The Two Keys to Victory | May 3, 2026 PM

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Tell the message. Tonight this is is one that I

hope will be an encouragement to you.

And it's called the Two Keys to victory by talking about the

victorious Christian life. And I know I've mentioned.

On Wednesday nights, I came in right before 7:00 because I was

calling a baseball game right before I got to church.

So certainly something that I've never done before on a Wednesday

to. Leave a field at six. 45 and

stand on a platform at 7:00 and start church and something

hopefully I never have to do again.

Hopefully I don't mind doing them together, but maybe a

little bit of distance between being on a field and say just

outside and then, you know, say open your Bibles.

You know, it's just a, it was a very awkward transition a lot of

ways, particularly considering how serious the message was on

Wednesday night, of which I preach.

But one of the things that we do during the broadcast over the

last few years as we have ad reads or certain people that

have sponsored Easton Community Access Television to do what we

do. And just as you know, that's a

volunteer effort on my part and the others, we don't get paid to

do it. It's just something we enjoy to

do to help the town and for me to be able to meet people in

town. But there are sponsors and I've

turned those sponsors into ad reads because I enjoy that

aspect of broadcasting and those things.

And you'll watch baseball sports online or sports on TV all these

years. And so one of those is ad reads

is for the keys of the game. It's in the middle of the

second. Any of the keys of the game are

brought to you by the Easton Lions Club.

Where there's a need, there's a line.

To find out more, go to eastonlions.com.

I like that. That's pretty good, isn't?

That's pretty good, isn't. Yeah, that's true.

Don't quit your day job, though. I'd rather do this, all things

considered. But during that middle portion

of the second inning, I and the commentator that's with me, we

go over what we have considered to be the keys of the game.

We have looked at the strengths of the all of the Rings Tigers.

We've looked at the strengths of the visiting team, whoever that

may be. And so we have tried within our

mind to figure out what is the best way for all of our Ames to

win and what are the keys for them to be able to be

victorious. But I'll be honest with you,

more often than not, my keys to victory have nothing to do with

that ends up happening in the game because the game, you just

don't know what's going to happen, right?

I mean, there was the time last year when they were playing the

best team in the league. All of our aims were the worst

teams the league. The key to victory was kind of

like, we'll just survive. I mean, that was it.

I couldn't say that on the television, but that's what it

was. And they ended up winning and

end up winning big. There are times that I think the

key to victory is they need to have more offense and they end

up not having none. There's times that it's about

pitching and it really has nothing to do with pitching.

On Wednesday night, I said the umpires have a big strike zone

because you try to get the game in before darkness around 7:00,

and so the hitters just need to hit away because the strike

zones would be big. That was a small strike zone

we've had all year. It's like the umpire just want

to be out there till dark. I don't know what it was.

What I'm saying is I may think that I know the keys, but I

don't. A broadcaster may think that

they know the keys to victory and they don't.

But you know, when we consider the victorious Christian life, I

am so thankful that when it comes to victorious Christian

life, it is not a moving target like the keys to victory in a

ball game. That when it comes to the issue

of how you can live victorious in Jesus Christ, I don't have to

stand up here tonight and say, well, I hope this is it.

I wonder if this will work. I hope you can have success and

then find out later that I was completely wrong.

Because if it's in my mind, my thoughts, my heart, well, we

know that that just isn't exactly what is going to get you

where you need to go in your spiritual life.

But yet, as we look at Joshua chapter #6 this evening, and as

you may know, that chapter is a pivotal chapter in the life of

Israel because it was where Joshua fought the battle of

Jericho. And there's some very key helps

for us not to win. Physical battles in this life.

But rather to win the spiritual battles that we go through.

And I want us to look at these keys to victory tonight because

what Joshua went through with the Angel of the Lord, as well

as the game plan, if you will, that was given to him.

There's some very real principles that will help us

here and now to be able to have success, good success, as it's

called, Joshua chapter 1, the Lord's success in our spiritual

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

life. So would you stand please, to

read God's Word? It's going to be a little bit of

a longer section this evening, if so, if you're able.

John. John, that was this morning.

Joshua chapter #6. Verse #8.

And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that

the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of Ram's horns

passed on before the Lord, and blew with the trumpets, And the

ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.

And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the

trumpets. And the re reward came after the

ark, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets, And

Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor

make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed

out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout.

Then shall you shout so the. Ark of the.

Lord can pass the city going about it once.

And they came into the camp and lodged in the camp.

And Joshua rose early in the morning and the priest took up

the ark of the Lord. The seven priests bearing 7

trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on

continuing blew with the trumpets, and the armed men went

before them. But the re reward came after the

ark of the Lord, the priest going on and blowing with the

trumpets. And the second day they can pass

the city once and return into the camp.

So they did six days, you said? Pastor, I thought you said there

was a battle here. Well, this is the Battle of

Jericho, but it certainly looks different than what we would

call a normal battle. Wouldn't we?

Well, let's continue. And it says, And it came to pass

verse 15 on the 7th day, that they rose early about the

dawning of the day, and could pass the city after the same

manner 7 times. Only on that day they can pass

the city 7 times. And it came to pass the 7th time

when the priest blew with the trumpets, Joshua said, And the

people shout, For the Lord hath given you the city, And the city

shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein to the

Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall

live. She and all that are with her in

the house, because she hid the messengers that were sent.

And ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed

thing, lest you make yourselves. Accursed, when you take of the

accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel cursed and

trouble it. But all the silver and gold and

vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord, they

shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

So the people shouted when the priest blew with the trumpets.

And it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the

trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout.

That the wall fell down flat. So that the people went up into

the city, every man straight before him, and they took the

city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both

man and woman, young and old, the ox and sheep and ass with

the edge of the sword. But Joshua had said unto the two

men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's

house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as

you swear unto her. And the young?

Men that were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her

father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had,

And they brought out all her kindred, and left them without

the camp of Israel, And they burnt the city with fire, and

all that was therein. Only the silver, the gold, the

vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of

the House of the Lord. And Joshua save Rahab the harlot

alive, her father's household, and all that she had.

And she dwelt in Israel even unto this day, because she hid

the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

You may be seated what you. SAW was no ordinary battle.

And that's because Jericho was no ordinary city, and the people

of Israel on their own had no business winning this battle.

But yet when God intervened. Could we put it this way when

God gave the keys to victory that Israel could not lose if

they followed that which the Lord had placed before them So I

wanted to look at that here tonight, the 2 keys to victory

how you can have victory in your.

Spiritual life, Heavenly Father, be with us as we continue this

message. Help me to portray these

principles right as they are, through the Word of God,

straight and true. Help us to be able to hear, to

learn, to understand and to put into practice that which we

received tonight. And we do ask it in Jesus name,

Amen. Well, Joshua is fresh off an

encounter with the. Lord, the host of the Lord,

rather, the captain of the host of the Lord.

You might remember that Joshua had met this man and seemingly

was a man. I do believe it was a.

Pre Incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ he comes before him

and he says, Joshua says whose side are you on?

On my side, on Israel's side or the side of our enemies and the

captain of. The Lord of the of the host of

the Lord says nay and that really wasn't one of the options

that Joshua gave him. It was either one or the other

and the Lord says no, I am not. So the reason why was because

the Lord wasn't on someone's side.

This is really a principle for us in our lives that we don't

just get to quote get the Lord on our side.

We need to be on the Lord's side that we make sure that we don't

just carry them around in our pocket or carry them around on

our neck as well. I have the Lord on my side

because I've done XYZ. You know, you need to be, and I

need to be exactly where the Lord wants us to be.

That's the desire of the Lord's heart.

Well, all of this has taken place and now a plan has been

given from the Lord directly to Joshua, and that plan has been

communicated. We saw it right here in the

text. And interestingly enough, you

know, you and I, maybe not, we don't blink at this too much

because as always, when we're reading the Word of God, these

are events that have already happened.

And we get to see a whole week's worth of events take place in a

reading of about two or three minutes, right?

So there's really no mystery that's involved when we read the

word of God. Even if you have read this for

the first time, let's say you've never read it before.

Still, there's not a lot left to the imagination because we went

from the beginning of the end of these seven days in just a few

minutes. Now imagine are the people of

Israel. They are ready to go into their

first battle across the promised land.

They've crossed the Jordan River.

They've wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

It is finally time to get to battle these, these amoral,

these ungodly nations that are there, that have been defiant to

God for generation after generation.

The Bible says their cup of iniquity is now full and

judgment is about to come, and God is going to use the

Israelites to do just that. But their very first stop is

Jericho. And Jericho is a very formidable

place in so many ways. Why?

Because Jericho was a large walled city and walled in such a

way that it seemed to be at that time, impenetrable.

Now I have some perspective on this type of thing from going to

Scotland just a few weeks ago and getting to see, for

instance, Edinburgh Castle. Kaylee's been to Edinburgh

Castle before. He's seen Edinburgh Castle and

there is right there in the middle of the city, just this

old city on top of a rock, on top of a inactive volcano.

There it is, a castle that's sitting right there with walls

around it. And you look at it even in

modern day and think, how would I scale something like this?

How would I get to the top? How would we take over something

like this? No, I wasn't planning a coup.

All right, I want to make sure I wasn't thinking that way.

I would like to get a visa again if I'd go, but in the future, So

I'm being careful what I say. But if you were just to look at

it, you think, humanly speaking, how on earth could we scale

something like this? How on earth could somebody

break into something like this? And that's why something like

that has stood there for well over 1000 years because of the

walls that were there. Well, the walls of Jericho were

some of the most impenetrable, if not the most impenetrable

that you would find anywhere. In fact, according to Answers of

Genesis, the idea of the walls of Jericho as it is portrayed in

the Word of God, giving more a little bit more understanding

because of modern archaeology, which has confirmed that which

has been found in the Word of God.

And we shouldn't be surprised if archaeology confirms the word of

God, Amen. Because the word of God is true.

The Word of God is not a history book, but yet when it speaks of

history, it always speaks truthfully.

The Word of God is not an archaeological book, but when it

speaks of archaeology, it speaks truthfully and we can go right

down the line. The Word of God is not any of

those types of books. I would say this, the Word of

God is a life book more than anything.

It's by what we live our lives. But when it talks about any

other subject, it always speaks truthfully because the book is

perfect. But Answers in Genesis is the

mound or tell of Jericho was surrounded by a great earth and

ram part or embankment with a stone retaining wall at its

base. The retaining wall was some four

or five meters, about 12 to 15 feet high.

On top of that was a mud brick wall. 2 meters or 6 feet thick,

and about 6 to 8 meters 20 to 26 feet high.

At the crust of the embankment was a.

Similar mud brick wall whose base was roughly 14 meters or 46

feet above the ground level outside the retaining wall.

This is what loomed high above the Israelites as they marched

around the city each day for. Seven days and they added.

Humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to

penetrate the impregnable bastion of Jericho.

Think of this impressive structure that would have.

Risen somewhere around 7 to 8 stories high at the very least.

It was also quite thick. They said Chariots could run

several abreast a top of the Walls of Jericho.

We know that it was thick enough that Rahab could have had a

household that was literally built inside of the wall, that

there were apartments, if you will, that were built inside of

that wall where people were able to live.

These walls were tall. These walls were thick.

We're not talking about the ways of Modern Warfare that you could

break down such a wall. What we have here is something

that seems impenetrable in so many ways.

What was it going to take for them to be able to win?

Well, it was going to take courage.

It would have taken courage to get the victory.

Why? Because as we saw here just a

moment ago, they were going to wander around, weren't they?

They were going to wander for six days, once a day around the

city, and then on the 7th day, 7 times around.

Could you imagine the courage it would have taken to have to walk

around knowing that you weren't able to use your sword, that you

weren't able to be able to defend yourself?

Now, sure, again, we've read the story.

We know how it ends, but I'm talking about these people who

haven't read the story because they're living it now.

What are they doing when they are told that the rules of

engagement of this don't use your sword, don't talk.

All that's going to happen is the shofar.

That's the ram's horn is going to blow, but that's it.

Now, the shofar was something that was very affordable.

I don't know how many of you heard a shofar blow before.

I know, brother. Dan and I are.

Privy to it Evangelist who blows the shofar he sometimes.

Struggles being able to blow it because it's not an easy

instrument to be able to blow, but it's literally a hollowed

out ram's horn. And once it's blown in a proper

way, it's a pretty amazing sound.

But yet that's all. I mean, in modern history, we

know that there are sometimes music that's incorporated or

even in in history past in warfare, that history or that

music is a part of that. To be able to rally the troops,

but to rally them to do what? Just walk and that's it took

courage. It would have taken endurance.

They had to March for six days persisting in something that

didn't make a whole lot of sense in their mind.

They had to have discipline. Why was that?

Because they were told there's some things that are there that

you're not allowed to touch. Things that were called the

first things that will end up being a problem in the next

chapter. When someone decides that they

are to take of those things that God told them not to take.

It wouldn't just take courage and endurance and discipline,

but it would also cause them to recognize their helplessness.

They were utterly helpless on their own.

There was nothing they could do. Now we find other place in the

word of God that there were times that people who were

inside a walled city would attack by dropping a millstone

on someone who was walking around the outside of the wall.

Could you imagine their helplessness?

They looked up that wall and thought all they have to do is

just drop. Something down from there and

I'm dead and there's nothing I can do.

How could they win such a battle?

Humanly speaking, it was impossible.

But as we look at the keys to victory tonight, there's two

that I want to make clear to us because we are not fighting a

physical battle this evening. This is not a message for me to

incite you to be able to say that we need to go out and fight

some sort of physical battle tonight.

That is not what I am Speaking of in any way, shape or form.

But I am saying this, that the Christian life itself is full of

spiritual battles, that there are spiritual victories that we

must win, that we must overcome sin, we must overcome

temptation, we must overcome difficulty.

We must overcome those things that have been brought into our

life. Well, what are the quote, UN

quote, keys to victory for us? Well, the Bible makes it clear

that there are two. We find them both here in our

text. I'd encourage you to write these

down for your own edification tonight.

And the first is this. The victorious Christian life

requires God's leadership. The victorious Christian life

requires God's leadership. Let me be clear with you

something this evening. On their own, Israel had no

chance of winning this battle. We have to start from this place

tonight. Israel on their own had no

chance to win this battle. Now in ancient warfare, there

were probably 3 different ways that Israel could have

conceivably won a victory against.

Actually more than three, but several ways that they could

have won the victory against such a defense city.

The first would be a full frontal assault.

Knowing that many people would die, you could have lost a great

portion of your force as you're throwing them in the meat

grinder of the battle. You could siege, have a siege

around a city like that, try to starve them off, be able to

surround them to make sure that they didn't have any more

resources. And eventually there would have

to be some level of conciliation between the people who are being

sieged and the people on the outside.

There were times that they tried to invaders tried to weaken the

stone walls with fire or by tunneling.

Sometimes they would. Heap Earth.

Just dirt up and try to make a ramp up to the top of the wall

so that men could just literally run up to the top of the wall.

It's certainly that would be possible with smaller walls, but

not one that was. 75 feet. Or so tall.

And each of these methods of assault could take weeks or

months. And the attacking force usually

suffered great, great losses. So we look at this and we say,

how on earth could they have won?

Well, we know because there was a reckoning, A census that was

taken some time for that. Israel's fighting for some time

around right where we are in Joshua chapter 6.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

Their manpower would have been somewhere around 600,000

soldiers. Most certainly they would have

had more soldiers than those who were contained inside of

Jericho. There was no way that there

would have been a fighting force of 600,000 inside the walls of

Jericho. So he has some choices.

Humanly speaking, as I mentioned, he can just throw

those men into a meat grinder. And I think of the Civil War and

I think of men like Ulysses S Grant that literally just threw

men in the middle of a battle and knew that it was going to

come at great. Cost.

But yet that was the only way that victory would be secured.

And that was one of the reasons Abraham Lincoln elevated Ulysses

S Grant was he said. What I like about him is he

knows how to fight. But he also understood that it

came at a great human cost. I would submit to you that even

with 600,000 men, it would have been near impossible, if not

impossible for a full frontal assault to breach those types of

walls because still you have the problem of you can't get through

the walls no matter how many men you have.

Now, the second is the siege. And there's a part of you that

says, well, maybe the siege would have worked out well

because there were so many of Israel on the outside and there

was so little comparatively speaking, of Jericho on the

inside. And that is true.

And so there was the possibility.

Of a siege. But here's the problem that we

find out as we continue to read the book of Joshua, which we

won't do tonight, but you could do this on your own, that sure,

there were fewer inside of Jericho than the Israelites on

the outside. But here's the problem.

If the Israelites tried to apply a siege, there was more of the

Canaanites that were in the land than there were of the

Israelites that were there. So sure, the Israelites could

have applied a siege, but very quickly the other hosts of the

Canaanites that were around would have wiped Israel off the

face of the map. And there was a time when there

were several city states of Canaan that tried to come

together, new confederacy and tried to beat Israel.

So a siege is impossible because you can't.

You can't just starve out of people who are themselves could

be rescued by the other people that are outside of you.

And then we just talked about the earthen works to try to get

up to the top of the wall. It's not going to work with a

wall that's that wide and a wall that's that bit big.

Here's the issue. On their own, they can't win.

The Christian writer W Philip Keller, who wrote a wonderful

book about Joshua. I would encourage you to read

it. I have it in my office.

It's one of those that I've read multiple times.

He said this In reality. It was God's wisdom.

God's spirit, God's power, God's presence, God's hand at work

behind the walls of Jericho that finally flattened them.

It was in truth. And an actual.

Fact that God who gave Israel this tremendous triumph.

The only way Israel could win was by following God's plan.

What was the plan? March, be quiet, blow the

trumpet. Day 7, March 7 times when the

trumpet blows its final blow, shout and the walls will fall.

Now again, they're spent one day in the military.

I've hung around Dave a lot, but other than that, I've never

spent one day in the military. But I know this.

That is one of the, humanly speaking, worst battle plans you

can find. I can't imagine the Secretary of

Defense or the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth.

Say we've got a plan, guys. This is what we're going to do.

We're we're just going to March around and then we're going to

blow trumpets. You say, well, well, that's an

awful idea. Well, it's it is an awful idea

no matter who it is, no matter what administration it is.

If anyone said that and the word was leaked out to the media,

everybody would go crazy. Why?

Because it's an awful idea. But yet this is what God told

them to do. Now why was that?

Because God was making it clear the only way you will win is

doing it my way. You will not win on your own.

Do you know the same is true for us today?

If you want to have victory in your spiritual life, the way to

do it is not to buy is by not following your own plan, by

going your own way. Doing what?

Seems right following humanistic thinking.

But rather, the way to have victory in the spiritual life is

this. Do what the Word of God says.

How do you have victory over sin?

Anyone in here tired of sin? I don't know about you, but I

am. Nobody's tired of sin.

All right, that was it was a trick question.

We're all tired of sin, aren't we?

Well, how do you how do you have?

Victory over sin? Well, do you go through?

Self help gurus, Humanistic techniques following far eastern

religious models. Do you believe in the champion

that's inside of you? Do.

You do you just realize that all you've got to do is just have

enough courage and discipline within yourself because you are

the higher power for your own self and you can make it happen.

Is this how you gain victory over sin?

Or do we submit to what the Word of God says when it comes to our

flesh, even when it doesn't always make sense?

Because the world tells us this. You want to fulfill life.

Do what you want. Do it feels good, do what makes

you happy baby. This is what the world says and

they look at us as narrow minded Bible believers who would.

Dare from a pulpit say that there's some things you ought

not to do in your life because a holy God said don't do them.

Well, who's to be believed? Well, you could follow the

world's game plan, but I can assure you, like the Israelites,

you won't win. Or you can follow God's plan and

recognize that His plan has been working for a very, very long

time, and you can have victory over sin.

What does the world say at best? You you may.

Control sin, but you'll not ever get over sin.

But what does the Bible say? He was free is free indeed.

That you can have freedom from sin in your life, that that

doesn't mean you don't need to be cautious about certain

triggers in your life that that might bring up old habits and

old ways. Again, no, no, I'm not trying to

say that. What I am saying is this, that

you can live with freedom in Christ, but you got to follow

his plan. It's a key to victory.

How does a church? Grow and have an impact in the

community in this day and age, Well, common sense and the world

would say you got to entertain people, you got to bring them in

any way you can. Draw a crowd.

Make it exciting, you know Liven.

Things up a little bit, You know, for us, livening things up

is turning this wall white and then blue again.

That's as lively as we get. We don't know what color it is

from week to week. We're mixing it up.

But the world says you got to look like the world to win the

world. But yet the model of the Bible

is this, that we're to be peculiar people, zealous of good

works. It says in Titus chapter 2.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

Now many of us got that peculiar thing down.

I know that I do. But the idea is not to be.

Peculiar. As I'm going around being

strange for the sake of being strange, it means that I'm

peculiar. Peculiar.

I am. I'm different.

I'm going to be peculiar. I'm not going to do it, so I'm

not even going to try it. What was that, Belinda?

That's it. I like that.

That was Good Hope that Mike's got that different than the

world that that we are to be a haven from the world, not to be

the world. That's what this space is to be

that we're to love each other. No, no, not the way that the

world pretends to love each other, but real, genuine

fellowship and love. I was walking just last night

and I was walking in an area where there were there was a bar

and of course the Celtics game was going on.

The Celtics game is about finishing and I'm looking at all

the people that are enjoying just through the windows,

they're enjoying the game. And I looked at all the people

right about the time it ended that we're not enjoying the game

anymore and starting to pour out from the.

I thought, you know, you look inside.

And you think, boy, those people really have camaraderie.

Those people really have something together.

But then you think about it and you realize, no, they really

don't. It may look like that to the

world, but what do we have here? Fellowship in Christ and what

would you do? Follow the Lord's game plan when

it comes to a church. How do you have victory in a in

a marriage or victory in a family?

What do you need to do? Well, the world gives you all

kinds of ideas. Every influencer has their idea.

Every podcaster has their idea. Everybody's going to tell you

what to do and how to do it, and there are some ideas.

That are not bad. I'm not saying that every idea

that comes from online or every idea that comes from someone is

wrong. There's lots of truth that's out

there, and by the way, all truth.

Is God's truth, and someone that's even lost can stumble

upon God's truth of in their own life, whether they realize it's

from the word of God or not. But I will say this, when it

comes to a family, where's the plan that can help a family grow

spiritually? Where's the plan that can help a

marriage grow spiritually? Well, it's not found in a second

honeymoon. It's not found in a bigger

house. It's not found another vacation.

It's not found in buying more things.

The plan for the family is found here in the Word of God.

I go to Ephesians chapter 5, not right now, but you can read

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 5 and Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

It'll talk a lot about what the family is to do and what the

family is to be and how it's to reflect Christ in the church.

That this is what God intends for us, that God has given us a

plan. God has not left us without a

plan how to be victorious. Could you imagine that God saves

us and then says, hey, do your best till you get to heaven,

I'll see you then. Well, how cruel would that be?

Faithful is he who calleth us who also will do it.

He has called us to live the Christian life.

And as such, He will give us the plan that we need.

And the plan is found here in His Word.

And I know I've said it a lot, particularly in the last few

weeks, but This is why you need to be in the Word of God every

day. This is why you need to be in

prayer every day. This is why you need to absorb

this book. This is why you need the bread

of life in your life, so that you can have the plan, God's

plan, readily available to you in your life #1 the victorious

Christian life requires God's leadership without God's

leadership. You cannot win.

But here's the second key to victory, and that's this.

The victorious Christian life requires personal effort.

The victorious Christian life requires personal effort.

Now, maybe you're hearing this tonight.

You say? Hold on a second.

Pastor, you're saying that salvation is about God's plan

for salvation, but then our effort and my answer would be

that's exactly opposite of what? I'm saying salvation is not

about your effort, it's about what Christ already did on the

cross. If we were saying that it was

about your effort, here's what we will be doing, we would be

veering off into Catholic teaching, which is this It is

your works plus Christ's sacrifice equaling salvation.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

But we're not talking about salvation this evening.

We are talking about the victorious Christian life.

What happens after that? Well, God has put together a

plan. Well, what do we need to do?

We got to work the plan. The Bible's there for the

taking, if you will. The question is, what are you

going to do with it? That's what the victorious

Christian life is about. Both of these are equal.

God has. Given us his perfect plan, but

at the same time it is up to us. OK.

No, Yeah, what what I want to. Go home with.

Kaylee. Yeah, I know.

Well, Kaylee's back there and there's a lot of people want to

go home, all right? But anyway, all right, so all

right, just be calm for a few more minutes, OK?

All right. Yeah.

So at least. Didn't fire me this time, all

right? It requires personal effort.

What did the Israelites need to do?

God gave them the plan, but they still had to circle Jericho 13

times. They still had to carry a sword

and shield. And by the way, they needed to

use them because once the walls fell down to the supernatural

way of which they fell down, there was still a battle that

was going to commence inside those walls that had fallen

down. So they had to take the sword

and shield. They had to restrain themselves

to be able to make sure that they did not touch the accursed

thing that was there inside that gold, that silver, those vessels

that God had told them not to do.

They a listening ear to make sure that they heard the

instructions of Joshua in the 1st place.

But these are action verbs. They circled, they carried, they

restrained, they listened. These are things that they had

to do. And God has given us a plan to

have victory. But you got to work the plan

that it's not just enough to have a Bible toted under your

arm and to say I've got my shield and nothing can happen

now that I have my Bible with me.

Well, certainly it's a wonderful thing to have a Bible with you.

But you've got to do what the Bible says, and the keys to the

victory is. You follow God's.

Plan, but then you do the plan of which he gave.

How do you have victory over sin?

We'll take action. Start here.

Repent. Ask the Lord to forgive you for

that sin of which you are struggling with.

Remove that sin from your life. Get as far away from it as you

can. Take whatever steps necessary to

get it out of your way. Pray on those issues.

Pray on it every day. Pray on it every hour.

Pray on every minute as it comes up in your mind as you're

tempted. Once again, this is the plan

that God has given us. We don't also just take things

out of our life. The Bible tells us to put on as

well. Put off the old things, but put

on the Lord Jesus Christ that those things that we take out of

our life that are sinful, we need to put something inside of

our life that fills that gap that's healthful and that's good

and that can give us something that will bring restoration to

our life. Instead of continuing, break it

down by sin. How does the church grow in this

day and age? Well, action.

You know what you do? Hand out tracks, Visit people,

love people, be active in the community.

Just finding people to love on. You know it's important because

there's been a. Time that we as a particular

independent Baptist been very zealous about going door to door

in evangelism. And I believe that it's

important that we do and I hope and pray that we do more of

that. But I will say that Evangelum is

not just going on a door to door on Saturday.

It's also just trying to get to know people and love people as

you meet him every day that bank tellers you see every couple of

weeks. Do you know her name?

Have you ever had a conversation with them before?

See the same guy at the coffee shop maybe two or three times a

week. You ever told him what your name

is? Ask him what his name is.

Boy, it's a lot easier to hand someone to track if you know

him, the person at the post office, you know you see him

every once in a while you hand them an arm and a leg.

Now to be able to get a book of stamps.

Do you know who they are? Have you ever talked to him

before? It's a lot easier to influence

someone for Christ when you take time to get to know them.

What does that mean? Action.

That's how churches grow. Churches don't grow because you

pay a pastor. Say that again, churches don't

grow because you pay a pastor. Churches don't grow because then

you hire an assistant pastor or because you have more staff.

Now I'll say a pastor, assistant pastor, staff, whatever they

ought to be doing, what they should be for the Lord when it

comes to witnessing an outreach and such.

But it's up to all of us to have action.

And any time we say, you know, I wonder, I wonder if we should do

this ministry. Will the answer is, well,

somebody's got to do. It I wonder if we should go

visit this person. Somebody has to do it.

I wonder if we should start doing this in the church.

Someone has to do It requires action.

We follow God's plan to make sure we're not doing something

outside of His will, but then we have to have the action.

To do it, how do marriages and families stay strong or get

strong well? We pray as a husband.

And wife together you have family devotions with a child.

Again, child. Children need to be able to hear

the word of God, not just here, but at home as well.

Go over time, once a week, a couple times a week.

Start small to be able to teach your children the Word of God.

How do families get together? Well, they come to church

together. They learned the word of God

together. How are marriages restored?

How are marriages brought to the place where they need to be?

Well, one serves the other. In love of Christ and the Bible

says that the testimony of 1 can help win the other either to

salvation or win the other one to coming back to the Lord would

have them to be. What am I saying that it takes

some work. And you know what a lot of

people don't want in this microwave age society, this

Internet Society we live in, we want it right now.

And if we don't get it now, it doesn't work.

Well, I'm old enough to remember that there are some things that

take time, like non microwave meals or finding out information

that you didn't just ask Google or ChatGPT about and that once

you put a little effort in, it was a lot more meaningful.

You know, there's not a lot of microwave meals.

I really like, you know why they're quick and well, they're

quick. That's what they're there for.

You know, I could look up a random fact on my phone, but

I'll probably remember it a minute or forget it a minute or

two later because I looked it up quickly and I'll forget it

quickly. Some of you are old enough to

remember. If you want to find something,

you went to a library, you found a card catalog.

You. Thumb through all those cards

you went to go find the book. Then you found out you couldn't

check it out because it was a, it was a circular.

So what did you need to do? You had to go make a copy or a

mimeograph. Of it and take it home.

And then you finally knew, you know that struggle, that action

actually made all those things more meaningful than what we

have today in so many ways. And if that's true for that, how

much more so than the Word of God?

If you're looking for a microwave answer, for your

family, for a church, for your personal spiritual struggles,

it's going to be hard to find. But if you're willing to take

the plan of the Word of God and put it into action, or what

happened to Israel? They won a battle they never

should have won. You know, there are families

that are on the brink. Maybe they know it, maybe they

don't, but they follow what the Lord says for them in their

life. Maybe they get saved.

Of course, that's the first step.

Maybe they are saved. They've.

Gotten away from the Lord? You know what?

God can do miraculous things when even there's just one

person in the family, just one who's willing to follow the plan

that God has. A church can have revival.

How? Because there's just a small

group. Of people that say we're going

to do whatever we can to follow what God's plan is for us within

this church. And even with the struggles of

what you may be tempted with tonight, and I don't know what

that is, we all deal with different things.

Some of them can be big and large and outward, and some of

them are small and inward and pernicious, and they're both

just as bad. Whether the issues of the heart

or the issues that have already manifested themselves on the

outside, they're all destructive because they're all sin.

How do you get? Victory over that.

In yourself you don't. In Christ you could have

victory. The Christian life is filled

with battles, but the only way to have victory is to have

victory through Christ and, and this is really the key for us

this evening as Christians, we fight from a place of victory.

We don't need to fight for victory.

Now here's what I mean because this is important.

It might change the way you think about this we.

Fight from a place of victory, not the fact that we fight for

victory. When I call a game between

Oliver Ames and, let's say, the Mansfield Hornets, each team is

struggling to win. It's a battle of wills, isn't

it? One team is throwing the ball as

hard as they can. The other team is trying to hit

the ball as hard as they can. It's a matter of.

Who? Will will exert themselves over

the other. That's the team that will win

victory. I think a lot of times for us in

our spiritual life, we think that that is how we achieve

victory, that we have to exert our will in a greater way than

the evil 1 exerts will. And as long as we exert

ourselves in a greater way, of course with the Lord's help,

then then we can have victory. But here's the issue with that.

The victory has already been won.

We're not fighting for victory. We're fighting from a place of

victory, that victory's already been secured in Jesus Christ and

that you already have victory secured over sin, that you can

already have victory secured in a church, that you can already

have victory secured in a family.

You have everything you need because Christ has given you the

plan. All you've got to do is put it

into place. And the best part is His spirit

will help you put it into place. This chapter makes no sense but

God. And then it makes perfect sense

because it's what God willed and the people followed along and

the victory took place. In fact, that's pretty much the

testimony of the book of Joshua. God said fight this way.

They fought this way and they had victory.

There were just. Sometimes when they didn't, for

instance, there was a man named Aiken who took of the accursed

thing here in chapter #6 in Chapter 7, they went to a little

tiny place called AII call the Mayberry of Canaan.

There was nobody there. They should have won handily.

In fact, Joshua said of those 6. 100,000 men, he said send. 1000

from each tribe. That's all we need.

Never prayed, never sought the Lord and they lost.

Why? They didn't follow God's plan.

A little later, there's some Gibeonites who will come.

The Gibeonites pretend they're from a far country.

You see, the Israelites could make treaties with those who are

from a far country. God allowed that.

But the Gibeonites were from right around the corner, and

they came with old clothes and old bread, and they presented

themselves. They've been on a long journey.

They never prayed. They never asked the Lord for

guidance. And what happened?

They made a treaty with the Gibby Nights, and the Gibby

Nights became a snare to Israel for generations, as we're going

to see in Second Samuel here. In very short order, What

happened when the times they didn't follow the plan, they got

themselves into trouble. The times they followed the

plan, they couldn't lose. Now, I'm not telling you that

the magical formula for your Christian life is you do what

the word of God says and you'll never have problems.

Did I say that? I did not say that, but I did

say this. Even in the problems, you will

have victory. Why?

Because you don't need to fight for victory.

The victory has already been secured in Christ.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.