Spiritual Warfare - He Helpeth — Phil Beach Jr.

The Lord. Are you standing on his promises this morning? That doesn't mean you take the Bible and stand on it. What that means is you place your faith in God's Word and don't let it be turned aside. Amen?

Amen. You may be seated this evening and you would, you may I mean, you would, you could, you may, if you have your Bibles, open them to Joshua chapter 6, and this is the next message in the series, I've lost count, on spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Warfare and the Christian’s Call to Battle

Joshua chapter 6, our next message on spiritual warfare. As you're turning your Bibles to Joshua chapter 6, by way of remembrance, I'd like to tell you that the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 6 tells us that we are engaged in a wrestling match as Christians.

This wrestling match is not against flesh and blood. This wrestling match is not being fought with human referees. It's not being done at the arena in New York City or Los Angeles, California. For the Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against spiritual forces, against the very authorities of demon spirits that are in the world today.

And it's very important that we understand and recognize tonight as Christians, that as Christians we are called into a war. Paul told Timothy that he was to fight the good fight of faith, so we are called to fight for the faith.

He also told Timothy that those who are called into a war are supposed to please the commanding officer. We know that our commanding officer is the Lord Jesus Christ. So with that as an introduction tonight, seeing that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare, we would like to first of all show you, but not in detail, in order to bring us to Joshua chapter 6, we want to mention four things.

Gilgal’s Preparation for Spiritual Warfare

Israel, before they approached their Jericho and before they experienced victory over the devil and over the Jericho that was in God's land, they had to first camp at Gilgal. That's found in Joshua chapter 5.

And four things had to take place in Gilgal before they were spiritually ready to confront the enemy. And these four things must take place in our life through faith and through obedience to the Lord before we are qualified to be able to stand in the gap in the ministry of intercessory prayer and see God bring victories through the Lord Jesus Christ.

First of all, Israel had to experience a circumcision at Gilgal. Now the Bible teaches us as Christians in the New Testament that we are to be spiritually circumcised, which means that we must come to the place in our walk with the Lord where we allow the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to roll back our fleshly life and to roll back our self-desires in order that the new man and in order that the spiritual man and in order that the will of God might become the first priority in our life.

That is spiritual circumcision. Secondly, the children of Israel had to celebrate the Passover. Now remember these were things that needed to take place before they approached their Jericho. And likewise, their spiritual fulfillment, they are necessary in our lives before we're ready to take our Jericho.

Now the Passover, spiritually speaking, is Christ himself. They had to celebrate the Passover. So secondly, the Christian must come to the place in their walk with the Lord through the Holy Spirit and through the Word of God.

By the way, all of these things can only be done in your life by faith in God through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. They cannot be done by self-effort. They cannot be preached into you. I cannot make you a spiritual warrior, competent and able to go and fight spiritual battles.

I can preach to you the Word of God, which I'm doing tonight, and that word will be planted in your hearts, but it's only as you reach out by faith in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to change you, that's when you yourself will be able to say, yes, I see.

You must celebrate your spiritual Passover, which means you must come to the place where Christ is your chief joy. You have to celebrate Christ. He has to become your joy. He has to become your reason for living.

He has to become the very source of your wisdom and knowledge and understanding. He has to become your all and all. Thirdly, the children of Israel were required then to partake in the unleavened bread, the festival of unleavened bread.

And this, to the Christian, represents being weaned and cut off from being dishonest, deceitful, telling lies, walking after the flesh, being involved in unwholesome conversation, because unleavened bread in the New Testament represents sincerity and truth.

The Apostle Paul told us that we are to keep the feast with unleavened bread, which is sincerity and truth. So you've got to come to a place in your Christian walk, as you surrender to the Lordship of Christ, where He makes you daily partake of unleavened bread, which is you walk in truth, you walk in sincerity, your motives are not covered up, you don't have hidden motives, you don't do things trying to be seen of people, you don't go around and tell little white lies, you don't go around and deceive people and distort the truth.

We've got to come to the place, Christian, as we surrender to Christ, where He can begin to cause us to feast on unleavened bread. And lastly, we've got to have a revelation that Christ has overcome and that He will bring us the victory.

The Lord’s Presence and the Fall of Jericho

We find in Joshua chapter 5, and you may look there, and we'll take this right into Joshua 6. Now, in Joshua chapter 5, verse 13. Now, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.

Joshua went up to him and asked, Are you for us or for our enemies? Neither, he replied, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. Listen, now Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and asked him, What message does my Lord have for His servant?

The commander of the Lord's army replied, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. You see, after Joshua celebrated the Passover, and he celebrated the circumcision, and he celebrated the feast of unleavened bread, it consummated in having a personal revelation of the victorious Lord.

This is needful in our lives before we enter into spiritual warfare, because unless we are fully persuaded that the Lord is an almighty God who is able to take the greatest mountain of spiritual filth, and He's able to take the strongest demonic power and cast it into the sea, unless we're persuaded that it's God's power that can do it, we will miserably fail as Christians in spiritual warfare.

Do you agree with that? Amen. So that brings us to Joshua chapter 6. Are you ready to tackle your first Jericho tonight? You say, Well preacher, what does Jericho represent? Jericho represents the work of the devil in your life or someone else's life that doesn't belong there.

You see, Jericho was a strong city that was built in Canaan. Canaan belonged to God's people, did it not? And Jericho had no right in God's land. That's why God said, When you go into Jericho, I will drive your enemies out.

See, and in Christ, God through Christ has redeemed mankind, hasn't He? Doesn't the Bible say that Christ died for our sins, and not only our sins, but for the sins of the world? You see, Christ shed His blood in order to free all men from the works of the devil.

So therefore, the devil has no right to bind us with works of the flesh and with works of sin, because we belong to God. We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our bodies and our minds are to be used for the Lord's purposes, are they not?

The Bible says you belong to God. Therefore glorify God in both your body and your spirit. God wants you to be a holy people. God wants you to offer yourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him, which is your reasonable service.

Be not conformed to this world, but be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That means we can't think like the world. When you've got thinking and reasoning in your mind that defies the Word of God and contradicts the Word, you've got a spiritual Jericho inside of you that needs to be torn down.

When you've got a sin that bothers you and torments you and brings you to the place where you are yielding to the devil in that area in your life, you've got a spiritual Jericho in your life that needs to get out, right?

Sure you do. You see, God has promised us victory in Christ, but many times victory has to be fought for. It has to be persevered and pursued. This is what we hope to accomplish by God's help through this series of preaching, to equip you with the necessary spiritual weaponry so that you can go into prayer and into the power of the Holy Ghost of God and see victory, not only in your own life, but you can learn how to stand in the gap for other people.

If you're a man and you're a husband, you are the priest of your home. You have the responsibility of standing in the gap of your family and keeping the devil out. And when the devil comes in through any influence as the priest of your house, you've got to stand up and rise up against the devil and say, devil, this family belongs to God and I'm the priest of my house and I command you in Jesus' name to get out of here.

You've got to. If you don't, you know what's going to happen? The devil will come and make his abode in your home and he'll destroy your family and he'll destroy your children. Oh yes, church, we're in a spiritual warfare tonight.

And unless we recognize the need to trust in the Lord and use His Word and prayer, then we're going to be overcome. You say, well, you can't be overcome if you're a Christian. Sure you can. The Corinthians were sure being overcome.

Paul said, you're acting carnal. You have divisions among you. You've got one that is sleeping with his father's wife. If that's not being overcome by the devil, I don't know what is. They had a sexual immorality going on right in the service, right in the fellowship, and they weren't dealing with it.

Why? Because they weren't walking in the holiness of God's Word, but they allowed Jericho's to live in God's property. You ready to battle? Before we battle, let's realize the battle was the Lord's. You say, well, what's our responsibility?

Our responsibility is to trust and obey. There's a song we sing, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. You've got to trust God and obey His Word, and if you trust God and obey His Word, the devil has to flee.

You believe that? Okay, got lots of faith here tonight. I can feel it. It's good. People actually believe this. Shocking nowadays when you preach the Bible and people believe it. You know, the Bible says in the last days there's going to be teachers who will arise, and they're going to give people what they want to hear, because people are going to have itchy ears.

You know what itchy ears is? They always want to hear something new, as long as it's not holiness and righteousness and from the Word. So there's a whole host of ministers up nowadays preaching a pillow gospel, you know, ease, comfort, everything's going to be all right.

Praise the Lord. You can get rich with Jesus. Stay away from it. Remember what we said at the beginning? Put your trust in God's Word, not a man. Well, that's neither here nor there. I don't want to get in that.

Holiness, God’s Presence, and Spiritual Strongholds

Joshua, Isaiah was on my mind because of holy, holy, holy. I remember here in verse 15 of chapter 5, take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy. And when Isaiah got a vision of the Lord, he saw angels falling down saying, holy, holy, holy.

Seems like every time someone sees the Lord they cry out holy. Tells you something about the Lord's presence. It's holy. It's wonderful. Thank God through the blood we can approach Him now. We don't have to draw back.

We can come boldly before the throne and receive help in time of need, not receive whatever we want, you know. Verse 1, chapter 6, now Jericho was tightly shut up. One thing you must learn about spiritual Jericho's, many times, most times, they're tightly shut up.

When a Jericho is allowed to live in your life or in the life of someone else, it usually strengthens itself and becomes very, very unshakable, does it not? Habits and sins become so fixed and so unshakable that if without God's power it's unable to move.

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've delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.

You see, God has delivered into our hands through Christ the deliverance that we need to overcome all of our Jerichos and all of the kings of Jericho, which means demonic powers. We don't have to be subject to the torment of Satan or subject to sins that torment us in our life, but through God's power, through Jesus Christ, God has delivered into our hands Jericho.

That's victory tonight. Along with its king and its fighting men. Now, notice verse 3. Verse 3 is the method that God has designed in order to possess the spiritual Jericho. Now, this is where we're going to get into tonight's message, believe it or not.

Intercessory Prayer and the Holy Spirit’s Help

All that was preliminary. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. To march around the city represents intercessory prayer, to surround your spiritual Jericho with prayer to God.

When you confront a spiritual Jericho, you've got to, first of all, march around that Jericho through prayer and intercession and requests before God. You've got to surround and bombard your Jericho with prayer.

Now, I'd like to turn your attention, if I may please, to Romans chapter 8. We're going to discover tonight how we combine prayer through the power of the Holy Ghost in order to bind the devil or in order to tear down the Jerichos in our life.

Romans chapter 8, verse 26. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Now, I want to point your attention to the word help.

Now, if you have a King James, it says helpeth. If you have a New American Standard, it says helps. Now, if you do a study on that word in the Strong's Concordance, you will discover that that word help is made up of three different words.

And when you combine the meaning of those three words, this is what you come up with. To take hold of, together with, against. To take hold of, together with, against. As I said, if you do a study in your Strong's Concordance on that word help, you will discover that it is the combination of three words, and putting those three words together, you come up with, to take hold of, together with, against.

So the Holy Spirit of God is given to the believer in order to aid the believer to do three things, with the help of the Holy Spirit. And these three things combined together make up the scriptural way to tear down spiritual Jerichos.

I'll repeat. These three things, to take hold of, together with, against. When the believer, along with the Holy Spirit, combine these three essential elements all through prayer, that is the scriptural way that we tear down our spiritual Jerichos in our life.

Now, first of all, I want to explain to you, to take hold of, together with, against. I want to explain to you what each one of those refer to, and show you how when we combine those three things together, in prayer and faith to God, we have a scriptural way to tear down spiritual Jerichos in our life and in the lives of others.

Taking Hold of God’s Word in Faith

First of all, we put one of those words in light, and we see that it means to take hold of. Well, the Holy Spirit helps us by causing us to take hold of the Word of God. So we take hold of the Word of God.

The Word of God is the foundation of our faith. If you've got a problem in your life with guilt or unforgiveness, and that's a Jericho in your life, you've got to take hold of God's promise. You've got to find in the Bible where it says, if I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

If you are sick, and you believe the Holy Spirit is telling you that you can be healed, the first thing you've got to do is take hold of God's Word in Isaiah 53, where Jesus Christ said He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

You see, you need to find God's Word and take hold of the promise of God. Secondly, you take hold of God's Word together with the power of the Holy Spirit. So you take hold of God's Word together with the power and travail of the Holy Spirit, take hold of, together with, against.

So you take hold of the Word of God in union with and in togetherness with the Holy Ghost, and together you stand against the works of the devil. You stand against the works of the devil by taking hold of the Word of God in union with the power of the Holy Spirit.

You see, and this is the way you can learn how to stand in front of spiritual Jerichos and find victory evermore. God's Word is unmovable, God's Word does not lie, God's Word is filled with promises, God's Word is our bread that we ought to live off of.

You see, and this is what it meant, for this is what it means when God tells us we have to march around our Jericho. You see, in order to get faith in your heart and in order to be able to stand against a Jericho, you've got to be able to combine these three things in prayer through faith.

And as you combine these three things in prayer through faith, then you will find yourself to be able to be victorious in overcoming the things that God or that the devil is trying to bring in your life.

Now let's go over that again. Intercessory prayer is the way that we bind the devil or that we tear down spiritual Jerichos. And intercessory prayer is found in Romans chapter 8, verse 26, and we discover that the Holy Spirit helps us, and as we work together with the Holy Spirit, we do three things.

We take hold of the Word of God together with the power of the Holy Spirit, and we stand against the work of the devil. We stand against it in faith. We stand against it in the Word of God. We stand against it in the power of the Holy Ghost.

We don't faint. We continue to pray. We stand on the Word. We believe the Word. We don't care what we see. We don't care. The Bible says that God has brought us salvation, and we can be free, and we can be delivered.

And until the church gets this kind of faith in her, she's not going to see the victories that God wants her to see. But I tell you, when we can grab a hold of God's Word, and we can grab a hold of the promises of God in His Word, and we can grab a hold of the power of the Holy Ghost, we can learn to stand against the works of the devil, and the works of sin, and the works of bitterness, and the works of envy and jealousy, and we can all come together in God's love and God's power, we're going to see spiritual Jerichos taken down out of our lives and out of our churches, and we're going to see the Lord Jesus Christ begin to rise up in our midst and begin to reach out to a tired and lost world.

Spiritual warfare to take hold of God's Word together with the power of the Holy Ghost, and to stand in opposition against the works of the devil, and you'll find spiritual victory in your life. Matthew chapter 16,.

The Keys of the Kingdom and Spiritual Authority

Matthew chapter 16, beginning with verse 13. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, Who do men say the Son of Man is? And they replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

But what about you? He asked. What do you say I am, or who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. The rock is Christ Himself. He is the chief cornerstone. Listen to what it says. And the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. The keys that each and every believer have been given are the spiritual dynamics of spiritual intercessory prayer, the Word of God which unlocks the powers of hell.

If you have a problem in your life, and you need a Savior, and you turn to the Word of God and see that Jesus is the Christ, isn't that a key that can open up your spiritual darkness and bring you to victory in Christ?

You see, the Word of God are keys, and the Word of God can become to us the very life and the very power of God that gives us the spiritual victory that we need to live victorious, overcoming Christian lives.

And now might I ask, how many people have learned to use the keys, intercessory prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, faith in God Himself, to unlock the chains of Jericho? Oh, how we need for the Holy Spirit to rise up, spiritual warriors in these last days who will give themselves over as they're able to prayer, intercessory prayer.

But you've got to combine prayer with the Word. We mentioned a few weeks ago that if you have prayer with no Word, you've got mysticism, and you become vulnerable to voices that are not of God. And many people today are departing from the faith, and the faith is what is written, and they are getting involved in voices and dreams and visions which contradict the Word of God, and it's of the devil.

And likewise, on the other extreme, if you have all Word and all Bible but no spirit and no fresh communion with Christ, then you have nothing but a religious institution, you have Phariseeism, you have legalism and law with no life.

So you've got to combine the two and find the balance, and the balance is communion with Christ every day through His Word. You can't commune in the Word without seeing Christ, and you can't see Christ without communing in the Word.

And you combine those two together, and you've got keys that if you learn how to use them through God teaching you, you can find the power to unlock chains that have bound you so long, and you can also find the power to help other people get loosed.

Standing in the Gap for Those Entangled in the World

Isn't it exciting to know that we can stand in the gap as Abraham did and see Lot delivered from a Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you know a Lot right now who loves the Lord because the Bible does say that Lot had a righteous soul.

It said his soul was grieved. Do you know a Lot right now, somebody who loves the Lord but is so entangled in the world? Well, Abraham took the keys of intercessory prayer, and he beseeched and begged God to spare him, and God spared Lot.

Do you think that now that we have Christ interceding for us, and now that we've been given the Holy Ghost to intercede for us, do you think that God will do anything less for us today if we come before Him?

Absolutely not. God will deliver people who are entangled, but He's waiting and looking for intercessors. He's waiting for people who will stand in the gap and take hold of the Word of God together with the power of the Holy Spirit to stand against the devil.

Resisting the Devil Through Humility and Faith

Turn your Bibles to James, the book of James. I'm sorry, we're going to Peter. Just keep on going to the right. Peter chapter 5, beginning with verse 6. 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5, beginning with verse 6. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time.

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Listen. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.

The way to resist the devil is by submitting yourself to God, by humbling yourself to God, by casting your care upon God, and by getting into intercessory prayer and taking hold of God's promises together with the power of the Holy Ghost, standing against the works of the devil, and you'll find victory.

Now, it is 810, and we're going to bring this message to a close because I don't want to get into my next subject because it'll go for another hour, but next we're going to go into the necessity of being patient while engaging in spiritual warfare because my text for the next time we get into this is Joshua chapter 6, verse 3, the latter part.

It's one thing to march around the city, but God told Joshua to do it for six days, so if he would have just done it for two days and got discouraged and said, nothing's happening, he would have stopped and it would have blew it.

So the title of next, the next series on spiritual warfare is the necessity of perseverance while engaged in spiritual warfare, and we're going to show you what is happening during those six days when you are marching around your Jericho in prayer, and nothing is happening by your natural eye.

What is happening spiritually? There's a lot of things happening. The only way you can know is if you come back. That's not true. I mean that. That's not true. People on the tape, that's not true. You can learn it by getting down and seeking the Lord, but it might make it easier if you come back, or you can get the tape.

We're having a difficult time. I feel very sorry. I keep telling Debbie Reinhart that we're going to get her these tapes, and we haven't got her these tapes yet. She wanted the first couple messages on this.

We're going to end up giving her the whole, whole series. Ah, isn't that wonderful? Thank God that the Lord is bringing her to patience, and we're learning frustration. No, we're not. We're going to make a positive effort this week to be able to get these tapes and messages prepared.

We had a request this morning for tapes, someone. We preached on the Sabbath this morning, and we showed how the Sabbath is not a day, but it's Christ. It's Christ, and how you have to keep the Sabbath, but that doesn't mean you have to go to church on Saturday and not do anything, and a lady said she knows a another friend of hers who's so bound to the Sabbath day she won't even read a newspaper because it was printed on Saturday, and they're really in bondage, and that's the devil, and you say, well, don't be unkind, Brother Beach.

Don't judge. I'm not judging. The Bible's judging. The Bible says we can't go back under the law, the religious law. No, you can't be keeping the Sabbath thinking that it's Saturday. Christ is our Sabbath.

He has become our rest. He is the seventh day, spiritually speaking. As we enter into Him, we cease from our own works. Isn't that what the law required regarding the Sabbath day, that we stop working, that we can't do any work, we have to set it aside as holy?

That's what Christ is. When we enter into Him, we put off the works of the flesh, we stop struggling in ourself, and we enter into God's rest, which is Christ. Amen? Well, praise the Lord. Are you prepared to be able to lead us in a song of victory tonight?