Our Response to Christ

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit lancelambert.org or follow us on social media to receive all of our updates. Lance's Bible studies on Joshua, Judges and Ruth will be released next week. These studies are great helps to the church in seeing the purpose of the Lord in the times of Joshua, Judges and Ruth, and in understanding inheritance, authority, and the sovereignty of God. This book will be available on August 29. In this episode, Lance reads from Joshua, chapter four, and preaches about our need to stand on the finished work of Christ for us on the cross. Let's listen to our response to Christ. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Until we turn to the book of Joshua. And we will read chapter four, verse six. Joshua, chapter four, verse six. That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, what mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall say unto them, because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. Chapter five, verse one. And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites that were by the sea, heard how that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we were passed over, that their heart melted. Neither was their spirit in them anymore, because of the children of Israel at that time. The Lord said unto Joshua, make thee knives of flint, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him knives of flint and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise. All the people that came forth out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness, by the way, after they came forth out of Egypt. For all the people that came out were circumcised, for all the people that were born in the wilderness, by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness till all the nation, even the men of war that came forth out of Egypt, were consumed because they hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord unto whom the Lord swear that he would not let them see the land which the Lord swear unto their fathers that he would give us a land flowing with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead them did Joshua circumcise for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them. By the way, and it came to pass, when they're done circumcising all the nation that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were made whole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, wherefore the name of the place was called Gilgal unto this day. And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and they kept the passover on the 14th day of the month at Even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the produce of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes and parched grain in the self same day, and the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the produce of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manor more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said nay. But as prince of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and said unto him, what saith my Lord unto his servant? And the prince of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, put off thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Back over what we have said previously. I'm going to start really right away, because in many senses what we have to say tonight is in fact a summing up of much that has been said before on these chapters. I want to deal this evening lastly with our response to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We had spoken in the first evening about the work of the person of Christ as we see him symbolized in the Ark of the Covenant. And we have spoken about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as we see it symbolized in what happened as that ark went into the Jordan in full flood and cut off the waters so that the people of God could pass over from the wilderness into the Promised Land. And those twelve stones that were, as it were dug out of the place where the ark stood and put up in the Promised Land at Gilgal and the twelve stones that were buried where the others were dug up from. Now this evening we want to speak about our response to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will remember that we ended last week speaking about the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and his present position. And we said quite a bit about the victory that is already won because of the finished work and present position on the Lord jesus Christ. It's a victory that's already won. And as we go forward in faith by the Holy Spirit, so the Lord, the angel of the Lord, goes before us like a hornet and drives out all the IPS so that we can possess the land little by little, stage by stage, step by step, literally. Well, now, I think we must this evening come to the practical side of all that we have said. As far as you and I are concerned. It is true that Christ has done all his work, is a complete work. There is not a single child of God who is not included. There is not one of us, however weak or however insignificant, that is not included in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross when he died as us, when we were placed by God in Him. You remember the illustration last week of the glass of water and the stone in it, when God baptized us, put us in Christ. We were all there. And that finished work includes all of us, not only for our justification, but for our sanctification. It is a complete and a finished work, but in spite of the fact that Christ has done all we can lead. Wilderness type Experience wilderness experience lives to the very end. There are some Christians who are truly saved, many Christians who are truly justified. They know the Lord as their savior. They know that they have been saved through his grace, and they know that there is forgiveness for all their sin through his precious blood. They have been reconciled to God, but they are leading defeated lives, defeated lives that can only be described as a wilderness experience. And some, their whole so called Christian life is one long, unending wilderness experience. There are points of great blessing. There are points, as it were, when the Lord is seen as he was in the wilderness. There are points when the Lord thunders and speeds as he did in the wilderness. There are points when they receive something from the Lord, they are sustained and kept alive spiritually, even in spite of a wilderness experience. But it is still an unending cycle, a round in which there seems to be no progress, no real growth, no essential growth. I think that we must say this, that unless we cooperate fully with the Lord, it is a terrible possibility that we can be left to our wilderness experience to the end of our lives. The key is undoubtedly our response to the Lord, our response to his person, and our response to his work on the cross. Everything depends, we can say, upon our response. It is not enough to argue that all has been done. The people had to see. They had to see the Ark of the Lord. They had to follow the Ark of the Lord into the waters. They had to walk over into the land. They had to fight by faith, actually, and I mean fight by faith. That was the way. They won the land with the soles of their feet they won the land. And yet there was a fight for it. There was a conflict, conflict after conflict until the land was possessed. They had to possess. They had to respond to the word of God and the person of God. And the work of God, the Lord Jesus god had said to them that he would give them the whole land. It was theirs. That was his promise. Everything that the sole of their feet came upon, that would he give them. That was his word. His work was that through the Passover Lamb, by the blood of the Passover Lamb, he had redeemed them. There was a passover kept before they went through the Red Sea. There was a passover kept after they had passed through Jordan. Here was a picture of the work of the Lord Jesus. Through the blood of the slain Lamb they were delivered and were redeemed and were saved. But there was a crossing through the Red Sea. They'd come out of Egypt, and there was a crossing through Jordan. They'd come into the land, out of Egypt, into the land. This was the work of God, and they had to respond to it. They had to understand what was inherent within that work. They had to understand what that work had constituted them. This was the terrible tragedy, if you like, of the people of God under the Old Covenant, in the wilderness. They failed to understand what the Lord really had constituted them through the Passover and the Exodus. And because of that, they collapsed in the wilderness. They failed to see that the Lord God himself was present amongst them. Now, all this has very much for you and I, because everything depends upon our response to the Word of God. Has he not promised us everything? Are we not blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places? Has not God promised that he will supply out every need according to his riches, in glory, in Christ Jesus? Is there not a promise for us of life more abundant, of peace which passes understanding of joy unspeakable and full of glory? Are there not so many exceeding great and precious promises are being taken over out of the world, out of ourselves and into Christ, into his fullness, into a deep, lasting, eternal experience of the Lord Jesus himself? Here is the word of God. The whole Bible is filled with these exceeding great and precious promises. We've got them. What is our response? Do we look upon it as theology? Do we look upon it merely as doctrine? Do we look upon it as a wonderful book that we are very sad that today it is not read and is contradicted or overlooked, and yet we ourselves are not the living exemplification of what is in this book. Somehow or other, we do not respond to the word of God? Are we responding to the person? Have we really seen who the Lord Jesus is? Have we really seen the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Have our heart ever been really captured by a vision of the person of God, the Son, so that somehow or other the petty and small things have fallen away, and we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth? What a need there is, not only for a response to the word of God amongst us, his people, but a response to his person. Everything depends upon our appreciation of the person of the Lord Jesus. If he's small, our Christian lives are small. If in many ways he is small, in our eyes, our Christian lives are petty. If he is great, then our lives become great. If our response to the person of Christ is to see in Him not a limited, restricted person, but the Almighty, omnipotent, omniscient God incarnate, then suddenly our Christ is no idol. He is not the product of our imagination. He is not just the figment of our imagination, colored by our own reasoning powers, our own intelligence, so that he can only do what we let Him do. He can only say what our intelligence allows him to say. But suddenly he breaks out of the narrow confines of what we are, the finite, and suddenly he becomes infinite. And in so doing, we who are finite become, as we read in that poem on Sunday morning, anchored to infinity. This is the secret of a response to the person of Christ. Until you and I have seen the Lord Jesus, seen who he is, we have no rock upon which to place our feet. We may think we've got a rock, and in many ways, thank God, he and his mercy understands our weakness, understands our ignorance, understands the darkness and blindness that belongs to us naturally. And as with his apostle Peter, he watches us and cares for us. But you know, if we mean business like Peter, we must be sifted by Satan, so that at last we come through onto a new foundation and are built upon the actual person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything depends upon our response to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is he in your life? Well, if he's small, you'll go running after people. You will go running after things all the time. It will be things, people, winds of doctrine, all that kind of thing will influence you and touch you, and you will be blown here and then you'll be blown there. And whatever's in favor, you'll be with at the time until you and I come to see who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And suddenly all the rest may have its place. But it's the Lord Jesus Christ who is our foundation. The rock upon which we build our feet have touched the bottom. As it says in Pilgrim's Progress. We've got our feet down upon the bedrock of the person of Christ Himself. Henceforth, it doesn't matter what happens to this world or what happens to the Church, what happens amongst men we have found our feet in. Christ responds to his person and we must respond to his work. I don't think there has ever been such a need in these days of shallowness and superficiality for a new recognition of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What has he done on the cross? What has he done on the cross? We often hear all this appeal, and we ourselves do it. We make our appeal to people to decide for Christ, choose Christ, and so on. But, oh, if only we could just see something of the work, the measure of the work of Christ, the depth of the work of Christ, the inclusiveness of the work of Christ, the agony of the work of Christ. If we could just see something of it, I believe that it would capture our hearts and would bring us to repentance and faith. There'd be no need to ask people to vote for Christ as if he's someone in running for American presidential position of some kind. We would discover instead that people would be bowed down by the greatness of his work and the love that lies behind his work on the cross. This is what we all need. I need it. You need it so that there is a new declaration and proclamation of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But everything depends on our response to his work. We can know it in the head, contradict, it in the experience. We know it up here. It's part of the creed, it's part of our constitution, if you like. And yet somehow, in our experience, it doesn't mean a thing. It's something we believe, like all religious people, we have somewhere, or rather some kind of creed, and that we consider to be very sacred and very right, but it has no real practical bearing upon life itself. Now, it is just this that we are talking about this evening, and in many ways tonight is perhaps the most important of all in our studies, in these chapters of Joshua, because just because it is our response that holds the practical key to whether we come into a knowledge of these things inwardly. Well, now, as we look at these chapters, what is it we can say as we look over them? What really do we discover is a key to the response? What should be our response to the person and work of Christ? Well, the first thing I think we must underline it's absolutely vital is the necessity of revelation. Now, I don't know how to put it. We could speak of it like this the necessity of spiritual understanding. We could speak of it as the necessity of spiritual vision or sight. We could speak of it as the necessity of revelation. It's a good New Testament word, but whatever word we use, we mean the absolute necessity of seeing inwardly who Christ is and what he has done. Now, in these chapters, we could put it in Old Testament language like this if we had Joshua here this evening, he would have said to the people, keep your eye on the Ark. That's all. Keep your eye on the Ark. Well, let's just see. Joshua, chapter three, verse three. And they commanded the people, saying, when ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place and go after it. When ye see the ark, then ye shall remove from your place and go after it. Verse ten. And Joshua said, hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you. Verse eleven. Behold the ark of the covenant, of the Lord of all the earth, passeth over before you into Jordan the absolute necessity of revelation. No amount of studying, no amount of good teaching, sound doctrine, no amount of trying, and no amount of struggling will bring us to the cross. Now, I better just guard what I've said by saying this, that good doctrine is good, and to be under good teaching is good. And I am a firm believer that the more a person, the greater the agony a person goes through, the greater the darkness a person goes through in his quest after the Lord, the greater the depth of the work God does in that person when they come through. And Wesley's hymn is an example of it. That man nearly went out of his mind seeking the Lord, until in the end the Lord met him. And it is absolutely true the principle holds good. Those that seek me, they shall find me. Nevertheless, no amount of trying or struggling or good teaching will make up for inward revelation. We can know it up here, but not here. We can actually put it into black and white and write it in notes. But if it hasn't been seen by the eye of the heart, then there is forever a gulf between what we know up here and what we experience in our heart. It is only when the eyes of our heart are enlightened and we suddenly see that in an instant we are led into an experience of what the Lord has done. Now, this is the point. We've got to see what the Lord has done. In Ephesians, chapter one, verse 17 and 18. These verses are often quoted here, but we will read them. Paul prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of your heart enlightened that ye may know. Here it is. He prays that the church at ephesus may be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. Having the eyes of their heart enlightened that they might know. That's a wonderful thing. First you've got to have a sight. You've got to have an eyeball, as it were. You've got to have eyeballs. Then when you turn the light on, you can see. The light acts upon the faculty and you see light in his light. And so it is with us. We have been given a spiritual faculty for seeing. We need not only to have that faculty looked after and guarded and kept in good spiritual health, but we need continual light so that we're not in the dark with our spiritual faculties. Spiritually, but we can see. This is very important. It means that we've got to see what God did with us in Christ. What did God do with us in Christ? It's all very well to say that we were placed in Christ and therefore we were placed in his death and buried with him, my baptism and so on. But what did happen? We've got to see it with the eye of our heart. We've got to ask the Lord. Lord, open my eyes. Open my eyes that I may see. We need this is the key. It's the missing key. In many lives, you see, people have got the teaching. They've been to conventions, they've read books, they've got the teaching, they know. And yet it doesn't work. Why doesn't it work? Because the eye of the heart has never been enlightened. So that they know. Now, if you look at Romans six, verse three, we have the word know ye not that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. This is not a knowing up here, but a knowing in the heart. Has it dawned on you, do you know in your heart that God placed you, put you in Christ, verse six, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, verse nine, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more. This is, as we've said, the missing key in many lives. We have got to see, like the children of Israel, we have got to watch the ark. We've got to see what happens to the ark. And as we watch the ark going into the Jordan in full flood, we see suddenly the miracle happening. And as it goes into the center of the Jordan, we see the whole of Jordan cut off and the miracle happens. The ground becomes dry and the people of God can pass over. And they pass over right by way of the ark. Whether, as in some of the old pictures, those old prints, they actually split up into two files and went round the ark and joined up the Ozark, I don't know. But certainly it's a lovely picture of everyone actually passing over around the ark into the Promised Land. But the picture is one of our keeping our eye on Christ, being able to see what he has done. It is this inward understanding that brings in genuine experience. Anything else is counterfeit. It's when we genuinely see what the Lord has done that we are brought into true experience. In Joshua four six, you remember Joshua said to them, when the day comes that your children shall ask you what mean ye by these stones? What mean ye? What is the meaning of them? Those men had to understand what was happening and they must have thought it a very strange object lesson, digging out of twelve stones, out of the bed of Jordan and burying another. And I do not believe that they were just wandering ragged bedouins who had a minimal intelligence. I'm quite sure that when they dug out those stones they were full of questions. And they must have said to Joshua, now what does this mean? In the same way that we're told that gilgal which we shall come to in a moment means a wheel or rolling away. They called these things by names because they did understand a little of what was happening. They knew that in the circumcision there, there had been a rolling away of the reproach of Egypt. And so he says, so when they say what meanidistos? You shall be able to tell them. In other words, you know in your heart you had an experience of what happened. You'll be able to pass it on, and others will be able to pass it on. They're not just there as sort of fusty old monuments that interest people who are interested in monuments, but they're there as an actual living monument to something God did. It was the birth of the nation, and it's there as the very living evidence that God did something in that place which was a miracle, and out of it he brought a people into possession of the land. Now that's what we mean. The first thing then is the necessity of revelation. I ask you, have you really seen what the Lord Jesus did on the cross? Do you really understand? If not, be humble. Be humble. Ask the Lord to show you. Ask him to enlighten you. Get on your knees and really begin to appeal to the Lord for that wisdom which he gives to all men, liberally and upbraider not. And it shall be given you if you believe and if you go on seeking. There'll come a day somehow, sometime when the eye of your heart will be touched by the Spirit of God. And you will wonder why on earth you never saw it before that day when something dawns on you and say, I can't understand it, I can't understand it. I've read books on it, I've gone to conferences about it, I've listened to it. I've never understood that. And now it's dawned on me and it's so marvelous you know, when something dawns on you, you want to do a jig. Even when you're a sort of rather more severe and reserved person, there's something that's got to come out. It's so wonderful when we see something spiritually. It excites us, it thrills us, it enraptures us, and so it should be. And then again, another thing we find here is that we have to exercise faith. Not only do we need to see this is the first and most important thing of all, but we need to exercise faith. If we were to put it again in Joshua's language, we would say we must move forward by faith. Once we have kept our eye on the ark and we understand what's happening as it goes into the Jordan in full flood, then move forward in faith. Move forward in faith. Now, let's look at Joshua three, verse eight. Thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, when ye are come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, ye shall stand still in the Jordan. Verse 13 shall come to pass when the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off. Verse 15 and when they that bear the ark were come into the Jordan and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brink of the water for the Jordan overfloweth all its banks, all the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up in one heap. Move forward by faith. Nothing will ever appear to happen until faith is exercised. And if we're all the time waiting for something in the way of a mighty act, a mighty work, we shall be disappointed. First we have to see what God has done, and then we have to move forward in simple faith. By faith we pass over, by faith we move on and possess it's. Not feeling, but faith. Now, just supposing we could talk to the men who bore the ark down the banks to the River Jordan, and as they were going down, we were to say to them, what do you feel? I had no doubt at all that most of them would have said to you, nothing. Do you feel marvelous? I'm sure that if the enemy was still the enemy then, as he is today, they would have said, we feel terrible. If we had said to them, and it was a good thing, probably, that everyone was forbidden to speak to the priest, just as they were forbidden to speak to one another when they were going around the walls. It's a good psychological thing sometime to all shut up because we very rarely ever encourage one another. We nearly always discourage one another in these matters with our queries. Now. Questions. Anyway, just supposing we said to them, do you think the waters are going to part? What do you think they would have said if they'd gone by feeling? I'm quite sure they would have said to you, I feel awful. And as I've often said, I'm quite sure the devil said, whisper to them all the way down. The only thing you boys are going to do is get your feet very, very wet. Nothing. You're going to look a lot of fools when you get into Jordan with the ark of the Lord. You've made an awful exhibition of the things of God. You've gone down into the water, you'll stand there in the water and not a thing will happen. Fancy going down to Jordan, full flood. You're right. If you'd went down when there was a drought, maybe then the power of God could have just done something and you could have got across. He could have sort of dried up the stream in the center. But full flood. I mean, it's ridiculous. It wasn't feeling. And the interesting thing is that the priests were told that their feet were to actually rest in the Jordan. They were to step right into the cold water. The only thing they felt was the cold water. That's all. That's how much feelings had in this matter. It was absolutely a battle of faith. Their feet went into the cold water and they went onto the riverbed. And then, and only then, did the miracle happen and the waters were parted and they went over. Now, this is absolutely true with us. If the Lord once shows us what he has done with us in Christ on the cross, if he can show us what is ours in the resurrection, life and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, then faith has to. Go forward not by feeling, but against evidence, sometimes from the flesh and as it will place its feet down upon what God has done. And then you'll find the thing happens. How happy I was that when I first saw that the Holy Spirit was within me and that I had been crucified with Christ. The last little paragraph in the little book that the Lord used to bring me into such a blessing in 1949 said this now, in the next few weeks, you will feel as never before that the Holy Spirit is not within you, and that far from being crucified, your flesh is very much a lie. Disbelieve yourself. You are a liar. And you know, when I got up from that, I had a terrible time for three weeks. But I believe I had seen something and I believed against myself and against the devil and against circumstances that something happened. And as I think some of you know, for the first time, someone got saved. I prayed day and night, literally every morning and every evening, that someone would be saved. Since I was saved in 1943 and in 1949, not a soul had been saved, except that they'd all fled from me. The college I was at, they used to mysteriously vanish from the common room when I went in these all the Asiatic students did because I was always badgering them to come to services, trying to get hold of them in one way or another. But when the Lord did that to me and I let go of it all, then something started to happen. But you see, what I'm just saying from my own experience is true that it's faith that counts. If you are expecting to feel crucified, well, my dear friend, I just don't know when you'll ever come to that. If you are expecting to feel marvelous, I should be very, very careful indeed. Feelings are treacherous and the enemy is the past master of feelings. Well, we could go on much more. There are some things that faith means instant realization. Look at those priests going down into the waters of Jordan. Well, we watched them go down into the waters, full flood, and suddenly their feet have plunged into the water. I expect they were a bit nervous and they put their feet in rather firmly and, you know, in an instant it had happened. The water stopped. In one single instant, the miracle happened and the people were going across. Within an hour or two of the Ark of the Lord going into the water, the whole people had gone over. And yet when they came to Jericho, faith had to endure. It wasn't instantly realized. The victory didn't instantly come. They went round and round and round and round and on the 7th day they went round seven times. And as I said last night, on the 7th time round, it must have seemed just as they were getting right round. Some of them must have been thinking, oh dear, it's not happening. It was only when the trumpets blew at the end of the 7th time round on the 7th day that again, in a split second, the walls were down, the whole thing had happened. Jericho was destroyed, and the victory was the Lord's. We can never stress too strongly that whether we need to endure by faith or whether it's instantly realized by faith, it's faith which is the key. There is no other way into any experience of the Lord except by faith. Faith is the only gateway to any experience of the fullness of the Lord. I say we can never stress too strong in the need of active faith. A faith that works. In James Two, verse 21, we are told about Abraham's, faith was not Abraham our father justified by works in that he offered up Isaac, his son, upon the altar? I've always thought that was a very strange work when you think of it. He offered up his son on the altar. This is called in the Word of God, a work. What it really means is it's active faith, working faith. In other words, we're told that Abraham actually believed that when he'd slayed his son, god would raise him up from the dead. He didn't believe for an instant that his son would die. He believed that God could raise him up from the dead. The point was, his faith in action was to be obedient to God when he couldn't understand why the Lord was asking this of him. Then again, in James two and verse 25 and 26, we find and in like manner, was not also rehab the harlot justified by works in that she received the messengers and sent them out another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so, faith apart from works is dead. How is this a work? Well, it's in this sense, if they had said to them when the spies came, oh, yes, yes, I believe in the God of Israel. My word, I do. Yes. Well, I can't. Oh, no, you couldn't come and stay here. It's impossible. I mean, of course, if they found out, we'd all lose our lives. Couldn't do that. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I do believe, though. I do believe, and I do hope that one day when you overcome the whole land, you'll remember me. Well, the Lord wouldn't have remembered her because it wasn't a living faith. If she really had a faith, she'd take the spies in, for the God who was able to bring them in to conquer the land was well able to look after her. Ahab, that's what she saw. So she took them in at the possible cost of her own life and her whole family's life and hid them. Now, that is an active faith. Faith must have concrete expression. It's not faith until it has concrete expression. Only when faith has had a concrete expression does it work. In other words, if faith is up here, it's not faith. It's only when you've made a fool of yourself, when you've burnt your boats behind you, when you've actually openly said something that you're saved. Now, listen to what the Lord says about salvation. With the heart, man believes unto righteousness. But with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. The moment a man confesses with his mouth, Christ is my Lord. That moment, God saves him because it's faith in concrete expression. When he hides it inside and won't tell anyone, he hasn't really got a faith because he's frightened that he'll look a fool. He's frightened that perhaps if people don't see that he's a Christian, you see, they might sort of whirl it's easy, if you hadn't said anything, to withdraw through the back door and all is the same. But the moment a person burns their boats and speaks out, that moment. Faith has had a concrete expression. That moment God does something in the life again and again. Sometimes faith, to borrow another Old Testament figure, is but a scarlet thread. If you look in Joshua two. It's going back to Ahab again. Joshua two. And verse 18, it says, behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window, which thou didst let us down by. Verse 21 and she said, according unto your word, so be it. She sent them away and they departed. She bound the scarlet line in the window. Well, I never. The scarlet line, I see, is much better translated in the Revised Standard Version as a rope and a cord, because it was the thing the spies were let down by, so it wasn't a threat. They were let down out of the window, on the wall, and they got down to the bottom. Now, they said to her, you hang that in the window and the Lord will save you. Well, now, isn't that a silly thing to say? Don't you think that's a silly thing to say? But you see, it was faith in concrete expression. I am quite sure, as I believe I've said before, that the devil may have come to Rahab and said to Rahab, rahab, don't make a fool of yourself. Hanging that great scarlet cord in the windows of the whole of Jericho. Can see it. Put it under your bed, dear. Put it under your bed. God sees everywhere, doesn't he? He can see if it's under your bed or in a cupboard. He can see it's still a scarlet thread, isn't it? Anywhere, god doesn't god see everything? Doesn't it? Doesn't matter. Why make a fool of yourself? Why be exhibitionist? Why show everyone? Put it under your bed. God sees everything. He'll save you. He's not as unbustable as all that. But you see, she put it in the window. Put it in the window. That's the point. It's quite possible that Mother came to Rahab and said, rahab, darling, whatever, have you put that shockingly scarlet thing in the window? What is that up there for? And she turned round and said to them, well, she said that's up in the window, because I believe God is going to deliver us. Mother might well have said to them, well, you don't, honestly. Can you imagine people in the marketplace, have you heard about Rahab? We know the kind of life she lives. But have you heard the ladies? She's hung up a great big scarlet rope in the window. Poor Rahab. Poor Rahab. Now, we all laugh about that, but that's exactly what happens in our own experience. It's not the big things, it's the little bit. The devil comes and says, don't make a fool of yourself. You don't have to burn your boats behind, you don't have to be out and out. You don't have to put the scarlet cord in the window so everyone can see it. Put it under the bed, put it in the cupboard. Keep it where God sees it's. All right? You're a real Christian, that's what matters. It's inward character. That matters, you know, not the outward. You don't have to be sort of all on the outside, you see. Faith must have concrete expression. When faith has not got concrete expression, there is no joy and there is no freedom. And you will always find that the people who are bound are the people who have not got a scarlet cord in the window. It follows because once one's faith has a concrete expression, there is a joy, there is a sense that boats are burnt behind you. And the Lord, as it were, commits himself. He says, no, you've committed yourself. I'll commit myself with the committed, the Lord is committed. I always am interested in that. When it says with the merciful, the Lord is merciful. With the flow of the Lord is flowed. With the committed, the Lord is committed. When you commit yourself like that, the Lord will commit himself to you, no doubt about it. So faith, you see, is the key. Certainly nothing will ever be either overcome or possessed. If we expect to sit still whilst the Lord does all this idea, well, the Lord does everything, he's going to do it all, we sit still. If the children of Israel had sat down and said that's all right, we're going to go over, the Lord's going to do it all, they would have been on the wilderness bank to the end of their lives. They had to pass over and that meant they had to get up and walk. And so it is with us, we have to walk over by faith. We may see what the Lord has done, but we have to walk over by faith. We have to pass over by faith into the land. We have to fight by faith. So already well, to talk about AI is the Lord's, the Lord's victory, the finished work and the rest of it. But we have got to go up into AI and we've got to destroy it when the victory of the Lord is recorded there. And so it is. So we can go on. We have to stand by faith, we have to destroy by faith. Yes, we have to destroy by faith. Some people have all time saying I can't destroy the things in my life. You know, we all have our own darling within and we so cherish the darling within that we can't do anything for it. So we like to say, I can't do anything, it's impossible, the Lord must do it, the Lord has done it. All you've got to do is take the sword in your hand and destroy the thing and it's finished. Once by faith, you take the sword and destroy the thing, the Lord's with you. By the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, the Lord is with you. But you see, there is a sneaking desire so often to keep it alive. It's like one of those pets, you know, that we pamper, we want it. It takes all our money and all our time and keeps all our friends out of the house, but we want it. It's something we pamper and like and want to cherish. But we've got to take the sword sometimes to our own self life. Everything has to be taken by faith. Now, in this connection, you may like to put down these references. We can't turn them all up. But in this connection, think of a number of New Testament phrases. Think of a number of New Testament phrases. Actually, we could have spent the whole evening just quoting New Testament phrases in this connection, literally, and I'm not exaggerating in this matter, I have chosen just a few. Listen. Matthew 1624 deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Now we are the agent we have to deny ourselves. Take up the cross and follow him. John 1224 25. It speaks of falling into the ground and dying. Now, someone may say, oh, but just wait, surely that we can't do that. No, that is true. But then the Lord goes on, he that loveth his life shall lose it. He that loseth his life, we've got to be careless. You see, when the seed is ripened in the pot, the wind comes and it falls out. Are we prepared for the wind? God will do it if you're prepared to fall into the ground and die, God will do it in your life if you're prepared. But if you're not, the Lord will stand back. No wind will come and shake your dried seed pod to bring you to fall into the ground and die. The Lord is wonderfully loving in this matter. If you don't want it, he won't do it. But if you're prepared, he'll do it. Then again, you turn to Ephesians four, verse 22 and 24, and also compare that verse 25 and 31, and you have these two phrases put away, put on put away the old man. Put on the new man. Now, in Colossians, we're told, we have put off the old man and we have put on the new man. That is, it's already done for us. But Ephesians tells us we are now to take action and put away the old man and put on Christ. Well, now, there's something rather wonderful in that. Romans eight and verse 13 and Colossians three and verse five, we are told, put to death. Put to death the members, your members on the earth. Put to death by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body, we are to put to death. Now, the picture is someone nailing someone to the cross. We are to do it in one sense, of course, absolutely rightly, and fundamentally, we have been crucified with Christ. But here the picture is that we are to put to death ourselves in this way. Then again, in Romans 13, verse 14, we're told to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the lusts of the flesh. Here is a secret, you see. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ in a positive way, actually put him on by faith and don't make provision for the lusts of the flesh. So often what we do is we have this sneaking desire that we want to enjoy ourselves in some line or another. So we make provision for it. And then we always flee away into the excuse, well, you see, I'm so weak and when is the Lord going to do something with me? When is the Lord going to do something with me? We are told we are to put on the Lord Jesus and put off then again, Hebrews twelve one, lay aside every weight. We are to lay aside every weight. And then he goes on let us lay aside every weight, let us run with patience. It's not that the Lord, as it were, puts a machine behind us and propels us along. Of course we are to run. If we want just to walk, we can. If we want to fall out, we can. If we will run, we can run. But there you are, there it is again. And then you have a few other words. Reckon Romans six, verse eleven reckon ye therefore yourselves also dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. And then in Romans twelve one, present your bodies. A living sacrifice we are to present our bodies. And then in Ephesians four one, we are to walk worthily of our vocation, our high calling. And then in Ephesians 614 we are to stand. Having done all, we are to stand in Christ. And in one, Timothy 612 we are to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on life whereunto we are called. Surely here is enough scripture to convince us that we have to exercise faith for all. This is by faith we are really ratifying what God has done. We are simply ratifying what God has done. By faith we are moving forward. Well, there's a tremendous amount more we could say on that we must leave it. And another matter connected with it is that there must be no compromise with the flesh. Now this is the passage we've read in Joshua five this evening from verse two to nine about circumcision. No compromise with the flesh we are to keep. This is a necessity of revelation and there is a need to exercise faith. Now, there is to be no compromise with the flesh. This comes out of what we've said at Gilgal. They were circumcised as the token of being God's covenant people. There had been a reproach upon them in the wilderness, and it's called the reproach of Egypt. Egypt's reproach. Why, what was this reproach? Well, this reproach was because they were half and half. You see, the Egyptians said Israel, what are they? Wandering Bedouin tribe of slaves. They'll never get anywhere. And when he got back to Egypt. They felt it very, very much that they'd lost Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea. But when they heard that Israel was wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years, they were very happy. They felt, well, after all, it must have been a natural disaster that we lost Pharaohs as not those wandering Bedwinds. So it was a reproach. They were half and half. Now, you know, this is the reproach that often is upon us. There is a reproach upon us. We're half and half often. What do we mean? Well, you see, they half desired Egypt. It was said to them that they were continually saying why have we come out of Egypt? They wanted the leeks and the onions and the garlic of Egypt. That's how it's put in numbers. And they continually said, why have we come out into this wilderness to die here? Half of them wanted to go over into the land. Half of them wanted to go back into Egypt. They really were nothing. They were in a no man's land. And this was the reproach that was upon them. And when they were circumcised after they'd gone over into the land the reproach of Egypt was rolled off of them. And that's why the place was called Gilgal Rolling. God had rolled away the reproach of why? Why? Because for the first time they were in the land. Egypt couldn't anymore now say they haven't got a land. They were in the land now. They were no more in no man's land. They were in the promised land. Now they were where they should have been. Now they were a people with a right. Do you understand? They were in the good of what God had meant for them. And so it is with us how often we live under the reproach of Egypt. Half and half lives half in Christ, half in the world, half in God, half in self. We are divided so that there is a kind of civil war in us. We are not in the land and we're not in Egypt yet. We've got a foot in Egypt and we've got a foot in the land. In a sense, we are half and half and there is a reproach upon us. The devil comes and says you, you call yourself a Christian? What about your chains? Fell off. Yours haven't fallen off. What about he breaks the power of canceled sin. He hasn't broken the power of canceled sin in your life. What about victory? Victory? Blessed blood bought victory. You don't know anything about victory. You're a defeated Christian. You're a bound Christian. What about this joy, unspeakable and full of glory? Look at your face. Look in the mirror, devil, miserable soul that you are. You supposed to have left the world. You're supposed to been saved. You're supposed to have this wonderful joy. And look at you. You've got the lines of depression creased on your face permanently. This is how the devil gets at us. He does get at us. If you know anything of the devil, this is the line he takes. He comes with a reproach. It's a reproach of Egypt, a reproach of Satan. He says all I'm looking and even people in the world say it to us sometimes. I've heard it said to me, he one of your people. Never seen anyone so miserable in all my life. I've heard that said in the town. And I've heard this kind of thing said. Supposed to be a question. Not much good in business. That's the kind of thing you hear again, the reproach of Egypt, the reproach of the world. It's half and half life. They say they're supposed to be Christians. They're never punctual for business, for work. They don't keep their word. And I've even heard it said to me, supposed to be a Christian. And they lie, that kind of thing. It's a reproach, you see. It's half and half. We're half in the world, half in Christ, half himself, half in God. It's the Reproach of Egypt. Now, what is circumcision? Well, you see, in Galatians 517, it tells us that the flesh, the spirit lusteth against the flesh, lusteth against the spirit, or warth against the spirit, and spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary, the one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would. Yes, well, now, when you look at it this way, turn it around, look at it the other way. There is something in us which is half and half spirit flesh. We are Christians, and yet there's much that isn't. And we can't make up our minds whether we'll cut the links with the flesh and go wholly over to the spirit. So we keep a kind of more than an embassy in the flesh. And, well, we're investing on both sides just in case one side collapses. That's a half and half life. But if you read in Colossians and chapter two and verse eleven we read this in whom that is in Christ ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, wherein you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. Here is the secret. You see, when they came over the Jordan, they were circumcised again. The reproach of Egypt was rolled off. They put off the flesh. If every one of us would take this attitude, no more compromise with the flesh. It doesn't mean to say, by the way, that from now on there's nothing in the material world, nothing in the physical world, nothing in the world itself, but everything that you have is going to come by God. You will find it in Christ. You're not going to just have it for yourself, but in Him. This is what it means. No compromise with the flesh. If we were all spiritually circumcised, what a difference there would be in all our lives. What a rolling off away of the reproach. We wouldn't labor under that awful sense of reproach, that burden on the back. It would be rolled away. And you know, the word gilgall in Hebrew means wheel. The fault is one of those great big, heavy stone wheels being actually rolled away. Something rolled off of us. And you know there are a reproach like that. That sense of being half and half is an awful millstone round the neck. It's something that you feel crushing you often in your heart of hearts. You know you should be out and out in your heart of hearts, you know you should be holy for the Lord. You know just what the Lord wants. And in the quietness of your own spirit and heart, you're very unhappy. But somehow or other you just can't get to the place where there's no more compromise. This is what it means here. Well, I think we must end. I think we should end on this note. We said much about the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the need to make much of it and his present position that's the only way you and I can possess the land as we go forward. That he has taken us over the Jordan. His is a finished work and an already won victory. There's nothing that can withstand the Lord if we will only be on his side. We're on the victory side. But there is just this other point. There is a need of an experience of the indwelling and the power of the Holy Spirit by which the lordship and the life and the fullness and the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ are made a reality in our experience. And this we see in Joshua five and verse 13 to 15. When Joshua was looking at the walls of Jericho, he was looking at Jericho and suddenly he saw a man. And the man was a man of war. And he was dressed in full military equipment and uniform. And Joshua, who must have been musing and meditating, having his quiet time looking at the walls and being a man of faith, I am quite sure he was saying, well, the Lord's going to bring down those walls where we've been told we're to go round these walls, but the Lord's going to bring them down. He must have suddenly thought, what a fool I've been. I'm caught off my guard as one of the men. And so he said, who are you? You for us or against us? One of us or against us? And this stranger just looked and said, I am neither. I am come as captain or prince of the host of the Lord. And instantly Joshua, who was a spiritual man, recognized the Lord as it says. He went on his on. His face before the Lord. And that stranger said to him take off your feet. Take off your shoes from off your feet. That would have been an impossibility. Take off your shoes from off your feet, for the ground whereon thou standest is Holy Ground. Now, it's a very interesting fact that the Lord called Jericho Holy Ground wasn't very holy before, but the Lord called it Holy Ground. That's what the Lord the Lord had already seen. Jericho as demolished, Jericho as possessed by himself and his people. And so he called it holy ground. But what is the lesson here? I believe the lesson is simply this this figure, this person, this angel of the Lord, this captain of the Lord's Host, I'm quite sure is the picture of the Holy Spirit. The one who has come to lead us in the battle. I am come as captain of the Lord's Host, the one in charge of military operations. Our Lord Jesus Christ is seated. He's been told to sit until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. But there is one amongst us who is captain, military commander of operations of the war. And this one is God, the Holy Spirit. And it is this one who can lead us into the battle and enable us to possess and to overcome and inherit the land. And this, in the end, is the secret. For it is only the Holy Spirit that can make real in my life the lordship of Christ. Otherwise I say lord. Lord. And it heir. He is up there and I am here. Only by the spirit of God can I know Christ as Lord. No man calls Jesus Lord except by the spirit. That means because it says in God's word, they shall say Lord, Lord. And the Lord said part from me. It must mean, therefore, those who say Lord. In practice, no man can actually genuinely say call Jesus Lord except by the Spirit of God. You and I can't know the fullness of Christ except by the Spirit of God. By Him we can enter into an experience of the fullness of Christ, be lost in him. Lost in him. Not in this experience that sometimes makes people so conscious of themselves and of their power, but that experience, that genuine experience where people are lost in the greatness of the Lord, absolutely immersed in the greatness, the magnificence of Christ, the infinity of Christ. And again, how else can you and I know the life of Christ except by the Spirit of life, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? That's the only way I can know the life of Christ by the Spirit of God being Lord. How can I know? Victory? I can know all about the doctrine, I can know all about the finished work of Christ. But until the Holy Spirit enables me really to put to death the deeds of the body, to walk after the Spirit to live by the Spirit, to overcome by the Spirit of God. Unless the spirit of God does that. I'm lost. It must remain book knowledge. It must remain just a mental appreciation. In the end, it is the Captain of the Lord's Host who leads us in the conquest of the land and the possession of our inheritance. And that's where you and I are. We need a new experience of the Spirit of God. For I do not believe that any man or woman can appreciate the cross unless it is by the Spirit. Pentecost and calvary go together. If you have an experience of pentecost without calvary, it can be counterfeit, it can become exhibitionist, it can become feeling full, treacherous. For you can be lifted to heights of ecstasy and dropped into the darkness of hell. But if you know pentecost through calvary, your experience will be deep and real. The fruit of it is permanent. Look at it the other way around. You can know Calvary without pentecost. And then you become morbid, often preoccupied with suffering, preoccupied with the hardness of the way, the difficulties and the problem, the sacrifice, entailed, the price that is to be paid, and all the rest of it, so that in the end it becomes heavy and hard going. The Lord knows us enough of it. But if you and I know calvary by pentecost, then we know all that. And we can know the joy of the Lord and life more abundant. And in all these things we can be more than conquerors. Overwhelming victory is ours in all these things. And they are some things through Him that loved us. Shall we pray? Lord Jesus Christ, we do praise Thee for the greatness of Thy person. And we do ask Thee, Lord Jesus, that by Thy Spirit Thou wouldst touch every one of us. And these days that lie ahead, may it be, Lord, that many of us come in a new, deeper, fuller way to appreciate inexperience what Thou art, who Thou art, what Thou hast done on calvary, what is ours. Through Thy finished work, Lord Jesus, we praise Thee that ours is such a great salvation. Lord, forgive us that in so many of our lives, mine included, there is a reproach, the reproach of Egypt, O Lord Jesus, that it might be a rolled way and that we might come out into the full sunshine of Thy face, into something of that joy, unspeakable and full of glory. Dear Lord, we bring it all to Thee. We thank thee. Thou hast made provision for us. And we thank Thee that the One who is amongst us, as captain of the Lord's Host is able to lead us on to a possession of the land, maybe many battles, many failures, but we praise Thee, beloved Lord, that hisST the victory. And we thank thee. Thou art able to lead us to the possession of all. So, Lord, we commit these studies to thee. And pray that in the days, the years that lie ahead, thy spirit may bring back to us much. And we may find, Lord, it within what has been said stored in our hearts, in our memories, in our spirits, that which will provide food for us and perhaps an explanation of many things that at present lie hidden in the future. We ask it in thy name. Amen. [01:17:29] Speaker A: May you know the victory and fullness of Christ. May you know the deep, deep love of Jesus.