Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 795
Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, February 16, 1868, by.
“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, thathe 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, Are You for us, or for our adversaries? And He said, No, but as 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, What says my Lord unto His servant? And the Captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose your shoe from off your foot; for the place whereon you stand is holy. And Joshua did so.” Joshua 5:13-15.
The Lord divided the Jordan that His people might pass through dry-shod. This miracle greatly dispirited the Canaanites, and so prepared the way for an easy triumph for the invading Israelites. You would have naturally expected that the Lord would have bid His people avail themselves immediately of this terror to strike a heavy blow at once, and press on with might and main before the enemy could take a breath and so sweep the land clear of the adversaries in a single campaign.
But it was not so. Instead of immediate activity, the children of Israel pitched their tents at Gilgal and there tarried for a considerable season. For God is in no hurry. His purposes can be accomplished without haste, and though He would have us redeem the time because our days are evil, yet in His eternity He can afford to wait and by His wisdom He so orders His delays that they prove to be far better than our hurries. Why were the people to delay? That they might be obedient to commands which had been forgotten. In the desert, for many reasons, circumcision and the Passover had been neglected. They were not visited with any chastisement on account of this neglect, for the Lord considered their position and condition, and winked at their error. But before He would use them He would have them fully obedient to His will. It cannot be expected that God should tolerate disobedient servants, and therefore they must stay awhile, till they had been attentive to the two great precepts of the Mosaic Covenant.
Dear Friends, let us pause and ask ourselves, as Believers, whether we have been in all respects conscientiously attentive to our Master’s commands. If not, we may not expect Him to send a blessing to the Church or to the world through us, until first of all we have yielded our willing obedience to that which He has prescribed for us. Are any of you living in the neglect of a known part of the Divine will? Are you undesirous of knowing some portions of God’s will, and therefore willfully blind to them? My dear Brother, you are cutting the Achilles’ tendon of your strength? You can never overthrow your enemies like Samson while your locks are thus shorn. You cannot expect that God should send you forth to conquer and to bring to Him renown when you have not as yet conquered your own personal indolence and disobedience!
He that is unfaithful in that which is least will be unfaithful in that which is greater. If you have not kept the Master’s saying in the little vineyard of your personal history, how much less shall you be able to do it if He should entrust you with a greater field of service! Here, then, is the reason for Israel’s delay, and it is a reason why at the commencement of our special services [month-long services and Prayer Meetings for conversion of souls] we should make diligent search for neglected duties, and promptly fulfill them. The two precepts which had been overlooked were very suggestive. The one was circumcision. Every man throughout the whole camp of Israel must be circumcised before God would begin to speak about Jericho.
Not a word about the walls falling flat to the ground. Not a syllable concerning compassing the accursed city seven days, until, first of all, the reproach of Egypt had been put away and His people had received the token of the Covenant. We are told in the New Testament that Christians must partake in a circumcision without hands, not of the flesh, but of the spirit. “He is not a Jew which is one outwardly…but he is a Jew which is one inwardly.” In the Colossians the Apostle tells us that the true circumcision is the putting away of the body of death by the circumcision of Christ, by which I understand that the Christian must purge himself, in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ, of every fleshly defilement, of every sinful thought, of every wrong ambition, of every carnal desire.
If he is to be used by his Master it is imperative that this be done, and be done at once, in the name of the Most High. “Be you clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.” God will not fight His battles by the uncircumcised! He will have His people clean from the sin that does so easily beset them, or else He will not use them. Stop, then, my Brethren, and let me beseech you to search your own hearts and see what there may be within that might render you unfit to be blessed. If I, as God’s minister, have no conversions, I dare not attribute the fact to Divine Sovereignty. It may be so, but I am always afraid to make Divine Sovereignty the scapegoat for my iniquities. I rather think that if God withholds the blessing, there is a cause—and may not the cause be in myself, that I do not live as near to God as I should—or am indulging in something which His holy eyes cannot look upon?