live by faith.

So we're going to look at two sections from Joshua, chapter 2 and chapter 5 and 6, in these two sections as we work through the passage. He skipped over, the writer, did he not? We went from Abraham to Moses, you say, well, what about all the wilderness wanderings?

What about that section? Because now all of a sudden, we're in Jericho. We skipped over a lot of the walking around in unbelief. Yeah, that's why he skipped it, right? Because how can you have the faith chapter when you've got a bunch of people walking in unbelief?

So that's why we skipped that section, that's why he skipped it. Example number one of the just shall live by faith, so dear congregation, you can say, I ought to walk this way too. I'm a Christian man or woman, and I'm to walk by faith, and I like to manage my own life and put all these things together, and I'm not taking God at His word, and I need to just rest in Him, and if these frail people could do it, I must do it, Holy Spirit, help me walk by faith and not by sight.

This isn't just a history lesson, this is for everybody who's here. If you're an unbeliever, the lesson for you is there's no way you can stand before God based on your own righteousness. You need to put your faith in Christ Jesus, the righteous Son.

Jericho Fell by Faith, Not by Military Power

The first example is outside of Jericho, verse 30, I read it, let's read it again, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. Now only once I've used the crutch, not this crutch, but I brought a shofar when I was probably 20 years ago, and the pulpit was over there, and we were preaching through Joshua, and I got to chapter 6, and I got my shofar out, and I blew the shofar.

Remember that? Was anybody here? Probably Fred and Maxine. Wes, you were here? No way, because you know, if you can't preach, you use props. But you know what? I wish I wouldn't have done that. I had it out the other day for the kids in my office, but this passage, when you go back and you read Joshua 6, you're going to go, it's like I'm reading it for the first time, it's so fascinating.

I know you know the story, marching around the wall seven times, shout, we're going to look at that passage. So take your Bible and turn back to Joshua, not 5, 6, but 5, and let's see what really happens there.

In Hebrews, it's passive language, the walls fell down, making sure you get the point, God is the one who's doing this, not some kind of earthquake or some kind of seismic thing, it's supernaturally, God is doing this.

And so we go back to Joshua chapter 5, and one of my major stresses today is going to be this, when you hear God speak to you through His word, sometimes what He says, from our perspective, hear me rightly, seems weird.

It seems odd. It seems absurd. It seems foolish. This is what you want me to do? That's going to be a case right here. It's going to be weird. Grown men marching around this thing, how are you going to get the walls down?

By the way, they're going into Jericho, a very important place that you need to have to conquer. Even General Allenby, back in the British Army, said, this is a strategic spot, we must have this. Similarly, they leave Egypt, they're coming to the promised land, we've got to take this over.

I don't think they've ever seen ramparts or fortifications or walls, a bunch of farmers, essentially, without weapons and Trojan horses, and how are we going to take this city? I mean, by my own side, this doesn't look good.

Heavily walled city, armor, warriors, and what do we have? Ark of the Covenant, some priests and some horns. Okay, sounds good. But before we get to chapter 6, which is the chapter for the walls, there's chapter 5 that talks about Jericho.

And here's the divine encounter with Joshua, verse 13. Could there be a more exciting encounter? When Joshua was by Jericho, Joshua 5 .13, he lifted up his eyes, kind of get the emphasis, and looked, and behold, a man standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand, and Joshua said to him, are you for us or are you for our adversaries?

I've got to take this city, I'm brooding, I don't know how I'm going to get it done, and he approaches. And I think here God is going to give him some assurance, divine assurance. You need this city, but it's impregnable, how are we going to get through it?

Deuteronomy talks about the city, the city is large and fortified to heaven. I mean, how are we going to do that? With these people? And you see, he lifted up his eyes, he looked up, he sees this man standing with a drawn sword in his hand.

By the way, only angels of the Lord have drawn swords in their hand like this, with this exact language, with a drawn sword in his hand. Numbers 22, 1 Chronicles 21, the angel of the Lord. What's going on here?

Verse 14, and he said, no, rather I indeed come now as the captain of the armies, or the host, or the legions of angels of the covenant-keeping God named Yahweh, translated in your Bible as Lord. Joshua knew he was in the presence of God, and what does he do?

God, the son, pre-incarnate Jesus, has walked on the earth before, Genesis chapter 3, in the garden. He has wrestled with a man named Jacob, we just heard about, chapter 32. And here he shows up again.

And it's not for Joshua to say, are you on my team or not? That's God's prerogative. And we're going to see, by the way, he, the son, was on his team, because we're going to know what happened to Joshua really quick, I mean, Jericho, very quickly.

Joshua knew he was in the presence of the divine Christophany, pre-incarnate Jesus. He falls on his face to the earth, bows down, and Jesus says, get up, don't worship me, I'm not God. Is that what the text says?

Of course not. What has my Lord to say to his servant? That is an amazing passage. The angels, the armies, did not Jesus say he had 12 legions of angels ready to defend him? And by the way, now Jesus has at least 12 legions of angels ready to go ahead and take Jericho.

That is amazing. Armies of angels. I mean, cannot one angel? How many Assyrians or Syrians did one angel kill in one night? 185 ,000. You guys know your Bible. Give me a theological triplet. Origen said Joshua knew not only that he was of God, but that he was God, for he would not have worshipped him had he not recognized him to be God.

When people went down on their face before Paul and Barnabas, hey, you're Hermes, you're Zeus, you're some God. They're like, get up, I'm just a man. Oh, but not here. Joshua, the armies of God are ready to fight for you.

I am going to show you that I'm on my side. You're going to need me because you're no military expert. Verse 15. And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, one more reason why I think this is the pre-incarnate Jesus.

Does this not remind you of Exodus chapter three and the burning bush in Moses? Remove your sandals from your feet for the place where you're standing is what? Holy and Joshua did so reverence and awe and holiness.

Verse one of chapter six. Now, Jericho, look at this language was tightly shut. No access. Gates aren't open, was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel. No one went out and no one came in. By the way, if you go back to chapter five, verse one of Joshua.

Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the West and all the kings of the Canaanites were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed that their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

Hey, let's lock this thing up. Israel is on its way out and we're afraid because we know what God has done through these people. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I've given Jericho into your hand. Here we have the captain of the Lord's army from Joshua five saying, I've given Jericho into your hand with its kings, with its king and valiant warriors.

You're going to take the city without a shot being fired. Not one arrow is going to shoot out of your bows. Now, if I'm Joshua, what would I be thinking? Don't have any ladders. Don't really have any shovels to dig under.

Maybe we'll try to starve them out, but they've got some kind of water in there with the cisterns and they can grow their own food. That's going to take a long time. Maybe we'll kind of make some kind of wooden horse, you know, Greeks conquer Troy with that or smash a hole somehow.

But I think he forgot this is going to be God's work and God's work alone. Is it not like with the Red Sea? Moses, you and everybody else, here's your job. Take me at my word and you stand back and watch.

Okay, here's how you're going to take that city down. You shall march around the city. All the men of war, probably tribal representatives. You've got two million people. It's going to take a long time to have two million people walk around nine acres of a small city.

So probably the men of war, the tribal warriors circling the city at once. You shall do so for six days. Okay, kind of sounds dumb. Kind of sounds stupid. Kind of sounds like Naaman the Syrian leper. I've got a better river than the Jordan.

The Jordan's dirty and you want me to dunk myself into it seven times. You ever bob when you were a kid, you know, and you're bobbing up and down in the water. You just bob seven times in the Jordan, you're going to be cleansed.

And Naaman the Syrian is saying what? No possible way. I'm not going to do it. Finally, he's talked into it and you can just see him. Well, that's number two, nothing. Told you, you fools. Number three, nothing.

Now you're going to march around seven times. By the way, seven is a very important number. It's a number of completion. You'll see it over and over and over in the Bible. Closest thing we've got is Friday the 13th.

We have numbers in our society, 13th. Here, this is a good number. March around seven times. By the way, it's such a good number. Seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark.

I mean, you know what? What I'm thinking? This is a worse strategy than the Bay of Pigs. That's what I'm thinking. But before the ark, the presence of God. You know how many army commanders have studied this passage?

Even unbelievers. Then on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets. We know the story, but it just sounds so odd. Taking God at his word, walking by faith, waiting seven days, marching seven days.

This is not a military war, dear friends. It's a ceremonial war. It's the true religious war. And it shall be that when they make a long blast with the rams horn, because you can't really play notes, right?

You don't have three valves like a trumpet. Long blast with the rams horn. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout and the walls of the city will fall down flat and the people will go up every man straight ahead.

I mean, maybe it's going to be some kind of sonic boom with the shofar. Some kind of shofar boom or something. Maybe it all happened that way. Who knows? But from the human point of view, nothing could be more foolish or useless.

It doesn't work. It's never worked. We've never done this before. And God said, you trust me, you do what I say. What a scheme. Ritual ceremony, not military. Verse six. So Joshua, the son of none, called the priest and said to them, wonder what they're thinking when they hear from Joshua, take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark of the Lord.

Then he said to the people, go forward and march around the city. Let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord. Joshua is not really in charge. The captain of the Lord's army is in charge. And here's what he says to Joshua.

Joshua says to these priests, here's what I want you to do. And don't you dare forget, dear congregation, the ark of the Lord is right there in the center. This is all about the presence of God. Okay, so I wonder what's going on with the people who are up in the ramparts and up in the fortification of the city.

And they're looking down there with all these people out there. They're kind of afraid of the Israelites. There's a lot of them. And they're kind of afraid because their hearts have been melting because they heard what happened with the Red Sea.

I wonder what they're thinking. Verse eight. And it was so that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of the ram's horn before the Lord went forward, blew the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

Follow them kind of building suspense, repeating over and over this way. We would teach back in those days. The armed men went before the priest who blew the trumpet. Rear guard came after the ark. Ark is in the center presence of God while they continue to blow the trumpet.

And now one of the coolest things I bet you missed when you were a kid. Joshua commanded the people saying, you shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you shout, then you shall shout.

So we're going to walk around the city quiet. Nobody's talking. I mean, to me, it's kind of eerie. I think the only thing that was heard was you guys are fools. You guys are idiots. Sorry, kind of Monty Python stuff is going through my mind right now.

If you don't know what I'm talking about. Hallelujah. Be quiet. And you know how hard it would be to be quiet? This is probably why they train people in the military. You just do what we say. You don't need to know why you just do it.

You take us at your word. You obey. This is not some kind of Lord being the drill sergeant. But there is something to be said for obedience. Trusting in what God would say seems weird. Seems foolish. Ignore the taunts.

Walk around. I, by the way, what would you be thinking about if you were doing the marching? I wonder if you'd be going, Lord, I don't know what you're going to do, but you were faithful. With the Red Sea, you were faithful getting us out of Egypt.

I don't know how you're going to do this, but please do this. For your glory. And I don't want to look stupid. I mean, I would have all kinds of things walking through my mind. The center of everything is God.

And God himself manifested, especially in the ark. Verse 11. So he had the ark of the Lord taken around the city, circling it once. They came to the camp, spent the night in the camp. They're not rebelling the people of God of Israel.

They're not protesting. They're not doing a sit-down strike. They're obeying. I used to be in the marching band. And many days, I think it would have been just been better if we would have been silent.

But that's another story. Now, Joshua rose early in the morning and the priest took up with the ark of the Lord. See the ark of the Lord, the presence of God manifest there in the center. With the cherubim in the mercy seat and the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horns before.

There it is again. The ark of the Lord went on continually, blew the trumpets. The armed men went before them. Rear guard came after. The ark of the Lord. Do you see that? While they continue to blow the trumpets.

That's the second day. They marched around the city once and returned to camp. And they did so for six days. I'm thinking if I'm up on the ramparts. First day, funny. Six day twilight zone. They don't know what's going to happen the seventh day.

Day after day after day. These people are walking around the city. The repetition next morning. Next morning. Verse 15. Then it came about on the seventh day that they rose early at dawn of the day. I bet you they were excited.

Marched around the city in the same manner seven times. Only that day they marched around the city seven times. People make an estimate. Takes 45 minutes maybe to walk around the city. Five, six hour walk.

Came about at the seventh time when the people of the priest blew the trumpets. Joshua said of the people. First time that you really get to talk. Shout for the Lord has given you the city. And you're like well what happened?

And so what does the drama of the Old Testament do? It gives you a little parenthesis. So you don't know quite yet. Because suspense has to be built. Verse 17. City shall be under the ban. It and all that is in it belongs to the Lord.

Only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live. Because she hid the messengers whom we sent. We'll look at that in chapter two soon enough. But as for you keep for yourselves only the things of the ban.

Unless you covet them. Take some of the things out of the ban. So that you would make the camp of Israel accursed. And bring trouble upon it. All the silver gold articles iron holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord.

So verse 20. The people shouted the priest blew the trumpets. And it came about when the people heard the sound of the trumpet. That the people shouted with a great shout. And the wall fell down flat.

So the people went up to the city. Every man straight ahead. They took the city. Supernaturally dear friend. I don't think it was an earthquake. I don't think the Israelite soldiers were undermining the walls.

While the other marched. Like some commentators say. I don't think it was the vibrations. One commentator said. Set up by the trumpets blasts. And soldiers shouts caused the collapse. Some kind of resonance or something.

No. A supernatural event. And by the way. For our refined sensibilities in 2020. We don't understand how bad sin is. And how contagious it is. And how deceitful it is. And how it must be destroyed like a cancer.

Verse 21. And they utterly destroyed everything in the city. Both man and God. Young and old. And ox and sheep and donkey. With the edge of the sword. I know I'm affected by the world. And it's thinking.

When I had any inkling. This somehow could not be right of God to do. I know I'm affected. God hates idols. God hates polytheism. It will cost you your life. The battle of Jericho. Wasn't a battle. There wasn't much fighting going on.

Because it was something that God did to these people. What's the point? The point is we take God at his word. In spite of circumstances. We are forward looking. And we think you know what? Even though I don't understand it.

I mean I'm just think pop things are popping in my mind. Let's see. A woman says I have a disobedient husband. How do I win him? How do you win a disobedient husband? It's pretty weird advice. Don't you think in first Peter?

You put special tracks in his sandwich. Every day. You call the pastor and say confront him. You give him a Jerry Bridges book. The second and third one aren't too bad. You win him without a what? Word.