Do Not Shout Until I Tell You to Shout

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During the earlier part of the worship as I was worshiping and praying and standing here, I had a flashback to a year ago. Actually, our anniversary will be next Tuesday night. You know, we started the weekend, the first weekend in October on a Thursday night, Friday night, a Saturday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night.

And the Lord, that was over at the town hall and the Lord blessed that in a marvelous way. And we were thrilled with that opening. But when we came Tuesday night, we said it, the pastors, before we came on the platform, I remember very vividly how we said that we were more excited about that Tuesday night.

And of course, they had, you know, I had the privilege of being able to preach that first Tuesday night. And I said, thanks fellows. After the nice crowds we had on the weekends, I said, thank you for giving me Tuesday night.

But it was really a privilege. I don't know how many we had there. We didn't have as many as we did on the weekend.

But that was the beginning of the building of our church. And how many of you were on that service on that very first Tuesday night? Would you raise your hand? How many of you were there? Raise your hand. Some on the balcony as well.

Look at that. Praise the Lord. And you know what we're going to do next Tuesday night? We're going to have a special service.

Now, I'm announcing this. The other pastors don't even know about this. But we're going to have a special service next Tuesday night.

And I can't tell you what it is until I consult with the pastors. But I encourage you to come because the Lord's going to do something very special for us. It's going to be a night of thanksgiving, a time of rejoicing.

And look what the Lord has done in just one year's period. It's been beyond anything that we could have ever imagined. We could have ever imagined what the Lord has done.

And the many people, the thousands that have been ministered to here. And, you know, it's not the size of the crowds or anything. But nevertheless, that is an indication of what God has done here.

The many, many have been ministered to. Those who have made this their church home. Others who visit here.

Others who have come from out of town. And some marvelous things have happened. People have been led of the Lord.

The Lord has spoken to them and told them to come from across the country. In some cases, just to attend a service. And they've come on a Sunday morning.

They came on a Sunday night. And God just marvelously ministered to them. And we have some letters and testimonies of that.

And so there's many, many things. But most of all, what's happened in the lives of you that sit right here tonight. So next Tuesday night is going to be a very, very special service.

And I encourage you to come. And by Sunday, we'll give you an idea what it is. After I've had a chance to find out myself what it's going to be.

As we talk with the pastor. No, I have an idea. And I just want to share it with them.

As we give praise to the Lord for what he's done. Amen. Now, do not shout until I tell you to shout.

Don't take that as a rebuke. That's the title of my message tonight. And it doesn't have anything to do with your permission to say amen.

Or praise the Lord or whatever. But turn with me to Joshua chapter 6. Joshua chapter 6. And I'm going to read to you tonight from the King James Living Bible. As Leonard Ravenhill likes to call it.

The King James Living Bible. The only original version. It says, Horns.

And the seventh day you shall go past the city seven times. And the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn.

And when you hear the sound of the trumpet. All the people shall shout with a great shout. And the wall of the city shall fall down flat.

And the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. Now go down to verse 10. It says, 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. Do not shout until I tell you to shout.

Let's ask the Lord to bless his word. Hallelujah. Lord we do thank you tonight as we think back over the year.

The beginnings of what you've done here. We've come Lord this far by faith. Leaning on the Lord.

Hallelujah. And Lord we thank you that you brought us into the very first steps of the promised land for this church. And we thank you that you're continuing to take us in.

Little by little. And Lord we thank you for what you're doing in our midst. And we pray that you would continue to do it Lord.

Continue to do it Lord. We don't just look back but we look forward to as well. Of what you're going to continue to do.

But Lord do it again here tonight we pray. Minister and anoint thy servant we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

As I read to you here in Joshua the sixth chapter. God required the Jericho marchers to go on a word fast. Now I don't know if you've ever been on a word fast.

That's in addition to or instead of going on a food fast. Going on a fast not speaking. Now I can just hear one of the husbands thinking right now.

Boy I sure wish my wife would go on one of those fasts. Perhaps the most difficult assignment for some would be to obey this command of Joshua. Neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth.

Even more difficult is for some Christians and some churches to be told ye shall not shout. This is the age of the shouting, praising, dancing, happy, charismatic Holy Ghost church. Church means for some to gather and to shout.

And of course there's nothing wrong with shouting. You know if you come here to this church that we believe in shouting. And we believe God has given us a reason to shout.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord the Bible says. Clap your hands all ye people. There's probably nothing worse than for a true Christian to be in a dead church.

And I don't blame some people. We get many letters of people that talk about their church and the fact that it's dead. And I don't blame some people for not wanting to go to church if it's a dead service.

I mean how would you like to be a funeral director? And have to go week after week to a funeral. And for some people that's what church is to them. They have gatherings where there's no life, there's no joy, there's no spirit, there's no shout.

However there is more to our experience with the Lord than just a shout. Ecclesiastes 3.7 says there is a time to rend and there is a time to shul. There is a time to keep silent and a time to speak.

And there are many today in the body of Christ. Many who will not submit to periods of the Holy Spirit's probings and searchings and dealings and warnings and chastisement. Times when the heart must be rent before it can be sown.

Times when we must be silent. Where there is a silent conviction of the Holy Spirit that precedes the shout. I went to a church one time, attended a service and went in and it was very lively.

One of the charismatic churches and the worship was lively, the music was lively. There was singing, there was shouting, there was dancing. And then the speaker came, he was a guest speaker and God gave him a strong word.

Gave him an anointed word, gave him a hard word. And all of a sudden I felt like somebody had punched their balloon. And it got very, very quiet.

And I had the feeling that they were looking around at each other saying, where did this man come from? He's coming to put a wet blanket over our party here. And it's as if they didn't want to hear it. In fact, after the message was over, they went back and I don't think they even did hear the message.

Zechariah 2.13 says, You see, there is a people who don't know how to be still and silent before the Lord. For a time when they recognize that he has aroused himself from his holy dwelling. Because he has something that he wants to say to us.

But sometimes we can't hear it because we're caught up in wanting to shout. Now you may have reason and many of you have reason. We have every reason tonight to shout if you have been liberated from your sins.

But don't settle for the victory over obvious sins that you've been delivered from. There is so much more. Let the Word, let the Spirit of God liberate you from the not so obvious secret hidden things in your life.

And if that will happen, you'll have a greater reason even to shout tonight. And so this message tonight is about taking Jericho and carrying out the discipline of the Lord. Which always must precede the shout that comes when the walls of Jericho are knocked down.

And I believe that many Christians are not seeing some walls that need to crumble. And some cities that need to be taken because they're not obeying these words. They're not following detail.

They're not following fully the instructions of Joshua when he says, Do not shout until I tell you to shout. So I want to take a look at this. And I want you to note first of all the procedure Israel had to follow in the taking of Jericho.

You know I grew up when we talked about Jericho marches. And people that literally would sometimes march around the church. And a great Jericho march.

And so I and maybe others of you are familiar with that term, a Jericho march. But did you know what preceded it and what instructions were given to them? In the 4th and 5th verse it says here that 7 priests with 7 trumpets of rams horn were to march in front of the ark. The ark of the covenant around Jericho.

And after 7 passes around the wall on day 7 they were to shout. On the 7th day after 7 passes then they were to shout. However, during 12 of those encompasses or marches around the city, they were not to shout or to make any noise, Joshua said, or any noise with your mouth.

Now this no shout rule was a discipline of tremendous proportions for several reasons. Jericho was the first fruits of Canaan. The first and most powerful fortress that they had to conquer before entering the promised land.

And there was naturally an anxiety about it I'm sure. Even a fear. As well as a desire to get on with the job and to get beyond that obstacle as quickly as they possibly could.

Now if I have a wall standing before me and keeping me back from progress, my first reaction is to try to shout the wall down as fast and pray it down as fast as I possibly can. And some people think that that's the answer. They think that noise is the answer.

But noise is not necessarily power. And you can pray, sometimes you can try to pray a wall down all you want and shout your lungs out, but if the Lord is not in the shout, nothing's going to happen. Another reason for the no shout rule and why it was such a test, difficult discipline, is because the priests were doing the encompass of Jericho to blow the ram's horns.

Blow their trumpets. Now always the blowing of the trumpets in Israel's history announced that the Lord was about to display His mighty power. Numbers 10, 9 says, And if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets, and you shall remember before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.

And so every time, day after day, they heard the sound of those trumpets. And while it struck terror in the hearts of the enemies of Israel, it inspired confidence and inspiration in the people of God. It got their adrenaline going.

They knew that God was about to do something, but still they did not know what He was going to do, neither did they know how He was going to do it. I don't believe Joshua didn't tell them. God told Joshua, but Joshua didn't tell the people.

And oh, how difficult it was, as the Scripture says, to be still, to be still and know that I am God. Or the literal translation of that is, shut up and march. Now, I'd like to imagine for a few moments, I want to use my imagination for a few moments.

If you'll allow me. And I want to imagine what would be happening today if this march was taking place. And I want to picture, as it were, after a day's march is over, and you know, that march around the city did not take that long.

It was not that big of a city. And it didn't take them more than a few hours to encompass the city. And after they did so, they had to go back to their camps and wait till the next day and do the same thing all over again.

And I'd like to imagine for just a few moments what the conversation might be among some Christians today after a day's march. In the first group, I hear a gathering. I hear the first group gathering together.

And they're looking at each other and saying, why can't we praise the Lord? Doesn't Joshua know that praise is power and praise is the answer? Joshua is grieving the Holy Spirit. You see, this is the praise camp who believe that the restoration of the tabernacle of David is taking place today and is being restored by praise and that praise and worship is the answer to every problem. And these are the people who believe in the freedom of the Spirit and freedom to praise and to shout and to do their own thing.

And if a Joshua or a pastor or a leader stands and says, be silent and hear the Word of the Lord, they'll not hear it, they'll take their Jericho march and they'll go someplace else. And I've seen it happen over this last year. I've seen people come in and they love the worship.

They come in and they get all excited. And then they hear the message and they say, oh no, this is not what I came to hear. And they've gone on their way.

You see, this is the tent of the undisciplined. They've never been required to submit to Holy Ghost authority. Instead, they only want to shout their way from one spiritual high to another.

And don't you dare try to teach them the Word. Don't you dare try to teach them doctrine. Don't you dare to try to talk to them their need to walk in personal holiness.

They'll shout you down if you do. And the problem with those who've made praise their spiritual idol is that it blinds them from dealing with other idols in their hearts. This was a condition of backslidden Israel.

Isaiah 1.13, he said, stop bringing meaningless offerings. Stop bringing meaningless praise, meaningless shouts. He said, your incense is detestable to me.

He said, your new moons, your Sabbath and convocations, your Jesus festivals and so forth. He said, I cannot bear. He called them evil assemblies.

Evil assemblies. Do you know that some of the so-called Christian gatherings and concerts and conferences are evil assemblies? They are if the heart is not right. If all the desire is to come and dance before the Lord.

Isaiah said, I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hearts in prayer or praise. He said, I hide my eyes from you.

I'm embarrassed. He said, I'm embarrassed to look at you because your hearts are far from me. With your lips, you worship me, but your hearts are far from me.

I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers, he said, I won't listen. God didn't listen.

God will not listen to the shout of a backslidden heart. The next verse in Isaiah 1, 16, he said, first of all, he said, wash and make yourself clean and take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing right, wrong and do right.

And he said, then, then you can shout and praise God all you want. Hallelujah. That's what we're teaching in this church.

Jesus said, they that worship me must worship me in spirit and in truth. And truth must never be separated from worship. Listen, I love a church.

I love a church that is willing to sit here longer for the Word than even for praise and worship. I love a church. I love to minister here tonight because you enjoy the Word of God.

But let's go to another tent. Let's eavesdrop on a conversation of some others. And in this other tent, they're complaining.

You know why they're complaining? It's because Joshua is having them blow the ram's horn. And I can hear one of them saying, why aren't we marching behind the noise of silver horns, silver trumpets? You see, the ram's horn gave forth a crude sound. I meant to have a, Kenny, I meant you to have it tonight, bring it.

And I was going to have you play the ram's horn. I was going to have Angela play the other trumpet because you see, they had silver trumpets and they had ram's horns. And the ram's horn gives forth a very crude sound.

It's not that sharp, crisp, penetrating blast of the silver trumpet. And I can just hear some of them saying, why aren't we using the silver horns? Why are we playing with ram's horns? Because if we're going to impress those Canaanites, we gotta have, we gotta be more professional. A ram's horn will never do it.

They'll never take us seriously. They'll never be afraid. If we're going to strike terror in their hearts, then we gotta have good music.

And you see, there is an anti-ram's horn bias in the church today. It's those who think the way to win the world is to impress them. Put on a show with silver trumpets, dancers, drama, and showmanship.

In fact, silver trumpets is not enough. It's gotta be golden trumpets. In other words, display all the trappings of success so that we can call attention to the church by the professionalism of the announcer rather than calling attention to the Lord who is the one who's being announced.

And we've turned the church today into stage. Now, we have a stage here, but I'm talking about in many places, a church has been turned into a stage show. And what's important is the stage show and how you announce it.

And you see, the silver trumpet consists of the biggest church building with the biggest budget with the best musical preceded by the best preacher telling everybody they can be the best and blessed without even having to march around Jericho's walls. But I wanna tell, I don't know about you, I'm gonna follow the ram's horn because the Bible said it's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by my spirit, sayeth the Lord. God has chosen to take the foolish things of the world.

And I believe the reason that the ram's horn was chosen is because this was a tremendous obstacle and the Lord wanted them to see that he was gonna use the crudest way to bring it about because it was God that was gonna be doing it, not man. But let's go to another tent. I had six tents, but I don't have time to go in all six, so I'm just gonna go into three tents tonight.

In another tent is a group that's just finished their daily march and they come back after silently marching around Jericho's walls and they're all happy. They're all happy, they're all pleased, they got smiles on their face. And one says, man, that's my kind of marching.

That's my kind of church. I never did like that noise. I never did like a noisy church.

There's too much flesh in it. This is a group that prefers the no shout church. So they're right at home marching around Jericho quietly.

And this is a group that equates reverence with quietness and irreverence with noise. And there are people who come to Times Square Church who say, I like the Word, I like the music, and I like the musicians, but I don't like some of the people around me. They make too much noise, they dance, they embarrass me or whatever.

You know, my granddad was a preacher. And I remember my dad told this one time about my granddad. My granddad at one time was not a shouter.

He was not a Pentecostal. He was in another church, and I'll not mention it lest there be any Nazarenes here tonight, so I won't. Granddad was a Nazarene preacher, and then he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Pentecostal experience.

And for a while he belonged to a group, they called themselves the Come Outers. They had come out of this church and come out of that church. And granddad became a very, very excited, powerful, shouting preacher.

And one time one of his, I guess, old colleagues was telling him that it wasn't necessary to have all that noise in the church. And he quoted to granddad from 1 Kings 6 and 7 when they built the temple and pointed out to him that when they built Solomon's temple, they did it quietly. Let me read it to you.

It says, And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither, so that there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building. In other words, the point is that it was quiet. There was no great noise.

There was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building. And somebody told my granddad that. He said, look, you don't need all that worship and all that praise and so forth to build a church.

They built Solomon's temple quietly. My granddad said, yeah, but you should have been there when they blasted out those stones. And we've been blasted.

If you've had some stones blasted out of you, then you have a reason to shout. Now, the Lord may or may not be in the shout. And he may or may not be in the silence.

But that is not the issue here in Jericho's march around Jericho. Don't judge a church or a people by its religious ritual, its forms, or its methods. God is after something deeper than outward expressions of faith.

And that brings me to my next point. What was the purpose of the no-shout command? You see, nothing is ever done in Scripture according to happenstance or out of mere form. For everything there is a purpose.

And why was Israel to march in the manner that was commanded them? Well, very simply, it was this. It was a test of obedience. Now, in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 30, the chapter on faith, it talks about the walls of Jericho coming down.

And this is what it says. It says, By faith the walls of Jericho fell. That's what it says.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell. And I quoted that accurately, but I didn't quote the whole verse. Listen to it as I quote all of it.

It says, By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they were compassed about seven days. You see, the test of faith is obedience. And whenever you hear faith preachers preaching to you about faith and that you can take your city and that you can have your walls fall down and if they are not teaching you obedience as a part of that faith, then they do not have the biblical message.

The true test of faith is obedience. Charles Spurgeon said this, Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God.

And he that trusts God obeys God. Now the beauty of Israel's obedience is seen when we take a closer look at this week prior to the siege of the city. Let me paint it again in word pictures for you.

Each morning a procession left the camp. They had the seven priests there bearing the ram's horn, the focal point of course was the Ark of the Covenant and then there was a people that would follow behind. Now they made their march around the walls.

As I said, it was not very large and they did it day after day and then they had to come back and it was quite a thing for them to make that march and to see that city there and to go back at their camps and I believe where their camp was situated they probably could still see Jericho. And so there they're staring at that obstacle all those days. Now they did not know why they were to march as they did.

They were not told what was going to happen or that how the victory was going to come. The Lord said to Joshua, see I have given into thine hands Jericho and they were told of course that they were to shout but they didn't know. They didn't have the same promise in their heart that Joshua did but they were simply told to march and to keep quiet.

Now you see the first mark, the true mark of a disciple is not in the strength of his shout but in the strength of his obedience. Enthusiasm is a lot easier than obedience. I remember when I first came to this city to minister and came out of Bible school and came to join a Teen Challenge ministry here and I was ready for big things.

I had started preaching when I was 16 years of age and then I went off to Bible school which was very difficult for me to do because I figured Bible school needed me and I didn't need Bible school but it took 3 years for me to find out I needed Bible school but nevertheless I got through it and I graduated and so now I come to New York City and I'm ready for big things. For me I thought it was the 7th day of my ministry and I was on the 7th go around of Jericho and I was ready to shout the walls down but instead I was stuck in an office to work. Now if you've been placed by God in an office or anywhere else then you can rejoice.

You're in the best place you could be. It's a joy to be placed wherever God puts you but you see I felt that I was stuck in a position unworthy of my calling. How could you do this to me Lord? Have you ever prayed that? Oh man I prayed that I can't tell you how many times I prayed that.

How can you do this to me Lord? But my complaining, my self pity, even my prayers did not work and finally I woke up. The Lord's trying to teach me something and the Lord gave me this verse out of Matthew 25, 21. It says, His Lord said unto him, Well done thou good and faithful servant.

Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.

You see I needed to learn faithfulness over a few things first. I was far from well done. I wasn't even medium rare.

I was raw. I was raw meat needing to age and mature and to learn that obedience is better than sacrifice and it's better than shouting. It's even better than service.

God was trying to teach me something and I see a host of charismatic souls today who want a salvation with a shout but not a salvation with a yoke of obedience. First Samuel 15, 22. You're familiar with it.

It says, Hath not the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fad of rams. You see there is a crowd that will flock to the upper room where the power, I'm talking about the Acts upper room, who will flock to the upper room where the power and blessings are being outpoured but you'll not find them continuing steadfastly in the apostles doctrine or teaching and in fellowship or in the breaking of bread such as the Tuesday night time in square church. The breaking of bread in a prayer.

I remember as a pastor, I used to do this. This is a makeshift clip here which is a paper clip serving as a temporary hold for my microphone and we'll try it again. I remember as a pastor how I was not discerning the conviction of the Holy Spirit in people and in services.

I used to come in to lead worship in the church or in the gathering of people and I would notice certain people that normally would be praising the Lord, normally would be up, normally would be all excited and I would see that they would not be worshiping the Lord or I'd see a group of them and so I'd come in and try to work it up. Try to get it going or even sometimes would go to individuals and tell them, my goodness, don't let the devil do that to you. Start shouting and I didn't have enough discernment to know that the Holy Spirit, they knew that they were in a period of disobedience in their life.

They knew that things weren't right and you see what we've done in the church many times is to program people to say, all right, just ignore it, just ignore what's going on and just put on a good Pentecostal or shouting face or go through all the motions rather than letting the Holy Spirit do its work in their heart and get at the area of disobedience. Turn with me if you will to Leviticus. Go back a few books to Leviticus, the ninth chapter.

Leviticus chapter nine. Leviticus chapter nine verse 24 and I want you to look at the very end of the verse. The very end of the verse says, they shouted and fell on their faces.

They shouted and fell on their faces but know what preceded the shout. Look in verse 22, and Aaron lifted up his hand towards the people and blessed them and came down from offering of the sin offering, the burn offering and the peace offering. The sin offering, the burn offering and the peace offerings.

Three important offerings that preceded the shout. Now you know that the sin offering of course is a picture of Christ who is offered as our sin, as a perpetuation for our sins. The burn offering typifies the believers complete and entire consecration to God.

This is the laying down of self, the dying to sin and to self. The burn offering is when we offer full obedience to the will of the Lord, the will of God. And then the peace offering of Aaron, the third offering was called the peace offering and this typifies the joyous feasting together of the priest and the people with their God in the court of the tabernacle because of the ongoing fellowship they have with the Lord because they're looking back at the cross.

They know that their sins have been forgiven but they're continuing to walk in righteousness and they continue to point back to what Christ has done and he has given them peace because of the sacrifice of the cross. And you see it was only after those three offerings, the sin offering, the burn offering and the peace offering. Verse 23, and Moses and Aaron went unto the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people.

Why? Because the offerings had been offered, the sin offering, the burn offering, the peace offering and there came down a fire from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burn offering and the fat, and the fat means the choice, the choice, that's U.S. grade A meat. That's the very choices, that's the very center of your affection. Those are the things that are very most important to you that you lay on the altar and you give the fat to God and you lay it down and he comes and he consumes that burn offering which when all the people saw they shouted.

Then they shouted and they fell on their faces because they knew then the Lord was pleased with them because they had made the proper offering. Now Israel also did not win the victory over Jericho until they demonstrated perfection, perfection in their obedience. Now perfection does not mean sinlessness.

It does mean living up to the light that God has given to you. We've said it before from this pulpit, it's a dangerous thing to come to this church. God is gonna require you to live up to the light.

He's gonna require you to live up to the word that you have received and he requires of us that we walk perfectly or blamelessly before him. But note back here in Joshua the number sevens, how many sevens were involved in the Jericho march? Seven priests shall bear the ark with seven trumpets and the seventh day he shall come past the city seven times. And you see seven in biblical numbers is the number of perfection or completion.

And it simply means this, are you and have you completed the assignment that God has given you? Are you walking in the light as he is in the light according to the knowledge of his will? And I see a lot of people who are three, four, five, even six day marchers, but they never complete their obedience. I've seen people walk into this church. We talked about it today in our pastor's meeting.

We grieve over it. People who all of their life have come, God has brought them the word and they've always come up to a certain point in their life, but they've never gone the seventh day. They've never entered into full obedience to the Lord.

And there are two, three, four day believers. And then that's it. They wake up one morning and say, I don't feel like marching or they're marching along the line and then their eyes are attracted to something else and they go and follow after somebody else's trumpet.

But listen, tonight, I want to encourage you never stop short until the 13th encompass around Jericho because your wall is about to come down. Don't give up. The seventh day is near and the seventh circle is about complete.

Something marvelous is about to happen if you will let the Holy Spirit complete his work in your heart. You see, in many of our endeavors, or requests before God, all we do may appear for a long time to be unproductive labor and not to be advancing by one step near to our object. But I want to tell you tonight, keep on keeping on.

Consider Israel, for six days, the priest faithfully carried the ark around Jericho. For six days they made, they didn't make any noise. Neither did any word proceed out of their mouth.

And yet not one stone was loosed from off the wall. There was no bodies that flew off the wall dead before them. Six times on the seventh day, they still marched and nothing, absolutely nothing happened to show for all of their marching and all of their obedience.

But listen, Job 17 and nine says, nevertheless, the righteous will hold on to their ways and those with clean hands will grow stronger. Hallelujah. Galatians 6, 9 says, let us not become weary in well-doing for at a proper time or in due season, we shall reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Hallelujah. Revelation 3, 1 says, behold, I come quickly, hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Hallelujah.

The 13th March is coming. Hallelujah. Winston Churchill stated one time, he said this, never give in, never give in, never, never, never.

In anything great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. And you can apply that to the Word of God. You know, the Bible says that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.

And you know, sometimes in a thousand days, God does not seem to accomplish one good day's work in our behalf. But at other times in a single day, he does the work of a thousand days. Hallelujah.

And here's the Lord's Word for some of you tonight. Here's the Lord. If you don't hear anything else tonight, the Lord says this to you tonight, once more around Jericho, once more around Jericho.

Hallelujah. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. 13 may be an unlucky number in the world if you're superstitious, but it's not for a believer.

Hallelujah. It's the saints shouting day. Glory to God.

And that brings me to my final point. There is a time to shout. Hallelujah.

Verse 16, look at it. Verse 16, and it came to pass at the seventh time when the priest blew with the trumpet, Joshua said unto the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city. Numbers 23, 21 says, the Lord, his God is with him and the shout of a king is among them.

Now the king was represented in the ark, the symbol of God's presence. Israel did not march without the ark. The ark is the center.

And it was not just Israel that was marching around the city, but it was God who was circling the walls. Hallelujah. The walls did not come down because they shouted them down.

They came down because God was there in their shout. He was pleased to be there because of the obedience of their heart. They had said in the beginning when they crossed towards the promised land, they said to Joshua, whatever we're called to do, we'll do it.

We'll obey you. I believe that the meaning of the procession emphasized by the silence of the soldiers. Oh God, give me a sense of conviction.

Bring conviction back into my heart. But tonight I want you to know that if you have an accusing conscience and if your conscience hasn't been seared yet and you haven't been resisting. God himself was saying in those long drawn out blasts of the priestly trumpets, God was prophesying to Jericho just as he wants to prophesy to your Jericho tonight.

And I want you to think, let me read to you this Psalm. Listen to this familiar Psalm, but as I read it, I want you to picture your Jericho that's in front of you tonight. Whatever it is, think of your Jericho and then think of this promise of the Lord in Psalms 24 and seven.

It says, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors of Jericho and the King of glory shall come into your Jericho. Hallelujah. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Praise his name. The Lord was in the shout. The ark of the covenant was there.

I think I may have told this story before. I remember years ago, early days of Teen Challenge over in Brooklyn, the Teen Challenge Center over at 416 Clinton Avenue. We were just new in this ministry to the drug addicts.

And there was a revival. There was a tremendous revival that went on in those early days and still continuing today. But it was the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit of drug addicts getting marvelously saved.

There had never been an approach, Christian approach like this before. And the drug addicts were coming from all over the city. And heroin was king, king of the hill, as cocaine was now.

And back in those days, there was hardly any secular programs even ministering to them. But God was moving in a mighty way. And we had some powerful, powerful chapel meetings.

And drug addicts were getting healed, not even going through withdrawal pains, but God was marvelously healing them. And they'd come to the chapel and they'd just want to shout and praise God for what had happened in their lives. And we had to teach them that, you know, you don't always have to shout to the Lord, that it's all right, you know, that God is not deaf, but He's not nervous either.

So it is all right. But, you know, sometimes they'd get over enthused. And back in those early days, we had no air conditioning in the chapel.

And so the windows would be open. And the noise of that praise and those prayers and those shouts would go out through the neighborhood and the neighbors would complain all the time and call the police. And the police were always coming and complaining.

And so one night I was out and came back and one of the staff told me what happened. He said, again, the call came, and this time the big sergeant and another man came, the sergeant on duty at the desk, took the call and he said, look, he said, I'm going to go there myself because we've had so many complaints. We just got to put a stop to this.

And so he came barreling through the door like a typical New York City policeman. And he could hear the noise going on himself. And he came in and he said to the staff member, he said, listen, that noise has got to stop.

You got to put a stop to that. And the staff member, he said, no, he said, I can't. He said, listen, that's a prayer meeting going on.

Those are drug addicts. This is how they get cured. You know, and it's group therapy in there.

And I'm not about to, I'm not about to stop it. And the policeman, big sergeant, he said, well, I'll stop it. Well, he opened the door of the chapel and he looked in, he looked up one side and down the other, he closed the door and he turned around to the other policeman.

He said, you go in and stop it. Well, but you see, it wasn't though, it wasn't the shout though. It was that God was in the presence of the Lord was there.

God was in the shout, hallelujah. Now the Jericho shout foreshadows the ultimate and final shout. Turn to first Thessalonians 4, 16 and 17.

Where do you think Paul got this? Where did Paul get this when he said, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with a voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. I'm not going to be any rams horn and the dead in Christ shall rise first and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we enter the promised land ever to be with the Lord, hallelujah. Now listen, there is for us a week a week of working out our salvation with fear and trembling and we're in that week right now and I believe that we're on the seventh day and pretty soon the seventh march is going to take place when we shall enter not into the city of confusion which has come to ruin but into the city that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.

You see the early church fathers in the Christian church saw the story of the fall of Jericho as a type of the final coming of the Lord and note how Paul seems to have Jericho in mind when he refers to the trump and the shout and on the seventh day and the seventh time the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, hallelujah and then my friend, it's Jericho all over again. This will be the shout that overshadows all other shouts. All of our shouts today wait for that final heavenly shout that ushers us into the marriage supper of the Lamb, hallelujah.

But if you're to possess and to live in that final city the new Jerusalem that John saw coming down out of heaven then my friend, you're going to have to take care of every Jericho that's in your way right now. Joshua 6, 1 says, now Jericho was straightly shut up none went in and none went out. You see every carnal heart is a Jericho shut up.

There is and may be a Jericho blocking your entrance into the promised land tonight and into the fullness of Christ. That city may be surrounded by a wall of pride or a wall of anger or a wall of lust. I don't know what kind of wall.

Tonight you may have a Jericho that needs to come down a wall of resistance that you have rejected before the Lord. But I want you to know if you've got that wall that it can come down tonight at this altar, hallelujah. Your Jericho can come down and every stone in that wall with it.

It says, so the people shouted, verse 20, so the people shouted and 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 flat so that the people went into the city every man straight before him and they took the city and they took the city, hallelujah and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city. Yes, all the junk, all the sin, all the garbage that's in your city can be destroyed. Jeremiah 51, 44 says, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

Listen to this prophecy from Joel, the second chapter. He said, they shall run like mighty men. They shall climb the wall like men of war and they shall march every one of his ways and they shall not break rank.

They shall run to and fro in the city and they shall run up to the wall and the Lord shall utter his word before his army for the camp is very great for he is strong that executes his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it? Who can stand up against it? Hallelujah. And that's the army of the Lord that wants to tear down your wall tonight. You know, the reason that Joshua knew the wall was gonna come down, I'll tell you why and you can see it right here.

Look at it in the next chapter. In fact, most biblical scholars believe that chapter six should have started at verse 13 of chapter five. It says, and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went unto him and said unto him, aren't thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, nay, but as a captain.

You see, the reason that Joshua knew the walls were gonna come down is that he had had an encounter with the captain of the host, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And look, look how he responded. And he said, nay, but as a captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him. Now here it is again, the same principle that God was trying to teach Israel in their going around quietly is to teach them that obedience had to precede the coming down of the walls. And here is Joshua and his encounter.

He said, what saith my Lord unto his servant? He didn't say, what are you gonna do for me? He said, what do you say to me? Remember when Paul on the road to Damascus asked the same question, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? You see the first response of true disciples is not to command the Lord, but to say, Lord, what do you command me to do? What wilt thou have me to do? What saith my Lord unto his servant and the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did. You see Joshua went from holy ground to conquering Jericho's ground.

And that's exactly, that's exactly the path that God wants to take us. Because Joshua stood on holy ground before a holy God, he was wholly prepared to lead God's people around Jericho and to take the city. He did not shout until he stood on holy ground.

And then he taught the people not to shout until they had fully obeyed his commands. And when you stand on holy ground and when you take care of the things that need to be taken care of in your life, then God is going to bring your wall down. Hallelujah.

Let me close with this verse, Ezekiel 38 20. It says on the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beast of the field, all the creeping things that creep in the earth and all the men on the face of the earth shall shake at my presence. The mountains will be thrown down.

The steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground. You have some walls that need to fall to the ground tonight. Come and say, Lord, if there's disobedience in my life, I surrender to you.

What wilt thou? What sayest thou unto thy servant? What would thou have me to do? Let's stand. And you're continuing to carry it. Listen, the Bible says there is no condemnation.

And some of you need to get free tonight of condemnation. And the Lord led me to a few verses, and I'm going to give you to these in closing. Isaiah 43 25, it says, I, even I am the one who wipes out our transgressions, who wipes our transgressions for my own sake.