🎵Piano music plays🎵
you
no blue
you
four sixty seven
you
v-i-b-l-e
you know this one
sing it out now
the v-i-b-l-e
yes that's the book for me
i stand alone
on the word of god
the v-i-b-l-e
shout it out
firework
All right, that was good.
Might do that again.
Let's see here.
All the kids are going to pick that one.
Any adults?
No, I'm just kidding.
Let's go with, is that Paul?
Paul.
What number you got?
282.
Got it.
Page 282.
I don't know that.
I'm sorry.
I'll come back to you.
Do you have one right now?
Which one?
27?
All right.
Is that the old record cross, I believe?
Page 27.
Yep, the old record cross.
That's a good one.
On the first.
On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.
And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was
slain.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.
Kimmy?
216?
I believe that's Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
Page 216, Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
216.
On the first.
A pilgrim was I, and a wandering.
In the cold night of sin I did roam, when Jesus the kind shepherd found me.
And now I am on my way home.
Shirley, Goodness and Mercy shall follow me, all the days, all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and I shall feast at the table spread
for me.
Shirley, Goodness and Mercy shall follow me, all the days, all the days of my life.
All the days, all the days of my life.
Is the sun actually shining outside?
Wow.
Let the sun shine again in our hearts.
Jesse?
22.
22?
All right.
Are you washed in the blood?
Page 22.
On the first.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
The highest hand in the building.
Rebecca?
178.
You got it.
178.
Jesus loves even me.
Page 178.
On the first.
I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of His love in the book He has given.
Wonderful things in the Bible I see.
This is the dearest that Jesus loves me.
I am so glad that Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves me.
I am so glad that Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves even me.
Let's see.
Let's go with Kathleen.
It was just your birthday, right?
Turn 16?
Yeah, all right.
You get superiority there.
What did you say again, 42?
42.
My latest son is sinking fast.
On the first.
My latest son is sinking fast.
My race is nearly run.
My strongest trials now are past.
My triumph has begun.
Oh, come angel band.
Come and around me stand.
Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings
to my eternal home.
Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings
to my eternal home.
3.2.
I already picked Kylie.
Kylie.
She's a distraction back there.
All right, let's go Ramon.
188.
She's going to pick the B-I-B-L-E again.
188, The Love of God.
On the first.
The love of God is greater far
than tongue or pad can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
and reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair bow down with care.
God gave his son to win.
His erring child he reconciled
and pardoned from his sin.
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure.
How measureless and strong.
It shall forevermore endure
the saints and angels song.
Krystal.
175.
It's just like his great love.
We'll have two more after this one.
Two more.
175 on the first.
A friend I have called Jesus
whose love is strong and true
and never fails hell where it is tried.
No matter what I do
I've sinned against this love of his
when I now to pray.
Yes, Lord.
Kill to him
the sin clouds rolled away.
It's just like Jesus
to roll the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus
to keep me day by day.
It's just like Jesus
all along the way.
It's just like his great love.
Uh, Julia.
Page 10.
Let's see.
Near the cross.
Page 10 near the cross.
On the first.
Jesus keep me near the cross
there a precious fountain
free to all a healing stream
flows from Calvary's mountain
in the cross
be my glory ever
till my raptured soul shall fly
beyond the river.
Alright, last one.
Jacob.
What number you got?
325.
325? Is that what I heard?
I think that's a really good song.
Alright, 325.
Last one.
Trust and obey.
Page 325 on the first.
When we walk with the Lord
in the light of his word
what a glory he sheds on our way
while we do his goodwill
he abides with us still
and with all who will trust
and obey
trust and obey
for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus
but to trust and obey.
Great singing. At this time we'll have our announcements.
Alright, good afternoon everybody.
Welcome back to Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
Let's take our new bulletins
and go through the announcements.
The other ones have been reprobated
because the verse was from the NIV.
Can you believe it?
And I haven't had to fire Ryland
for a long time.
He's never made that big of a bungle.
But, you know,
I'm going to tell you
He's never made that big of a bungle.
But, you know,
the good thing is that
he's repented of his sin
and so I have rehired him.
So, anyway, let's look at the verse.
Did anybody need a new bulletin?
Because we do have all new ones.
Alright.
You need one brother Alex? Here you go.
A couple hands over there.
Alright.
So, let's read the new
improved
It's actually not new, but it's the King James Version anyway.
It says, Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 58.
Great scripture there.
On our inside page there we have our service times.
10.30 a.m.
for our morning service, Sunday evening service.
3.30 p.m. we're in Joshua chapter 12 tonight.
And Thursday Bible study will be in
1 Chronicles chapter 21, finishing that up.
And so many times
we had so many today
we had some folks go out
we had, you had a salvation?
Two salvations. Total?
Two salvations?
Oh, you had two?
And then Bill had another one
on top of that?
Alright, anybody else get one?
Alright, praise the Lord for
three salvations today out soul-winning?
And
huh? Oh, cheeky, yeah.
Yeah, great.
Praise the Lord. Alright.
So, three salvations out soul-winning today.
Great job.
And if you look down you can see the other numbers
there. Last week's attendance
and on our page over
I'll try not to keep the
announcements
too long here this afternoon.
We do have the six year anniversary
of our church in Spokane.
I'll be preaching Friday night the 14th.
We'll have a soul-winning time on
Saturday and probably
fellowship in the afternoon and then
I'll be preaching, or excuse me, Remy will be
preaching on Sunday
both services. March 29th
we'll have a soul-winning marathon. Haven't picked
the place yet. March 30th
men's preaching night. And again
the rules are wear
a shirt and tie. Use the King James
Bible and don't
preach any heresy. And then
the Lord's Supper service
will be at 3.30 p.m. on April 13th
which is a Sunday night.
And April 19th is
the all SFBC
mega marathon
so us and all of our
church plants are going to be doing
the mega marathon which is a soul-winning marathon.
April 19th is the day before Easter
and
Easter Sunday we'll celebrate
Easter as usual. April 25th
through 27th is the
SFBC Seattle two year anniversary.
We'll have Pastor Anderson preaching on
Friday night up in Seattle
and a soul-winning marathon on Saturday.
And let's see
I'll be preaching the Sunday services there.
May 15th
through 18th is the King James Conference
and we'll have
Pastor Shelley, Pastor Mejia, Pastor Anderson
and I'll be preaching at the conference
and if you want RSVP
I'd recommend getting hotel rooms
as soon as possible. Email or text
just get on our website
you can get our email address
or text the church
our numbers on there
also and then
of course we have the Chicago soul-winning marathon
that's coming up
in June and then
September 6th is the Detroit soul-winning marathon
update on the bathrooms they're down
again so there's something going on with
the pump in there so I might have
prematurely blamed other people
that I was railing
against them
but that did get found in there so yeah
obviously I still don't want people flushing things on the toilet
that they're not supposed to so
that is legit. That might have done it
no I'm just kidding. I don't know
but there is something wrong with the pump so
we're trying to figure that out so please don't use those
first two bathrooms on the right hand side
we still have the one upstairs that the ladies can use
and then there's that separate one
but still don't use that men's room that's up there
especially not the urinal
and we still have that back
bathroom over there we can still use so
we're good on bathrooms it's just a little more
inconvenient until we get that fixed
so as long as there's a cone in front of those doors
that means don't use them please
also
I had a recruitment
going on for new song leaders
and
you know just kind of putting that out there
that we need to train some new piano
players so if you're interested in doing that
if you need the books
any piano training books or anything like that
we're definitely needing some new
fresh blood in the piano so
I know Gabe's working hard
I know that Rebecca's working hard
so we could definitely use some new piano
players and then
definitely need some men
to step up to do the song leading
so Bill can't do it all on his own
sometimes he's out of town stuff like that so
if you just want like a real silent service
because
that's the way it's going to be
alright so
to utilize getting trained on song leading
would be a really good thing while we have
someone to train you here to do it
because if you're depending on me to do it
have you ever heard like cats
fighting in an alley before
that's what it's going to be like
to hear me do it so
and it might even be worse than that
it might be worse than that
I'm pretty bad
anyway all the other stuff is
stuff we already know
let's go ahead and move along with the service
and sing another song
we'll receive the offering after that
alright let's turn to page 222
moment by moment
page 222
moment by moment
on the first
dying with
Jesus by
death reckon
mine
living with Jesus
a new life
divine
looking to Jesus
till glory
does shine
by moment
oh Lord I
am thine
moment by moment
I'm kept
in His love
moment by
moment I
fly from above
looking
to Jesus
till glory
does shine
moment by moment
moment
oh Lord I
am thine
never
a trial that
He is not there
never
a burden
that He
doth not bear
never
a sorrow that
He doth not share
moment by moment
I'm under
His care
moment by moment
I'm kept
in His love
moment by
moment I
fly from above
looking
to Jesus
till glory
does shine
moment by
moment
oh Lord I
am thine
never a heartache
and never
a groan
never a
teardrop and
never a moan
never
a danger but
there on the throne
moment
by moment
He thinks of
His own
moment by moment
I'm kept
in His love
moment by
moment I
fly from above
looking
to Jesus
till glory
does shine
moment by moment
oh Lord
I am thine
on the last
never a weakness
that He
doth not feel
never a
sickness that
He cannot heal
moment
by moment
in woe or in
wheel
Jesus my Savior
abides with
me still
moment by moment
I'm kept
in His love
moment by
moment I
fly from above
looking
to Jesus
till glory
does shine
moment by
moment
oh Lord I
am thine
Amen. Great singing this evening.
Our ushers will take our offering for us.
And Brother Sean, could you bless the offering?
Lord, thank you so much for this day.
Thank you, Lord, that we come to your house
and listen to the Lord's great story. I pray to you
Phil, Pastor Thompson, and your Spirit, Lord.
And I pray that those that got saved
today would be encouraged to
look at the invitation, Lord, and watch those videos.
And then we come and visit our
church. Lord, please bless
this offering, Lord, of both
the gift and the gift. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
Please turn in your Bibles to
Joshua chapter 12.
As is our custom, we'll read
the entire chapter. Please follow along
silently.
Joshua chapter 12. The Bible reads,
Now these are the kings
of the land, which the children of Israel
smote and possess their land on the other
side Jordan, toward the rising of the sun
from the river Arnon unto Mount Hermon,
and all the plain on the east,
Sihon king of the Amorites,
who dwelt in Heshbon and ruled
from Aror, which is upon
the bank of the river Arnon, and from the
middle of the river, and from half Gilead,
even unto the river Jabbok,
which is the border of the children of Ammon.
And from the plain
to the sea of Kinnaroth, on
the east, and under the sea of the plain,
even the salt sea on the east,
the way to Beth-Jeshimoth,
and from the south, under Ashdoth-Pizgah,
and on the coast of Og,
king of Bashan, which was of the
remnant of the giants that dwelt in Ashderoth
and at Edrei,
and reigned in Mount Hermon,
in Salcha, and in all
Bashan, and under the border of the
Geshurites and the Maacathites,
and half Gilead, the border of Sihon,
king of Heshbon.
Them did Moses the servant of the Lord and the children
of Israel smite, and Moses the servant
of the Lord gave it for possession,
under the Reubenites and the Gadites,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
And these are the kings of the country
which Joshua and the children of Israel
smote on this side Jordan, on the west,
from Baal-Gad, in the valley
of Lebanon, even unto the mount
Halak, that goeth up to Seir,
which Joshua gave unto the tribes of
Israel for possession, according
to their divisions. In the mountains
and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in
the springs, and in the wilderness, and in
the south country, the Hittites, the
Amorites, and the Canaanites,
the Perizzites, the Hivites, and all
the Jebusites. The king of Jericho,
the king of Ai, which is beside
Bethel, the king of Jerusalem,
the king of Hebron,
the king of Jarmoth,
the king of Lakeish, the king of
Eglon, the king of Gisor,
the king of Dibor,
the king of Geder, the king of
Hormah, the king of Arad,
the king of Libnah, the king
King of Adulam, the King of Mequidda, the King of Bethel, the King of Tapua, the King
of Heifer, the King of Aphek, the King of Leisheron, the King of Madon, the King of
Hazor, the King of Shimron-Miron, the King of Aksheph, the King of Taanach, the King
of Megiddo, the King of Kadesh, the King of Jachnaim of Carmel, the King of Dor and the
Coast of Dor 1, the King of the Nations of Gilgal 1, the King of Terza 1, all the Kings
30 and 1.
Brother Alex, can you pray for the service?
Amen. Yeah, this is a tough passage actually to preach. I was thinking, what am I gonna
preach out of this? Because it's kind of just a summary of what Joshua's already done so
far and what Moses basically accomplished in conquering these 31 kings. So really, that's
the title of the sermon is just 31 Kings Defeated. I mean, I don't know what else to call it
besides that. But if you remember in the last chapter, Joshua had completed the conquest
of the rest of the Promised Land that Moses had not already defeated. If you just would
go back to chapter 11 verse 15 real quick, it says, as the Lord commanded Moses his servants,
so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord
commanded Moses. So Moses was commanded to do these things. But remember, the children
of Israel rebelled. They didn't do what they were supposed to do. They brought back the
evil report, which added 40 years onto the time. Moses struck the rock instead of speaking
to the rock. He didn't go into the Promised Land. Aaron died before that. None of them
because the plan was to go from Egypt right to the Promised Land. And so because of those
things, then the things that the Lord commanded Moses to do, those ended up getting pushed
onto Joshua to do. So Joshua effectively picked up the torch and completed the task given
to Moses that he was not able to complete because of that failure of the faith of the
children of Israel, which held them back that 40 years. And ultimately, the failure of Moses,
Moses was a great man, don't get me wrong. He's way more of a success story than I'll
ever be. But I'm just saying that the failure of Moses and that generation, it does picture
the failure of the law. If you think about it, the failure of the law is that it can
never get us to the Promised Land. And so the law, people think that they can keep the
law and that they can be a good person. I mean, countless times we see that when we're
out soloing. Yesterday, we heard it multiple times when we're out soloing. And I mean,
I was preaching to this island boy. He was 14 years old. He just came from, I think he
was from, did he say Saipan? So they call themselves Chamorro. But he was getting everything
that I was saying. And I think in most cases, people would have prayed with this kid at
the end. But then at the end, I just said, hey, what do you believe it takes to be saved?
Because he was tracking everything I was saying. And then he said, oh, I just think you have
to follow the commandments. What do you say, follow Jesus or something like that? Follow
the righteous path. So after everything that I got done telling him, he said, follow the
righteous path is how you're saved. I was just like, how does that happen? Well, people
think that they have to follow a righteous path to be saved. It's just kind of ingrained
in human beings for some reason. They get taught this stuff. They get taught this junk
from churches that they go to. And when I brought up the suicide topic to him, which
is I bring up very gingerly, especially the teenage boys or teenage children like that.
But he was telling me that on his island, wasn't he the one that said they have, OK,
they have graves that are like the potter's field where people that commit suicide, they
bury them away from the other people in the graveyards on their island. So these kind
of things are ingrained. Like if you commit suicide, you are lost. You're going to hell.
There's no way around it. So I, you know, I got through the whole gospel with him and
I'm I'm praying that God will end up, that boy will end up being saved. But the failure
of the law and the failure of thinking that you can work your way to heaven, it's never
going to get you to the promised land. And so the picture of Moses, the picture of the
children of Israel, is that even after they brought back the evil report, the children
of Israel, they tried to go on their own anyway into the promised land, even when God said,
no, don't do it. You're you're staying here. Everybody that's in this generation is going
to die in the wilderness. They're like, no, we're going to go do it now. And so they still
they tried with their own power to go into the promised land on their own and they completely
fail. They get beat up. And then God's like, I told you not to do that, dummy. You know,
they still just do it anyway. And so it's a failure. And so obviously, Moses is a great
man of God. But the picture of the law is that it fails. It does not get you to the
promised land. So Joshua, you know, pictures, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ and that
next generation obeyed Joshua and followed him into the promised land that was given
to them by faith, because a promise and keeping that promise of God promises us to do something
like promises, promises us to give us eternal life. He's going to make good on that promise.
He promises to do something. He keeps his promise. We don't always do that, but God
does. And so he promised to give them the promised land of a land flowing with milk
and honey. Not literally, but just saying that there's the land is plenteous and brings
forth all the things that you'll need to be successful. So their victories were not
always easy, though. And along the way, Moses and Joshua faced adversity. Moses, a lot more
than Joshua, it seems like. You know, Joshua had a little bit of problems in the beginning,
and the sin of Achan kind of tripped him up. But in reality, Moses seemed to have a lot
harder of a road to go, because if you're going to try to work your, you know, again,
the picture is if you're going to try to work your way someplace, you're going to have a
real hard time doing that. But faith is the better road to go, and it's the only way you're
going to get to the promised land. But God makes good on his promises. And, you know,
we're just not super deep into the book of Joshua. We're halfway through it. And the
promised land is already conquered. They've already done it, except for some ragtag groups
that they have to kind of go after. But the most of it's done and conquered at this point.
And verse 23 in Joshua 11 says, So Joshua took the whole land according to all the Lord
said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel, according to their
divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war. So in the last chapter, they're
resting from war, they're not having to fight. And so again, that's a summary of kind of
what's happened to this point, from all the books of Moses to this point in the book of
Joshua. So again, this chapter is a summary, and of all the kings and nations that the
children of Israel defeated to this point. And there are these two divisions in this
chapter, the kings that Moses defeated, and the kings that Joshua defeated 31 kings in
all, and seven nations of the Canaanites. That's what God said was going to happen,
right? Now let's start in Joshua 12. One. So the first this is the first division the
kings defeated by Moses and the children of Israel. So Joshua 12. One says, Now these
are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote and possess their land on
the other side of Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon, on to Mount
Hermon, and all the plain of the east. So this is the east side of the Jordan, right?
And so it says, and Sihon, or so it says, Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in
Heshbon, and ruled Aror, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon. And from the middle
of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border
of the children of Ammon. And from the plain of the Sea of Chinnereth, which is again what
the Sea of Galilee, right? On the east and unto the Sea of the plain, even the salt sea
on the east, the way to Beth-jeshemoth, and from the south under Ashdoth-pizgah. So, so
these two kings that, there's actually two kings that kind of rule this whole area from
the top by the Sea of Galilee, all the way down to what they call the salt sea, but we
would call that today what the dead sea. All the way down to that point, just two kings
rule that whole area, and Moses took those kings out, and all that pertained to them,
and gave it to three tribes. So, let's turn over to Numbers chapter 21. We'll see where
the Bible explains this story to us really quickly. Numbers chapter 21 verse 21. Just
kind of maybe refresh your memory. I'm sure some people started the Old Testament now
that they've gotten through the New Testament after the 30 days. Maybe you're into numbers
right now, I'm not sure. But the Bible says in Numbers 21, 21 it says, and Israel sent
messengers unto Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, let me pass through thy land. We will
not turn into the fields or into the vineyards. We will not drink of the waters of the well,
but we will go along the king's highway until we be past thy borders. So, they weren't setting
out to defeat them at this point. They're just asking for permission to pass through,
and we're only going to stay on the king's highway, which is probably just like a mutual
road that's been beneficiary to trades people and things like that. But it's probably like
I-5 goes through, you know, Canada and, I don't know, Alaska, Canada, down into, you
know, the United States and goes down into the South and South America and so on and
so forth. But it says, and Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border.
But Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel into the wilderness,
and he came to Jehaz and fought against Israel. And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword
and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon, for the border
of the children of Ammon was strong. And Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all
the cities of the Amorites in Heshbon and all the villages thereof, for Heshbon was the city
of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all
his land out of his hand even unto Arnon. So, you know, they pick a fight, they try to be nice,
and then they pick a fight with them, and then Israel beats them down and takes all their stuff.
So that's what you get for being a bully. Anyway, so back to, so keep your finger here,
and we'll go back to Joshua real quick and look at two verses. So just keep your finger in Numbers
21, but go back to Joshua because we're always going to be going back to Joshua. But Joshua
chapter 12 verse 4 says, And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the
giants that dwelt at Ashtaroth and Edri, and reigned in Mount Hermon and in Salcha and in
all Bashan unto the border of the Jeshurites and of the Machathites and half Gilead, the border of
Sihon king of Heshbon. So these two kings, Og and Sihon, they had borders against each other. So
they'd already taken out Sihon king of Heshbon, and now they're gonna go battle with these guys,
and Og is a giant. He's a giant probably similar size or maybe even bigger than Goliath is,
and he's of the remnant of the giants. So there's not a lot of giants left in the world at this
point because even before all this stuff happened, there's all these tribes are beating up on these
giants that were, you know, obviously not a remnant at the time, but these giants that were
in the earth. The Bible talks about in Genesis that there were giants in the earth before the
flood and after this also. So there's that whole Nephilim doctrine. There are very popular videos
on YouTube because people love to delve into fantasy that's not really true, saying that
there's 450 foot giants, and when they lay down at night, that's what the mountains are or
something. I don't know. Weird stuff. There's no such thing as 450 foot tall giants. The giants
that you see in the Bible are always, they're way taller than most normal people, and people
would look at me and they think I'm a giant, but I'm not a giant. I'm just taller than the average
bear. Yeah, taller than the average bear. I'm like head and shoulders. I'm like Saul would be
the same size as Saul probably, but when you see NBA players, when I walk up to NBA players,
when I see them, like I've seen random NBA players in my life or people that play college
basketball, and they're way taller than I am. They're seven foot, but these guys in here,
like a lot of times they're nine feet, ten feet tall. They would be, so like when the children
of Israel said they're like grasshoppers in their sight, they probably really, I mean obviously
that's a, people say see they're 450 foot tall because of grasshoppers, you know, usually, but
the grasshoppers, some grasshoppers are pretty big. Have you ever seen like grasshoppers are
like this big before? Well locusts are huge, but so like, I don't know, I think that they're just
being tongue-in-cheek a little bit when it comes to that, but what I'm saying is that, you know,
these giants are not, you know, what a Jack and the Beanstalk style giants, okay. They're giants,
but they're not as big as like the whole Nephilim thing is saying, and we're not, there's no such
thing as angels breeding with human beings, so everything brings forth after its own kind,
so angels cannot breed with human beings. Anyway, moving on from that, brethren, stay in, or keep
your finger in Joshua or a bookmark or whatever, and then go back to Numbers chapter 21 verse 31.
We'll see the account where they take on Og king of Bashan, so obviously, Og is a bad dude. He's the
king. He's a giant, and it says in verse 31, thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites, and
Moses sent to spy out Jazar, and they took the villages thereof and drove out the Amorites that
were there, and they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out
against them, he and all his people to the battle of Edri, and the Lord said unto Moses, fear him not,
for I have delivered him into thy hand and all his people and his land, and thou shalt do to him
as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites which dwelt at Heshbon. So if you notice that
what he says there to Moses, he says that to Joshua a couple times if you've noticed so far
in our study of the book of Joshua, he says that to Joshua a couple times because Joshua has faced
some huge armies, and obviously we're reading it in the Bible, but we're not experiencing what he
experienced, so it's easy for us to maybe just kind of just gloss over things like this, but
when you're looking at an army that's vastly more, you know, outnumbers your army,
outskills your army, I mean we're talking about people that were slaves in Egypt. It's not like
they're battle trained, like they went through the Green Beret training or something. These
guys are warriors that they're fighting that actually had probably been trained and know how
to battle in real armies. These guys would just come out and, you know, probably got whatever
weapons they could get, probably took them off the dead bodies that, you know, of battles that
they fought before and had to learn how to fight by, you know, God probably teaching them or other
people that they took captive, teaching them who knows how they learned how to get the skills that
they got, but whatever it is, they didn't need to have the skills because God was with them and God
was fighting the battles for them. He's literally throwing giant hail stones at all their armies,
you know, while the children of Israel are chasing them around. I mean to think about how these
things must have looked, it was probably pretty crazy, right? I mean these, you know, they got
a million man army basically or more or some somewhere around that number. I can't remember
exactly how many standing arm, how many men in their standing army they had, but so if they
were outnumbered, then that must have been a freaky thing when you got a huge army yourself
and all of them are stat, you know, they're building these big confederacies against you and
five kings are bringing all their people at you and they're greater in number, greater in skill,
and then they have giants on their side, it's probably pretty scary. They have engines of war,
they have all kinds of things and then all of a sudden just like all these just, you know,
hail stones, giant hail stones are coming and flattening all these people and it's just like,
yeah, okay, let's go, you know, you're probably a little more emboldened in those
types of situations, right? So, but it says, so they, so he says, fear him, you know, fear him not,
for I have delivered him into thy hand and all this people and his lands, like don't fear Moses
and God says that a lot. He says, fear not or fear him not. He says, God says this and Jesus
says this all throughout the Bible and he wants us to fear him, not them. So if we fear him
and not fear, you know, we're not supposed to fear what man can do unto us, but fear
what God can do unto them or I mean unto us if we don't obey him, right? So
it says, so they smote him and his sons and all his people until there was none left,
so there was none left him alive and they possessed his land. So Moses like took out this
big chunk and I don't have a map with me right now to look at that, but you might have maps in
the back of your Bibles that you could probably scan through and look at where those lands were.
Probably in the back of your Bible, if you have a pretty nice Bible, you might have different types
of maps, some that are like from the New Testament early or from the late New Testament,
but you might see some that kind of show you the land when it was divided up and parceled out
and you can kind of see where those places were. So when you see where Og and
and the Sihon were at, they took all this land, Moses took all this land before they
even went to the promised land. So it says all the cities of the plain, oh I'm sorry,
turn to Deuteronomy chapter 3. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 3.
Deuteronomy chapter 3. So this is just a little short account. I think I brought this up before
not too long ago, but Deuteronomy chapter 3 verse 10, the Bible says,
and the cities of the plain and all Gilead and all Bashan, and before I go any further,
Gilead is where all the famous balm comes from, called the balm of Gilead. It's famous for
the medicinal things that come from it and the Bashan is famous for what, does anybody know?
The bulls.
The bulls, they're cattle, right? And so you know how God says it's flowing with milk and honey,
well these places that these people, these wicked people live in have really great resources and
one of the resources in Gilead was their balm and another great resource in Bashan was the types of
cattle that they had. So they're taking over things that are great resources already and
just kind of they're like hey get out, you're dead, we're moving into your spot and taking
all your stuff. So I mean it was replacement theology going on right here, which ended up
having to them later because they got just as wicked as these people did. But anyway it says,
Gilead and all Bashan unto Saucha and Edjerei, cities of the kingdom of Og and Bashan. For only
Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants. Behold his bedstand was a bedstead,
his bedstead excuse me, was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabath of the children of Ammon?
Nine cubits was the length thereof and four cubits the breadth of it after the cubit of a man.
So if a cubit is one and a half feet, which that's about 18 inches, the Egyptian cubit
going by that, it might have been longer than that, but most people agree that it's about an
18 inch in length, a cubit. So that's makes that bed 13.5, 13 and a half feet long and six feet
wide. So that's my dream bed, you know. My legs will never hang off the edge and most places I
go stay like if I go stay at like if I stay at somebody's house and they have like a queen bed
or even a king bed, even a king bed my feet hang off the edge of the bed. So I have to have a
California king bed because the California king is like a little bit longer in length and my feet
won't hang off of it. So yeah see I got I got you know first world problems you know so but imagine
it's like you know imagine being so tall that you're always having to have your feet hang off
the bed it's just have you ever had your feet hang off the bed before? Have you ever accidentally
slept in like a little kid's bed accidentally you fell asleep in it or something? You're like
or you had to stay at somebody's house and it's like a kid's bed or something?
Anyway or just anybody you know at a hotel if I stay and it's a king size or you know a queen size
I mean I don't even think I could sleep in a double bed anymore I don't know but yeah it's
like Goldilocks and the three bears somebody was sleeping in my bed it was it was a big dude but
anyway yeah it's it's real the struggle is real you know it's just like buying shoes like I got
to go to special places to buy shoes but anyway so I can't even imagine what these guys did for
shoes like you know Shaquille O'Neal I think his feet are like like I've ever seen his shoe size
like his shoe size are like 23 or something crazy like that mine are just 14 they're just like one
size over what normal humans normally wear so I have a hard time most shoes go up you can get
13s in most places regularly but 13s are still kind of pushing it to a certain extent and
like I remember when I was younger I'd go to the mall I'd have to go to the mall to buy 14s
and usually they're the uglies you know you can find 14s in the ugly style of shoes like if you're
trying to look for the cool style you'd have to go to like Nike town or something to get like like
yeah so the struggle is real folks I had to wear nerdy looking shoes if I wanted to find some 14s
I really had to go to some special place to buy shoes or I had to go to the mall which of course
you know the mall is more expensive than most places feel sorry for me somebody
now some people have to wear littler clothes than most people so I'm going to start making fun of
little people now we have this guy that I worked with and he was really a small guy like just
really skinny and short and you know I'd always tease him that he had to go buy his clothes at
baby gap and stuff but anyway I only pick on small people because I'm so big and people pick on me so
but I still love I have like a kindred spirit with short people so because I know that they
get made fun of so I feel for them every day anyway Joshua so but anyway that's the bed that
I want right there the steel frame those that's not going to break you know you gotta you gotta
have the steel frame anyway good luck getting people to help you move with that but Joshua
chapter 12 like I'm not helping him move again that steel frame I don't even know what you would
call that size of bed frame that's like way over king size I don't even know what you call that
but he was a king so anyway maybe that's where the term came from I don't know but Joshua 12 6 says
them Moses the servant of the Lord and the children of Israel uh yeah them did Moses the
servant of the of the Lord and the children of Israel smite and Moses the servant of the Lord
gave it for possession unto the Rubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh so three
tribes inherited that whole stretch that whole side of the promised land and they wanted it for
their cattle that's what they mainly wanted it for they were cattlemen and so they really wanted that
specific area because it was good for cattle if you remember all that from before but anyway so
but one thing that this list does not include it's only listing the ones that God said you know
because this is part of the promise the promise that God gave but this does not include the other
things that Moses did because Moses was a great man he also it doesn't include Egypt because after
Moses was done obviously God is the one that really destroyed Egypt but through the leadership
of Moses Egypt was destroyed when Moses got done right well you know even one of his followers
said don't you realize that Egypt is is destroyed like what are you doing and it's like let's go
chase them again and then like they chased them and got drowned in the in the red sea right so
Moses had something to do with the destruction of Egypt and they're related to Ham and Noah so
these people are related and then the Amalekites are related to Esau through I think Amorite
relations I'm pretty sure they're Amorite relations or some kind of Canaanite that he mixed
with when he took over Mount Seir and so remember Moses had to fight the Amalekites when they
right after they got done with the red sea immediately the Amalekites attacked them
and they had that big battle and they had to hold up Moses's arms as long as he held his arms up
then they were winning and then when their hands would drop his hands would drop down then they
would start losing and they had to have her and Aaron lift his hands up so they're related to Esau
then he had the Midianites slash Moabites he had to fight them too who are related to Abraham
and Lot so Moses did fight more than just those kings those two kings he fought other battles
also so he was a bad dude in his own in his own you know rights though but let's move on to
number two the kings defeated by Joshua and the children of Israel verse number seven in our text
there says and these are the kings of the of the of the country which Joshua and the children of
Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west from Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon even unto
the Mount Halak that goeth up to Seir which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for possession
according to their divisions in the mountains and in the valleys and in the plains and in the
springs and in the wilderness and in the south country the Hittites the Amorites and the Canaanites
the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and the king of Jericho won and the king of Ai
which is beside Bethel won and the king of Jerusalem won the king of Hebron won
so remember a couple chapters back Joshua had this Adonai Zedek we talked about him and then
there was kind of like this well was Adonai Zedek also in Judges 1 did they actually did
he actually get killed by Joshua what happened well look at verse 10 again it says the king of
Jerusalem won and the king of Hebron won so did Joshua defeat Adonai Zedek well I kind of was I
did some more digging last night when I was writing the sermon and I wanted to just make
sure you know because the bible says what it says right here that he did defeat the king of Jerusalem
right look hold your finger here go back to Joshua chapter 10 verse number one this is the king of
Jerusalem that came against Joshua and he had this he had a bunch of people come and try to help him
defeat Joshua
which he failed at
but it says Joshua chapter 10 verse 1 it says now it came to pass when Adonai Zedek
king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai and utterly destroyed it as he had done to
Jericho and her king so had he done to Ai and her king and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made
peace with Israel and were among them so notice his name there it's Adonai Zedek which means
the lord of righteousness right so Melchizedek means the king of righteousness so 600 years
before Abraham meets Melchizedek and you know there's controversy as to whether he actually
was Christ or whether he was a picture of Christ I happen to believe he was a picture of Christ
but it doesn't really matter I don't think either way somebody's wrong and it might be me I don't
know but I think that whether you said I mean something it's either whether you whether you
look at it like you know you're taking the scriptures literally in Hebrews it says he
was without father without mother without beginning without ending whether you take
that literally or whether you take it figuratively that's kind of going to depend on what
interpretation you take so if you if you think it's figuratively because when Melchizedek comes
you don't you don't know his genealogy you don't know where he came from you don't know
his mom is you don't know who his dad is you don't see his beginning you don't see his end
and you don't know he just kind of pops into the scene I mean you could take that as that's there
so that you know Jesus pictures that Melchizedek or you could take it that it actually was Jesus
and he just was the king of Salem and then later on this guy comes has a similar name
I don't know I don't have time to get too deep into that mess there but it's not a mess but I
mean people just take different opinions and I don't have a problem with anybody taking the
opposite opinion of that I don't think it's something that makes or breaks fellowship
obviously but anyway so his name is Adonai Zedek okay and Melchizedek again means king of
righteousness Adonai Zedek is lord of righteousness and I kind of just feel like this is a name given
to the kings that rule over Jerusalem basically it's something similar now let's turn over to
Judges chapter one Judges chapter one because I forgot who brought this up to me and said what
about this guy and so I took a hard look at it last night and I just wanted to make sure
that I didn't like miss something but his name is different in Judges chapter one and this is
after Joshua had died so if Joshua took this guy and killed this guy according to chapter 12 verse
10 if he did take the king of Jerusalem but then he's still alive in Judges chapter one that means
he didn't get him so I'm kind of thinking this is a different guy so I'll show you why I think that
look at verse one it says now after the death of Joshua came to pass that the children of Israel
asked the lord saying who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against
them and the lord said Judah shall go up behold I've delivered the land into his hand and Judah
said unto Simeon his brother come up with me into my lot that we may fight against the Canaanites
and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot so Simeon went with him and Judah went up and the
lord delivered the Canaanites and the perizzites into their hand and they slew of them in Bezek
10,000 men so notice how it says of them in Bezek so Bezek is a place that nobody really knows where
that place is but it does say in Bezek okay now verse five says and they found Adonai Bezek
in Bezek so there's a place called Bezek and this guy's name is Adonai Bezek which means you know
we know what Adonai means it means lord right and it says and they fought against him and they
slew the Canaanites and the perizzites but Adonai Bezek fled and they pursued after him and caught
him and cut off his thumbs and his great toes so they cut off his thumbs and his two big toes
which would be very painful but Adonai Bezek said three score and ten kings so 70 kings having
their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table and I have as I have done so
God hath requited me or paid me back and they brought him to Jerusalem and there he died so
it seems like it's probably pretty close to Jerusalem but Bezek is not Jerusalem so they
brought him to Jerusalem his name is different than Adonai Zedek this is Adonai Bezek so it seems
similar but it's not the same Bezek is not Jerusalem Bezek is a different place and then
he's he's taken 70 kings so this guy's apparently pretty a pretty bad dude maybe they're just like
lesser kings or something I don't know but apparently he's you know done his you know
he's he's a pretty bad dude but it says now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem
and taken it and smitten it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire so they had already
done this they'd set it on fire they'd they'd fought against Jerusalem and taken it so Joshua
had beaten the king of Jerusalem already before this even happened so this is a different city
this is a different king it's not the same guy but some people do think it is like they're I've
looked at some some different you know people's opinions about it but I think it's a different
guy it's obviously a different name it's a different place it's a different time and if
the bible already says that Joshua defeated the king of Jerusalem then this can't be the same guy
or the bible's just not true right so now look down at verse 21 though it says and the children
of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem but the Jebusites dwell with
the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day so now you have kind of like the foreshadowing
of Judges 19 where the influence of the Jebusites influenced the children of Benjamin and they
become worse than the Jebusites and then you don't see the Jebusites being overthrown until they're
saying even the blind and the lame could keep David out of here and he's like get up in the
and go get me the the castle so the Jebusites at some point probably just take over again from
Benjamin after they're kind of slaughtered by the rest of the children of Israel after that event in
Judges 19 but they could never really drive them out because this is a fortified stronghold
but apparently part whatever part of Jerusalem they had burnt it but these Jebusites are like
ticks they just you just can't drive them out even burning them apparently doesn't drive them
out because I mean how is it that Joshua and the children of Jude or Joshua comes up and then even
the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and taken it and smitten it with the edge of the sword
and set it on fire it's like you know what are they just coming right back to it and setting up
camp or whatever but it's in but here's the thing is that Jerusalem and that area is split between
the children of Judah and the children of Benjamin so that's like it kind of seems confusing but
if you look at where they split their their territory Benjamin is right next to where Judah
is when they inherit so that's why they're so close so and then of course again David takes
the Jebusite fortress and it becomes the city of David after that let's look back at Joshua chapter
12 verse 11 it says the king of Jarmuth one the king of Lakish one of course that's a famous city
later on the king of Eglon one the king of Gezer one the king of Deir one the king of Geder one
king of Hormel one the king of Arad one king of Libnah one the king of Adullam
Adullam is like a you remember the cave of Adullam where you always see people kind of going to that
cave it's like a stronghold also the king of Makita one the king of Bethel one another famous
city and then of Tapuah one the king of Heifer one the king of Aphek one the king of Lesharan
one king of Madon one so just like naming off all these kings let's get down to verse 21 it says
the king of Tanakh one the king of Megiddo one so Megiddo of course the battle of Armageddon
is where is going to take place in this valley of Megiddo that's so Armageddon comes from
this word Megiddo and then you have Kadesh let's see Carmel
let's see Gilgal is where Agag is hewn into pieces verse 23 and then you get to the king of Terza
one so and then it says all the kings 30 and one and none of these kings ever was able to destroy
Joshua or Moses they beat every single one of them and then you know the Gibeonites they
tricked Joshua and saved their own skin and more power to them I mean they saved their they saved
their own hide and I'm sure some of them got saved I'm sure you know that they lived a peaceful happy
life and I believe that's a picture of the Gentiles kind of being a remnant at that time
then obviously now the the shoe's on the other foot now that the Jews are more of a remnant and
were you know the Gentiles are definitely more people saved now than the Jews but Terza I want
to kind of do just like a little quick study with Terza here look at verse first king's chapter 14
so Terza which is a name I like but I always try to get my kids to name their daughters Terza but
maybe it's a bad bad city maybe they don't like it or they just don't like the name whatever
someone named their daughter Terza it's a good name but it was a capital city in the
northern kingdom of Israel until the time of Omri after it split from Solomon many years later
from the time first kings 14 17 says and Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Terza
and when she came to the threshold of the door the child died so and then first kings 15 21 says and
it came to pass when Basha heard thereof that he left off building of Ramah and dwelt in Terza
so this place was like kind of the capital city of the northern kingdom skipped to verse 33 in
the same passage first kings 15 33 it says in the third year of Asa king of Judah began Basha the
son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Terza 20 and four years so for many years this was the
capital city and you always think of Samaria probably when you think of like the northern
kingdom you know they call it Samaria even in Jesus time what do they call that northern area
they called it Samaria it was actually you know pretty much a city at that point the city of
Samaria so now look at first king 16 verse 23 first king 16 verse 23 and there was a huge battle
there that happened and basically the place the palace pretty much got destroyed and in verse 23
it says in the 30 and first year of Asa king of Judah came or began Omri to reign over Israel
12 years six years reigned he in Terza and he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents
of silver and built on the hill and called the name of the city which he built after the name
Shemer owner of the hill Samaria so I guess Samaria came out of Shemer I guess so that's how
so Terza was the was the capital city for a long time and then when it kind of got destroyed in
this battle then he bought this guy bought this hill of Samaria and so now Samaria has ever
since been well or was ever since after that called you know Shemer was called Shemeria or
whatever so anyway just a little interesting tidbit there that I was looking at so so let's
do a little bit of spiritual application we'll be out of here okay so some spiritual application
well the first thing I wanted to point out is that we see the overall view of God's power
through this total domination of the 31 kings and why 31 I don't know but 31 just seems like
a good as number as any other number but I mean 31 kings just shows how God like there's no there's
no defeats it's like if you're 31 and oh that's a pretty good record isn't it and so the children
of Israel never lose and so that just kind of to apply that to us spiritually we know that
no matter what no matter what battles we fight we're always going to come out on top no matter
what we always are going to get the victory obviously there's times when we're going to
have setbacks just like Moses had setbacks just like the children of Israel had setbacks
just like Joshua had some setbacks but those setbacks are only temporary if you're on team God
you're always going to go undefeated so I think that's a good picture of spiritual
application for us look at Deuteronomy 7 1 Deuteronomy 7 1 because all these kings you know
they they they had all these soldiers they had their strongholds they had castles the children
of Israel didn't have any of this stuff they're just kind of you know roaming around the desert
with the tabernacle and whatever they have whatever they've been provided by God you know
they're getting quails sent to them and flocks they have the manna comes out before them every
day they're gathering of that you know whenever they need water they're whining about it but
God still gives it to them right so they're just kind of living by faith and you know out in this
desert area and then when they go into the promised land all that stuff ends but God's
still providing because they're just going in at the right time when the barley harvest is ripe
and then just taking everything from all these cities that they need and they're just kind of
taking over what God was already laid up in store for them it's not like he he put him he had him go
to a land that was that was plentiful and everything that they needed so Deuteronomy 7 1 says and when
the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land where thou goest to possess it and hath out and
and hath cast out many nations before thee the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites
and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites seven nations greater
and mightier than thou and this is the other thing about it is they're just greater and mightier
than them and they had the greater numbers they had the better warriors but the one thing our
enemies never have is God on their side they never have that that's why God always told Joshua to not
be afraid of them that's why God told Moses to not be afraid of them and I have given them into your
hands and so this extensive list that we have in this chapter of 31 kings defeated you know it just
it's the highlights hey we beat you beat this one you know every time it's a victory every time
they're defeated any obstacle that is overcome even if there's like some kind of hiccup it's
still a victory and these are things that we can just count on because God you know with God on
our side you know people people mock that that saying but it is actually true with God on our
side we can't lose we just will not lose now and the second thing the second spiritual application
is that we see God's faithfulness in keeping his promises so I kind of mentioned this a little bit
earlier but turn to second Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 2 and this so this chapter acts as a
testament to God's faithfulness in delivering the land to the Israelites demonstrating his
commitment to fulfill his promises he said he's going to do it he does it and in our spiritual
lives second Thessalonians 3 2 says and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men
because there's a lot of those out there today isn't there there's a lot of unreasonable and
wicked men and women and it says for all men have not faith sometimes we have to deal on not
sometimes but a lot of time we have to deal with people that are just unreasonable and they're
wicked whether it be door knocking or whether it be out in public or whether it be at the store
whatever wherever we're at some we just have to deal with these unreasonable and wicked people
and you know God will deliver us out of the situations
it says but the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from evil
a lot of people walk they're afraid of everything they're just afraid to go out of their house
they have all these fears and phobias about everything but the Lord is faithful
he's going to take care of you he's going to establish you what does that mean establish
he's going to keep you from evil you know these people that just you know they get murdered or
whatever they they have all these things happen to them they get jumped in some alley or whatever
well you know God's going to keep you from situations like that you know and I think
I'm not saying be dumb and walk down a dark alley at midnight or something in a bad neighborhood don't
I mean obviously use common sense but God will get you out of situations and I forget who I was
talking to about this but how many situations do do not happen to us and we never even realize
that God got us out of it before we even walked into it this probably happens to us more than we
ever realize or some road raging freak road rages on somebody else that actually deserves it instead
of us you know or some actually you know you're late and you're like oh man I can't believe I'm
late and you're all mad about it but maybe you're late and God meant you for you to be late so that
you wouldn't have gotten to the accident that somebody you know that that would have killed
you and your family I mean God protects us he takes care of us we do have angels that protect us
and watch over us and the Lord is faithful who establishes us and keeps us from evil number three
the spiritual application of course the these guys are in literal warfare where they're fighting
they're swinging swords they're actually killing people but we do this in a spiritual manner
and the Canaanite kings can be interpreted as symbolic representations of spiritual enemies
that believers must confront and overcome through faith in God and this is true this happens in our
Christian life we're not called to fight with weapons of war and I always think back to that
guy that tried to get us recruited into this stick fighting thing or whatever remember we went
to it just to kind of like okay well let's see what this is about we're out and it's like
freezing cold outside and they're teaching us all these moves to keep people back from our doors
it was like this coalition of Catholics and it was kind of it was weird man but anyway they're
trying to like it was like this network if we're ever attacked by sodomites or people that are just
like being weird to churches that they'll come and help protect our building or something like
that I'm just thinking the moment we pull a weapon out and start hitting people with it
we're going to jail okay that's all there is to it our battle is not a physical battle I mean we
have a bunch of sodomites outside with ar-15s and they think that they're intimidating us I don't
think anybody was intimidated that came to our church that day I don't think there was one single
person that was afraid at all I mean if you were you know whatever but I wasn't afraid I was at
the Verity protest when all those raging sodomites were you know making all kinds of weird faces at
us and you know they're just like they're behind like all these fences and stuff and it was a
surreal feeling just walking through all that stuff it was really weird I just never you know
been through anything like that they're taking pictures of us like we're like rock stars or
something they're pretty good pictures actually but but I mean you go through that like I mean
there's been all kinds of protests that I've walked through and like that to me was like
that was fun actually but anyway it doesn't bother me and I don't think it bothers most of our people
but you know those are the things they try to intimidate us with fear and violence and it's
just like we know it's a spiritual battle we know that we're gonna have to go through it but when I
look back and I think about the enemies in our lives that we did I mean they had they're they
have the 31 kings that they defeated in physical battle but think of all the battles that we fought
in our history as a church or the battles that you know our movement has gone through
and which one of them is is has won anything they haven't won anything they've never won a battle
they always lose you know they might resurface again like you know in a sequel movie or something
they oh there they are again you know but they just they still never win they're still heretics
they're still losers they're still weirdos and you know right now which I think is very weird
that our biggest enemies right now are other independent fundamental baptists
but it's just the next enemy it's like it's like you know you get through all the in video games
you get through these bosses right you go through these levels you're fighting all these low level
battles and then the boss comes that you have to beat at the end or whatever of each level
and then the bosses just are just harder and harder but sometimes they're just like weird
bosses that you beat pretty easy and then yeah but it's just always different you know when we
fight battles spiritual battles it's just always some new boss and then like they get beat and then
we forget about them like I don't even know if I could really like think about all the different
people that we've had battles with over the years but it's just a bizarre thing that we go through
as Christians and sometimes I think does the secular world just kind of look at some of these
battles and think you guys are weird this is weird like when courts get involved in some of our
church matters do they think like what's wrong with these people because I feel like that
all this you know for all the smoke that that we kind of get and then nothing ever happens it's
like what were those court people actually thinking about when they're looking at these
cases they're like and then all these like ravenous freaks are like accusing and saying
all these weird things it's just like and then nothing happens it's like what do they think
about that because just like in the book of acts when soft what is it soft sostenese he tries to
get the apostles in trouble and then they bring him before the roman governor of that city or
whatever huh yeah it was like a yeah and so he's like what do I have to do with these like
what does this have to do if it was you know some kind of act of lewdness or something like
and he's like then they beat the guy that brought the problems forth they beat sostenese in front of
the judgment seat and then they're just like he's to me it's just like that's kind of what
I feel like police and cps and all these other agencies probably think after a while when like
there's all this smoke but no reality to it they probably just think after a while like these
people are weirdos this is a weird deal and like all the you know lawsuits and just all the stuff
that we've been through and you know maybe you don't have to go through it but I have
but it's just at the end of the day they always lose they've never won a single battle
we're still undefeated you know and we might have setbacks we might lose people over stuff
and things like that but we never lose we've never lost we're still undefeated look at
ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 I'm real close this last scripture will turn to
ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 and you know really we're not going to lose
but we do need to still stay in the fight because sometimes people get weary of fighting I understand
that I understand why people would get weary because it does kind of get old sometimes
but like Joshua if you think about Joshua in the next chapter it says it came to pass that Joshua
was old so his whole career basically you know before Moses ordained him as he was a young man
when he first started working for Moses and he's like Moses my lord forbid them you know
at first he's kind of like you know envious for Moses like people are preaching and then he kind
of just learns under Moses and then now we see the next chapter we're going to see him he's an
old man and what's he been doing his whole life battling I mean he sent Joshua to battle the
Amalekites Moses was standing there you know with his arms being lifted up you know obviously but
Joshua's actually in the battle Joshua was one of the 12 spies that went into the land
Joshua's doing all these adventures he's getting all these battles and then he's leading the armies
of Israel into the promised land so Joshua's whole life basically was him fighting battles
and getting into wars and yeah it gets old sometimes but it's something that it's just
what the Christian life is like for now but in eternity it's not going to be like that
so I mean don't don't get downtrodden because things kind of just you know sometimes things
they get ugly you know war is ugly this is ugly what they had to go through I mean they're
slaughtering people they're leaving nobody breathing I would rather do spiritual warfare
than what they had to do not leaving anybody alive like I don't want to kill anybody I don't want to
chop some I mean they're chopping up everybody I don't want to have to do that I'd rather chop
them up with my bible but anyway Ephesians 6 10 says finally my brethren be strong in the lord
and the power of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities
against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high
places I mean we want to take the spiritual application I mean we're not fighting a real
battle as far as flesh and blood we're fighting a spiritual battle our battle is against not
flesh and blood it's against the principalities it's against the powers it's against the rulers
of the darkness of this world and it manifests itself in all these different ways but it's still
a wrestle and it's still a battle that we fight it's against spiritual wickedness in high places
and it's always trying to take us out by one angle or another whether it's a sniper a spiritual
sniper whether it's through death in the family whether it's through heartache in the family
whether it's through you know whatever it is you know you lose your job or there's just you know
constant attacks in the church problems in your marriage problems with your children you know
there's there's just lots of things that can attack us as Christians and make us feel
discouraged make us want to quit make us want to give up the battle and just think oh man I just
maybe I just should be in a church where all this stuff isn't happening but then you go to that
church and then you remember all the reasons why you didn't want to go to that church in the first
place you're like this church is lame I want to get back in the fight but sometimes people just
you know they they do get weary they do get out of the battle but that's what the devil wants
that's how he wins we take off the armor we forget that we were we were in a fight that's
what wrestling is you're wrestling you know Jacob wrestled with the Lord Jesus Christ and said give
me a blessing but you know it's not usually a blessing when we're fighting against our enemies
it says you know that we're fighting against the principalities power spiritual wickedness
in high places the rulers of the darkness of this world but when we take on the whole armor of God
it says well that we might be able to withstand in the evil day not every day is evil but sometimes
we're going to go through some evil days and delete the best thing we can do is be able to
have done all to stand and we might not be able to you know at least you've done everything you can
you've kept that armor on and and again the battles get weary but we do need to continue
to fight number four the total victory you know all the kings mentioned signifies a total victory
leaving no room for doubt about God's power to triumph over evil number five
God provides a table in the presence of his enemies the detailed list serves as a reminder
of God's provision and the inheritance he has given to his people again so reminding us God
is just going to provide in any situation and you know how that list is written the one
by one even when they team up God's people always win when they keep fighting
so the only way to lose is to quit fighting yeah that's right because if you're not on the team
anymore if you've left the team if you you've left the fight you know that's what you know people
that think that they're oh my team won it's like did you play then you didn't win you're just a fan
you're just a fan boy you're just a fanatic right you didn't really win I mean I like the
Seahawks but I'm really not playing for them I mean when they do something I didn't catch
that touchdown I didn't will them to win if I prayed that they win I don't think God cares
please God let the Seahawks win it's like kind of a vanity it really is but I mean I get into sports
you know I like sports but in reality it's probably all rigged anyway but
anyway so but regardless of who the enemy is and regardless of how many enemies we face
our responsibility is to obey God and wage a good war and one by one those enemies will be defeated
and we will experience victory and one day peace because the like I said the last the
worst thing we can do is just quit fighting so that's the only way you lose is giving up
let's pray order thank you so much for Joshua chapter 12 and the spiritual lessons that we
can learn from it Lord and how you just give total victory Lord and how much power you have
and Lord to this was nothing compared to the things that you really can do
and the victories that you gave the children of Israel are good reminders of how we can get great
victories in our life and our daily life help us Lord as we fight spiritual battles and sometimes
we don't even see the hits coming Lord help us to keep our armor on so that we can take the hits
and absorb them and keep on fighting the fight of faith in Jesus name we pray amen
all right last song page 60 face to face page 60 face to face
page 60 on the first face to face with Christ my savior face to face what will it be
when with rapture I behold him Jesus Christ who died for me
face to face I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky
face to face in all his glory
I shall see him by and by
only faintly now I see him with a darkling pale between
but a blessed day is coming when his glory shall be seen
face to face I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky
face to face in all his glory
face to face by and by
what rejoicing in his presence when our banished grief and pain
when the crooked ways are straightened when the dark
face to face I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky
face to face in all his glory I shall see him by and by
on the last face to face a blissful moment
face to face to see and know
face to face with my redeemer Jesus Christ who loves me so
face to face I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky
face to face in all his glory I shall see him by and by
amen thank you for attending services today we'd love to see you here next week
brother Robert you want to end us with a word of prayer
you