by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Joshua 6:6-20<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. The record of the fall of Jericho is familiar to many people.<\/p>\n A. It was an impressive victory for the people of Israel who had recently entered the\nland.\n
B. Despite the fact that the city was heavily fortified – Joshua 6:1<\/p>\n
C. It was completely destroyed – Joshua 6:21<\/p>\n
II. How did the walls fall?<\/p>\n
A. Jericho fell by the grace of God<\/p>\n
1. God gave Jericho to the Israelites – Joshua 6:2<\/p>\n 2. Though the people of Israel numbered to be a mighty nation, they were not\na power that could have overcome a walled city. Especially not without\nlarge numbers of casualties. Yet with God’s help, it seemed to be a trivial\ntask.\n
B. Jericho fell by faith<\/p>\n 1. God required the Israelites to march around the city for six days. On the\nseventh day they marched around the city seven times. Until they did all\nthat the Lord asked of them, there was no evidence that the walls would\nfall.\n
2. It was by their trust in God that the walls fell – Hebrews 11:30<\/p>\n C. Consider this, did the fact that Israel had to trust God nullify the grace of God in\ngiving them the city?\n 1. Did the fact that they had to obey the commands of God imply that the\nIsraelites earned the right to take Jericho?\n 2. No, when man met the conditions God placed on taking the city, there was\nno glory in the ability of man, but the glory of God’s strength – Joshua 6:16\n
3. The Israelites understood that their victory was a gift of God.<\/p>\n D. Eliminate the grace of God and the walls would have remained standing. Eliminate\nthe faith in God and the walls would not have come down. Eliminate their\nobedience to God and they would not have had the victory.\nIII. If we can grasp this simple concept, then our understanding of salvation becomes much\neasier.\n
A. We are saved by the grace of God<\/p>\n 1. In thousands of years of history, mankind has proven that he was unable to\nsave himself from himself. – Psalm 14:1-3\n
2. We became by our nature children destined for wrath – Ephesians 2:1-3<\/p>\n
3. None can claim righteousness – Romans 3:23<\/p>\n
4. We do not possess the ability to be saved.<\/p>\n
5. Yet God chose to save us – Romans 5:6-11<\/p>\n
6. It was God’s gift to us – Ephesians 2:4-7<\/p>\n B. Yet, like the Israelites, God expects us to have faith in his work before we see the\nresult.\n
1. It is impossible to be saved without faith – Hebrews 11:6<\/p>\n
2. Our faith is demonstrated by our obeying God’s will – James 2:14-17<\/p>\n
C. The requirement of faith does not nullify the gift God has offered – Ephesians 2:8-10<\/p>\n 1. Our trust and obedience demonstrates the power and wonder of God’s\nloving kindness.\n 2. That grace was made known to the Ephesians through the gospel –\nEphesians 3:1-10\n
3. In response to this message, the Ephesians believed – Ephesians 1:13-16<\/p>\n
4. Because of their belief, they obeyed the commands of God – Acts 19:1-5<\/p>\n D. Would they have been saved without the grace of God? Would salvation come to\nthem if they did not believe the message? Could they have truly believed if they did\nnot obey the commands of God?\n E. You see then that we are not saved by grace alone. We are not saved by faith alone\n(James 2:24). We are not saved by deeds alone.\n
IV. In the same way, Satan holds this world captive – II Timothy 2:24-26<\/p>\n
A. Yet Satan’s defenses cannot stop God’s army – you and I – Matthew 16:18<\/p>\n
1. Notice that gates are on the side of the defender.<\/p>\n
2. Satan cannot stop the church from raiding his stronghold.<\/p>\n B. It is the message of God that must be delivered to a lost and dying world – Romans\n10:12-15\n
C. Yet not all will listen – Romans 10:16-17<\/p>\n
D. What about you?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Joshua 6:6-20 I. The record of the fall of Jericho is familiar to many people. A. It was an impressive victory for the people of Israel who had recently entered the land. B. Despite the fact that the city was heavily fortified – Joshua 6:1 C. It was completely destroyed – Joshua 6:21…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,54,55],"class_list":["post-62749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-faith","tag-grace","tag-obedience","tag-works"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/questions-about-the-battle-of-jericho\/","url_meta":{"origin":62749,"position":0},"title":"Questions about the Battle of Jericho","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am getting ready to give the lesson Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. I have a few things that I had not noticed before and wondered if you had considered them. In Joshua 5:15 a reference is made to \"sandal\" NKJV or \"shoe\" KJV. Since this is in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67871,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/taking-the-gifts-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":62749,"position":1},"title":"Taking the Gifts of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner \"And Jehovah said unto Joshua, See I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor\" (Joshua 6:2). According to some theories of Gift and Grace, this promise says, ``(1) you already have the city and can't lose it;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4279,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-can-i-find-information-about-the-falling-of-jerichos-walls\/","url_meta":{"origin":62749,"position":2},"title":"Where can I find information about the falling of Jericho’s walls?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am doing a paper for school trying to prove that the Bible is true. One example I was going to use was the walls of Jericho.\u00a0 What I have to do is find the verses, and then try to prove it looking in books, interviews, the Internet, etc.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21216,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ive-read-that-joshuas-conquest-of-jericho-and-ai-could-not-have-happened\/","url_meta":{"origin":62749,"position":3},"title":"I’ve read that Joshua’s conquest of Jericho and Ai could not have happened.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been reading about archaeology and the city of Ai and\u00a0that\u00a0Joshua's conquest could not have happened there as the Bible claims. I really could use some help with that. Answer: You need to remember that archeologists' \"datings\" are based on modern-day chronologies, which have a likelihood of errors. Interestingly,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7118,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-one-person-put-a-curse-on-another\/","url_meta":{"origin":62749,"position":4},"title":"Can one person put a curse on another?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A friend asked me about someone putting curses on others and what does the Bible have to say about it?\u00a0 Could you share some thoughts in this regard?\u00a0 He feels like he is cursed by what his great-grandfather did years ago. Answer: Your question doesn't deal with a matter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45317,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jericho-and-our-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":62749,"position":5},"title":"Jericho and our Salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant After reading the title, some might wonder what the battle of Jericho has to do with our salvation today. The battle when Israel conquered Jericho was about 1410 B.C., over 3,400 years ago. Thus the question might be, \"What in the world would some event over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}