The sermon titled 'The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail' explores the biblical narrative of Jericho from the book of Joshua and its parallels with the New Testament. The speaker emphasizes that the phrase, drawn from Matthew 16:18, signifies the enduring strength and victory of the Church under Jesus Christ. The fall of Jericho is presented not only as historical fact but as a symbolic act demonstrating God's power and faithfulness to His people. The sermon highlights the importance of obedience to God's specific instructions, as seen in the unconventional military strategy that led to Jericho's defeat. It underscores that the victory was God's, not Joshua's or Israel's military prowess. The narrative of Rahab is used to illustrate faith's power, as her belief in God saved her and her family, exemplifying the importance of faith as the object of trust rather than human strength or strategy. The sermon further draws attention to God's patience and justice, noting that the destruction of Jericho was a long-foretold judgment on a people whose iniquity had reached its fullness. It is emphasized that this was not an act of ethnic cleansing but a divine judgment against persistent rebellion. The sermon concludes by urging believers to have radical dependence on God, and for unbelievers to heed the warning of Jericho's ruins, calling for repentance to avoid similar judgment. It highlights God's mercy and readiness to provide for those who turn to Him in faith, as demonstrated in the lineage of Jesus through Rahab and Ruth.

Next week we'll have a public reading of chapters 7 through 12. The next section for us in Joshua with a very short sermon. Sort of wrap up these six chapters and set the stage for the next chapter. So I always look forward to our times of reading large stretches of the Word of God. Those are helpful to us.

The title of the sermon this morning is, The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail. It's a phrase that is actually pulled from the New Testament, Matthew chapter 16 verses 18, where Jesus says that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. And I wanted to draw from New Testament language because what we're studying is real history. The walls of Jericho did fall down. That city was destroyed by the people of God.

Though it did happen, it was a word picture in a sense. It was a type. It was a shadow. There is a real substance, and the real substance of that shadow is the Lord's people under the head, headship of Jesus Christ, going into enemy territory and the enemies of the commander of the army of the Lord not being able to stand before Him. So that happened in Jericho.

But that is happening today. There are real parallels between Joshua and the victories of God's people in the book of Joshua, and the book of Acts, and the victories that the commander of the Lord's army, the Lord Jesus Christ, is winning for His people in the world today. It is happening today. Jericho, in that sense, isn't ancient history at all, but God is still fighting for His people and giving His people the victory. So this is not an academic study for New Testament believers.

I just want to start there. This is not just classroom stuff for us. Is there a God who gives the victory to His people, who allows them to set their feet on enemy territory and take that territory for His name? The answer to that is yes. And we are alive to experience it.

We have the privilege of experiencing it. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. And Jericho stands as a monument to that. Praise the Lord. Maybe we should stop there.

That's a sermon there. We were going through Ephesians. A chapter was a month and a half or two months. I looked it up. It took us 11 months to get through those six chapters.

So we were taking six to eight weeks to get through a chapter. Well Today we have a historical narrative, so we're going to take a whole chapter. We're going to take 27 verses in one chunk and not even return to it. You can go through historical accounts a lot faster than you can go through Paul's letters. So we're approaching it differently.

The title of last week's sermon was, Joshua did not fight the battle of Jericho. The songs that we sang, vacation Bible study, were not true in that sense. It was God, it was the commander of the army of the Lord. It was this man that appeared to Joshua with a sword drawn, who fought and won this battle for his people. His people would go and actually fight military battles against military enemies, but the first battle was to be his own so that his people would know that the battle belongs to the Lord.

All these battles in the book of Joshua are his, and he starts out by just really excluding them in the fight and delivering this enemy into their hands. Let's ask God to help us. Father, thank you for your Word. We need it. It changes our thought patterns.

It helps us to think rightly about things that we wouldn't otherwise. I pray that this would be faith building for us today, that our confidence in you would soar as we see you not needing your people to win this victory but just doing it on their behalf. Help us to radically depend upon you in this life. Pray it in Jesus name, Amen. I'm going to begin with a recap of what happened.

So, if we're taking 27 verses, we can't obviously look at that phrase by phrase as we might normally in a different sort of teaching section. So I want to recap what happened and then look at some observations, what these happenings mean, what the significance of them are, and then we'll conclude with some applications. So first, the recap. What happened? Verses 1 through 5, Joshua receives instructions.

He's told what to do by the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Jehovah, this most holy name of God, gives Joshua instructions for how this is to unfold. That brings us to a question. Is this the same encounter that We studied at the end of chapter 5 with the commander of the Lord's army, this man with a sword drawn who actually uses the same words as Exodus 3, take off your shoes for this is holy ground. We get there with great clarity that it is actually God who is appearing to Joshua.

Is this the same encounter? And we can't really know the answer with any certainty, so I wouldn't put a lot of weight on it one way or the other. Some commentators say absolutely it's the same encounter. Some commentators say it's not. I'm not sure how it matters.

We know that God speaks to Joshua without appearing to him before the encounter with the commander of the Lord's army at the end of chapter 5 and after that so it could be a separate encounter. In any case, it is the Lord who is directing all of these things and he gives very specific instructions to Joshua which are very specifically obeyed throughout the rest of the chapter. In chapter 9, I'm giving you a preview, spoiler alert, chapter 9, the Gibeonites will come and seek peace. Not so the king of Jericho in chapter 6. They shut up Jericho.

The inhabitants of Jericho and the surrounding areas have retreated behind the walls and they've shut it up. We learn this in chapter 6 verse 1. Nobody's going out. Nobody's coming in. They're not seeking peace.

They're not receiving emissaries. They are closed in behind the wall. In verse 2, God starts by declaring the end of the story. So look again at verse 2. Talk about a spoiler alert.

We get told before there is any activity in the whole chapter exactly how the whole thing is going to play out and end. In verse 2, the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand. It is King and the mighty men of valor. So you have a walled city, it has a king, it has defenders, it's not without defenders, it has mighty men of valor, and God says, yes, I've given them into your hand. I will give them into your hand, but I have given them into your hand.

Only God can talk this way. Only God can talk about next week's events as if they're past tense and they've already happened. And God does speak this way. Listen to Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10. Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10 are verses we should know.

God says in Isaiah 46, 9, and 10, Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Only God is able to do all that He's pleased to do. The rest of us have limitations.

But God has no limitations, so He can use past tense when He talks about next week's events. What we have in Joshua chapter 6 is a microcosm. It's a little example of what God does on a grand scale. He declares from the beginning what will happen at the end. In that case, in Isaiah 46, we're talking about thousands of years.

He can tell us exactly what things will have been done all along the way, and the end that he will deliver us safely to. Isn't it such a comfort to have a God like that who can talk about the future events as if they're past events because He can do all his pleasure. He doesn't have any of the limitations That the rest of us have and so he can say to Joshua I have given you this city with its king with its mighty men I know the events of next week because I'm God this week. I'm God of the events of the week. Understand, there is no battle.

There is no conflict in this victory. There is no military conflict between opposing armies. There is a God who takes the terrified enemies and sends his people in to do the mop up. That's all that there is because God has given them their enemies. Then God tells Joshua how he, how God himself will accomplish this.

For six days they will march around the city once each day. All of the men of war will be out front. Numbers 26 gives us the number. It's about 600, 000 armed men, 20 years and older. They will go before the ark.

The ark itself will be preceded by seven priests, each with a trumpet of ram's horn. Notice, everything is oriented with reference to the visible representation of the presence of God in the midst of his people. That's the ark. Everything's in reference to the ark. Where are the 600, 000 armed men?

Before the ark. Where's the rear guard? It's after the ark. Where are the people? They follow.

Everything is in reference. What goes before, the priest and their trumpets, what comes behind, all of it is in reference to The arc because the arc is the visible representation of the presence of God in the midst of his people and that's all that matters That's all that matters is God in the midst of his people. So where you are is oriented to this visible representation of God in the midst of his people. On the seventh day, It will be different than the six days. They'll go around the city seven times.

There will be a long trumpet blast. They will shout with a great shout and the wall will fall flat. Every man will go straight before him into the city and there will be total destruction of the city. Verses 6-21, we see the instructions carried out and we get additional detail along the way. So details that we didn't get in the instructions in verses 1-5 we'll get as the events play out in verses 6 through 21.

Here's an additional detail. In verse 7, the people are also part of this procession. So there will be 600, 000 armed men before the ark. But in verse 7 it said that the people will be circling the city as well. So there will be something like probably 2 to 2.5 million people going around Jericho once a day for the first six days.

Here's an additional detail. In verse 9, the trumpets are continually being blown, but verse 10 says that Joshua constrained any other noise. So no shouting, no making noise, no saying a word. The trumpets are blowing, but the only other sounds will be the sounds of something like two million people marching. Just think of that from the perspective of those who are on the walls and within the walls.

So you know that there's an enemy army outside the gates and If you've ever seen anything that suggested that the inhabitants of Jericho would be taunting them, that is completely contrary to the biblical account. There's nothing in Scripture that would give you any idea. This is a terrified people who are holed up within the city. Everything in the biblical account points to them being fearful of the people of God and the events of God because they know that the God of heaven just brought this people across the Jordan on dry ground. So they're afraid.

And they're awaiting the assault, but there's no assault. There's only trumpets and the people, two million people, marching around the city. But they're not talking, they're not making noise. There's just the sound of the trumpets and the sound of the marching. And they're circling the city in silence.

How eerie to a people who are afraid on the walls, and who are within the walls. Day one comes, There's no assault. There's only trumpets blowing and two million people marching around the circumference of the borders of your city. And then day two, and then day three, they're not talking when they're going around. They're not making noise.

They're not shouting. They're just, they have this art in their midst, and the armed ones are before, and the people are trailing behind. Now, for some historical context, we believe that we know where the site of Jericho was and is. It's been identified and there have been extensive excavations during three digs in the early to mid 1900s. Three large-scale excavations of this site And what they found is a double wall, an inside wall and an outside wall, and that the border of The whole city would only be about a half a mile actually a little less than a half a mile so what when I envision Jericho I I Envision a border this wall walking around the wall being more than a half a mile but in the excavation of what they believe is the site, that's what it is.

Now, assuming that is true, it's not an especially large city at all, but they have the high ground and they have a wall, meaning the city is on a hill. The city is elevated. To take this city, you would have to get over or through the wall, and you would have to climb the ground to the fortified place. So you'd have to get past the first wall, up the hill, past the second wall in order to get into the city. Now, high ground and a wall is the great equalizer in war.

It really doesn't matter, in a sense, the size of the armies if you have the high ground and you're behind a wall. John MacArthur says that based on these excavations that the outer wall was six feet thick and the inner wall was 12 feet thick. These are major, major structures. As a point of reference, the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD lasted almost five months. So you have the power of Rome, the world's superpower in 70 AD, they come and they lay siege to Jerusalem.

And It takes the world's superpower five months to breach the walls of Jerusalem and to defeat Jerusalem. Even though in terms of fighting force, there was no comparison between the two. It would have lasted longer if there wasn't a civil war essentially happening between Jewish factions inside the wall. That's an interesting history. We don't have time for it here, but that siege would have definitely lasted longer than five months.

It was the world's superpower against Jerusalem. High ground in a wall is the great equalizer in wars of the time. On the seventh day, they circle seven times, the trumpets sound, the people shout with a great shout, the wall falls down flat. Now, we get additional detail here. Look at verses 17-19.

We had not seen this before. Verses 17-19. Now the city shall be doomed. This is instructions that Joshua gives to the people. Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction.

It and all who are in it, Only Rahab the harlot shall live, since she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. But all the silver and gold vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord." So, It's going to be total destruction of the city, except for the precious metals. Bronze and iron are useful enough to be called precious metals.

Those will be brought into the treasury of the Lord, consecrated to the Lord, set aside to the Lord for His purposes and everything else will be utterly destroyed. No men or women left alive. No boys or girls left alive. No young or old left alive and That includes the animals. This isn't new.

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 20. Deuteronomy chapter 20, which in terms of the timeline, would have been not long before our events. Deuteronomy is Moses' instructions to the people right before they come into the promised land. He gives those instructions and then he dies and then Joshua brings them pretty immediately into the land. So Deuteronomy chapter 20 would have been maybe weeks, maybe months before, but not longer than that.

Deuteronomy chapter 20, listen to verses 10 through 18. Deuteronomy 20, 10 through 18. When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you. Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it.

And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all it spoil, you shall plunder for yourself, and you shall eat the enemy's plunder which the Lord your God gives you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not the cities of these nations, but of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God." So there was going to be two kinds of warfare. Warfare against cities that were outside the borders of the promised land, in which you make an offer of peace, but within the borders of the promised land, these people would pollute them and teach them their idolatries if they were permitted to live and so they weren't permitted to live.

And so Moses had given the people this instruction long before they came into the promised land. And really What we're seeing is the carrying out of that in Joshua chapter 6. So you must understand, this is religious, not ethnic. This is not ethnic cleansing. I almost want to make us say it together.

This is religious, not ethnic. Because it's wrong to think of this in any way as ethnic cleansing. Remember, I quoted last week Genesis 15-16. Genesis 15 is God coming to Abram and making him the promise to give him this land. But that promise is not going to be fulfilled until now.

How much time has elapsed between Genesis 15 and the giving of the promise, and Joshua 6, the people coming into the land and beginning to conquer their enemies, about 500 years. About 500 years. And in Genesis 15 verse 16, God says to Abraham, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. In the time of Abraham, the people of this land are living as rebels against God. But God is going to bear with them and the rising tide of sin among them for another 500 years before He brings His people in to judge their rebellion against Him.

He's going to be long-suffering and patient and merciful to these people even as their sin rises to the level of its fullness to where he will not withstand it for another minute, another day, it will be 500 years. And so God is not going to bring his people in to live as neighbors to people who have been practicing sin and perfecting rebellion for 500 years. He's not going to do that. Rahab and her family are the exception. The two spies who were saved by her, Remember, they were locked in within the walls of Jericho.

And the king knew the spies were there, and he sent his representatives to Rahab's house, and she got them out of there. So the two spies that were saved by Rahab are sent to save her and her family now. And Rahab became a permanent part of Israel. Verse 25 says, so she dwells in Israel to this day. So she was alive and a permanent part of Israel whenever it was that this section of Joshua was written.

Finally, in the last two verses, Joshua pronounces a curse on God's behalf on anyone who would rebuild Jericho. So Jericho is to remain ruins and Joshua's fame spreads throughout all the country. Everyone hears about this man who's leading these people who are crushing their enemies. Alright, so That is a recap. What happened?

Next, observations. What it means. So far we've been talking about facts. What do the facts mean? What are the conclusions that we should draw from the facts?

What is the significance of what happened? What are the truths we should learn? How many do I have? Let me give you four. I'm cheating on the numbering because one has five subpoints.

Number one. So don't get confused about the number because I'm going to say number one, and then first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and then I'm going to go to number two. So that's what's happening. Number one. There are five parts of this chapter and each has a significance.

Now let me give you the five parts of the chapter and the significance of each. First, God gave instructions to be obeyed. The people weren't just sent on their way to have a military conquest. Do your best, guys! God gave specific instructions to be obeyed.

Again, as I said last week, what we're witnessing is military malpractice. What we're witnessing is a waste of time and precious provisions doing things that don't contribute to a military victory unless the commander of the army of the Lord is at your head and he has said he'll win the victory for you, then it's not a waste of time, then it's not a waste of precious resources. It's not a squandering of your provisions for a week, not accomplishing anything. Anyone looking from the outside, a military observer sent from a foreign nation, would say they're wasting time and provisions. They're committing military malpractice.

But, If the God who is telling you to do what you're doing is at your head and can win the victory completely without any military activities that you undertake, then obedience is the key. Military strategy becomes worthless at that point and obedience is the key because you just need to walk behind this God who can give you the victory. So that's first, God gave instructions to be obeyed. Second, and then that was verses one through five. Second, the people believed God and proved it by their obedience.

It wouldn't have been too hard in that position to say, wow this plan does sound like a waste of time and provisions. How long are the provisions going to hold out for the two million people and we're going to spend week one just circling. They believed God that He had given, past tense, had given this King and His mighty men and the cities into their hands. Hebrews comments on this, Hebrews chapter 11. So we know Hebrews chapter 11, it's the great faith chapter that lists these great acts of faith in the Old Testament.

And there are two verses back to back about the walls and then Rahab. Hebrews chapter 11 verses 30 and 31. Listen. Hebrews 11 verses 30 and 31. By faith the walls of Jericho fell.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. So chapter 6 gets two verses in Hebrews 11. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down when they circled for seven days. And by faith Rahab didn't perish with the unbelievers because she believed.

This proves something very important. What is that? It's not their faith. Everybody in Joshua chapter 6 is trusting in something. There's thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands.

I don't know the answer to that question, but there are many, many inside the walls who are trusting in something. Everybody is trusting in something. Not everybody makes it into Hebrews 11. It's the object of faith that matters. It is the arc that orients everything.

The visible representation of God in the midst of his people, that's what matters. People inside, we have men of war, we have the high ground, we have an inner wall, we have an outer wall. They hoped in that. They never asked for terms of peace. They went inside the wall and hoped.

It is the object of faith. The people of God were looking to their God. Rahab was looking to the God of heaven and earth. Go back and look at what she said in Joshua chapter 2. It's wonderful.

It's a wonderful profession of faith from Rahab the harlot in Joshua chapter 2. She was looking to God. Faith without works is dead. Rahab acted on her faith. Her actions proved that there was real belief and real hope in her heart.

The people proved by obeying God that they really did hope in God that He had given them the victory. So that's second. The people believed God and proved it by their obedience. I think that's verses 6-21. Third, Rahab's faith saved her and her family.

We just touched on that in Hebrews chapter 11. Her faith saved her and her family. She feared God and she went to Him for mercy. The others were afraid and hoped to escape him. They hoped to escape God and they perished.

You see everyone was afraid. Rahab feared God and went to him, have mercy on me, take me into your people and he did. The other people were afraid and hoped to escape, hoped that the high ground and the impressive structure would allow them to escape and they perished. Fourth, God instituted a curse to preserve a second monument. God put a curse in Joshua's mouth to institute a second monument.

Look at verse 26. Right at the end of the chapter, one verse from the end, verse 26. Joshua 6.26, and Joshua charged them at that time saying, cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho. He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn and with his youngest. He shall set up its gates." 1 Kings 16 1 Kings 16 talks about the reign of Ahab in Israel, the husband of Jezebel, and the Baal worship that dominated the land during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.

All the prophets of Baal. The Baal worship on every high hill. And then it says this in 1 Kings 16 verse 34. In his days, in Ahab's days, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram, his firstborn.

And with his youngest son, Segeub, he set up its gates according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun. How many years later? Joshua chapter 6, God puts the words of this curse into his mouth If anyone tries to rebuild this he'll lay the foundations at the cost of his son And he'll set the gates at the cost of his youngest 550 years something like that that's close. I looked at my timeline this morning. That's a good guess.

550 years or something like that later, a man dared to do it. A real man with a real name, Hiel of Bethel, who had a real oldest son, Abiram, he died because his dad laid the foundations of Jericho. He had a youngest son, a real person with a real name, Segev, he died because his dad set the gates in place. The curse that Joshua pronounced in Joshua chapter 6 was fulfilled 550 years later in 1 Kings 16 verse 34. The first monument in Joshua was the 12 stones that had been brought out from the Jordan.

Joshua set them up in Gilgal as a monument to his goodness and faithfulness, to bringing his people across the Jordan on dry ground during flood season. Remember, They crossed over during the season of harvest when it's always flooding. It's always the deepest and running the fastest. God dried it up and they walked across on dry land. He wanted a monument for it.

So he told them to take up each tribe. He sends a representative to take one of these stones from the midst of the Jordan and shoulder it and take it to Gilgal. They set up a monument there. This is the second monument. What is it?

The destroyed city of Jericho. God wanted the ruins of that city to be there, and be there, and be there, and be there, so that the enemies of God would know the end of the story for rebels who will not repent. That's fourth, God instituted a curse to preserve a second monument, the ruins of Jericho, never to be rebuilt. Fifth, God's presence with Joshua made him famous. Look at the last verse.

So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread throughout all the country. God had promised that he would be with Joshua as he was with Moses. And he made Joshua a famous man so that he would be a useful man. I think it was two weeks ago I talked about that. God raised him up not so that Joshua would have the glory but so that Joshua would be useful.

He expanded his influence by giving Him this fame. His enemies feared Him. His enemies feared the people of God because of Him. God did that to expand His usefulness. So that's number one.

There are five parts each with a significance. Number two, sin is utterly sinful, So, the wages of sin is death. Sin is utterly sinful. All sin, the ones that are respectable to us, undetected by us, and the ones that we think of as bad, all of it is utterly sinful, and so the wages of sin is death. And God determines the timing of those wages.

And we get so used to Him being patient, that we assume that He has to be patient, that he has to wait to pay the wages for sin to the end of a long life. That is not true God owes no man woman child his patience He owes no one is long-suffering he owes no one his mercy sin is utterly sinful. It ought to have death. It's good that God would pay death for sin and rebellion against him because he's been nothing but good to his creatures. Oh friends, everything that happens in this chapter is good and just.

The wiping off the face of the earth of the men and the women and the children and the old people, all of that is good and just. Since the fall, we are by nature objects of God's good anger. But by nature, meaning you didn't have to do anything to be the object of his good anger because it wasn't what you did, It's what you're like. What you did was just a reflection of the things that you love, things that he hates. What you did was just a reflection of the things that you hate, the things that he loves.

So you did plenty of things that he ought to hate, but before you ever did any of them, you were an object of his good anger. I'm choosing the words carefully. God's anger is good. He's angry at all the right things. He's intolerant of all the right things.

He hates all the right things. Friends, Look at the cross when you're comfortable with your sins. When you think that it's no big deal that you're self-satisfied, look at the cross. When you think that it's no big deal that you're self-sufficient, look at the cross. When you think that it's not a problem that you're self-serving, look at the cross.

When you think that God probably doesn't mind much that you are self-loving. Look at the cross. The wages of sin is death. You can be entirely respectable to your friends and family, to your neighbors, and deserve what happened to Jericho. And if you can't be brought to believe that, Jesus really has nothing to offer you.

If you're so self-satisfied that you don't believe that you can be respectable to friends and neighbors, and yet have your self-love, self-serving, self-trust be so hated in the eyes of God that you deserve from His hand what the inhabitants of Jericho got and Jesus really has nothing to offer you. He's a physician who comes to the sick, not to the self-satisfied, Not to people who feel that they have no need for Him. The cross declares what God thinks of your sins. Somebody's got to die for those sins. Sin is utterly sinful and the wages, the payment for those sins, all the ones you thought were no big deal, the payment for that is death.

That was number two, Sin is utterly sinful and so the wages of sin is death. Number three. I'll say it again. None of this is ethnic in nature. Turn to Deuteronomy 13.

I want to prove to you that none of it is ethnic in nature. This is all about the worship of God. And not about who your family tree is in any way. Deuteronomy 13. Deuteronomy 13.

I'll read verses 12 through 16. This is God giving commands through Moses to the people about how they will live when He gives them the promised land. Deuteronomy 13, beginning in verse 12. If you hear someone in one of your cities which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their cities, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known. Then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently.

And if it is indeed true and certain that such abomination was committed among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock with the edge of the sword And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder for the Lord your God It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again." That's exactly what happened to Jericho. Exactly. It isn't ethnic. If they were to do what the Pagans inside the promised land were doing the same thing was to happen among themselves.

It's not ethnic. If they were to worship false gods, none of them should be plundered either. Put it in a heap in the middle of town kill everyone and burn it all Consider the Babylonian destruction in captivity which would happen hundreds and hundreds of years later God would actually bring a pagan nation in to judge Israel and to take them into captivity. God didn't spare them anything he imposed on the inhabitants of the promised land. This is not ethnic, this is about the worship of God.

Is the book of Joshua a model for believers? Should believers kill unbelievers because of their rebellion against God? Of course not. That kind of outlook is ironic because our text in the book of Joshua is clearly the exception. The long-suffering, and patience, and mercy of God is the rule.

You've already seen how the promise was made to Abraham and then 500 years later after 500 years of long-suffering and patience and mercy then he brought judgment for 30 years. The rule is God's long-suffering and patience and mercy. The exception are these periods of judgment that he brings. Listen to Jesus in Luke chapter 9. Jesus had to teach this to his disciples.

Luke chapter 9, I'll read 51 through 56. Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?

But He turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Jesus didn't come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Judgment is God's. Vengeance is God's.

But it's the exception. The rule is his longsuffering, and patience, and mercy. So the book of Joshua has many truths to help us and benefit us, but it is not a model for how we're to treat unbelievers. Four, Finally. Consider God's tenderness towards a repenting Gentile woman.

It's breathtaking. God's tenderness towards a repentant, gentile woman is breathtaking. You think I'm talking about Rahab? Nope. I'm talking about Ruth.

In Matthew chapter 1, Jesus' genealogy, Matthew chapter 1 verse 5, we read this, Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. We don't get this in Joshua. We do learn that at the time of the writing of this, that she was among the people of God. However, long later this was written, she was among the people of God. Here in Jesus' genealogy we learn that a man of the people of God married her.

His name was Salmon. He had a son. His name was Boaz. We know Boaz. He's in Ruth.

He's in the book of Ruth. So when God brought this Moabitess, this woman of Moabite, this repenting pagan into his land, he had a husband ready for her. A husband who knew how to assess her value, because his mother had been a repenting Pagan, Gentile Pagan. She raised a little boy named Boaz, who was ready to be the perfect husband for this Moabitess who came into the land. I thank God that He loves repenting pagans.

That's good news. This is the good news. His goodness, his tenderness towards repenting pagans is breathtaking. He has set the wheels in motion to provide from them a generation before they ever repented. That's what I learned from this.

He set the wheels in motion to provide for Ruth a generation before. How could he do that? He declares the end from the beginning. He talks about next week's events in the past tense. That's how he can do that.

If you're repenting pagan, if you're repenting Gentile, God set the wheels in motion to provide for you a generation before you were ever born. Because he declares the end from the beginning. Boaz and Ruth had a baby, Obed. Their grandson was Jesse, her great-grandson was King David. And her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson was Jesus.

Applications. What should believers do? I'm actually going to address believers and unbelievers. Believers. Focus on trusting God.

Focus on faith. Radical dependence on God and the obedience that it inevitably produces. Focus on that. Throw yourself on God. And kick aside Plan B, C, D, E, F, G, all the eggs in one basket.

Radical dependence on God. God does it, or I don't want it done. That kind of radical dependence does inevitably produce obedience. There is a place for the plan and the executing of the plan. That's down the list.

This is really my point here. We cannot skip past the radical dependence on God and get to the plan. That's a recipe for disaster. Start with the radical dependence on God, and then the plans mean something. Some of us spend a lot of time acting like things ultimately depend on us and they don't.

And we'd be way better off, instead of obsessing over the plan and the execution of the plan, to go upstream and work on radical dependence on God and obeying him and trust that the plan and execution of the plan then will have meaning and will take care of themselves Because God will be at the head and we'll just be walking alongside Him. Paul says this, 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds." That is what Joshua 6 is all about. The weapons of their warfare were not carnal. This was not military conflict. The weapons of their warfare were spiritual.

Believe God, obey God, he makes the walls collapse. Unbelievers, let me address you. Unbelievers, let me address you. Don't miss this monument. You can go see the ruins today.

They've been excavated in the early to mid 1900s three big digs. You can go to the site See where the walls were Listen to Jesus and Luke 13 one through five Luke 13 one through five there were present at that season some who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Apparently they were sacrificing and Pilate had them killed. Jesus answered and said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

For those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. It is the mercy of God to leave these monuments. Though He is patient, though He is long-suffering, though the rule is mercy, A time is coming when we'll be judged. And you're comforting yourself that the judgment is for the worst sinners.

The tower will fall on the worst sinners. And Jesus says, unless you repent, you'll likewise perish. God isn't saving those judgments for the bad sinners. We're all bad sinners. He's trying to convince you that God hates your sins so you will go to Him for mercy.

But my sins are nothing compared to His sins. Oh, you only think like that because you are comfortable with sins, but God, He isn't that way. Unless you repent you will likewise perish. The ruins of Jericho stand as a monument to you. God, I pray that your people would have such confidence in you, such joy in just walking behind the ark, following the ark.

To have your presence in our midst is all that we need Let us be so thoroughly convinced of that. Oh God Thank you for this chapter and I pray that you would cause it to keep instructing us through time. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.