(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man Deuteronomy chapter 20 the Bible reads in verse number 1 when thou goest out to battle against thine enemies and see his horses and chariots and a people more than thou be not afraid of them for the Lord thy God is with thee which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and of course the spiritual application here in the New Testament is that we're in a spiritual battle as New Testament Christians 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 and when it comes to that spiritual fight we are always going to be outnumbered right broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life and few there be that find it so the majority is always going to be wrong when it comes to spiritual things right the majority is not Christian the majority is not saved the majority doesn't believe the Bible the majority is going to be wrong on all manner of things as a result of not being saved and not believing the Bible and so we shouldn't be afraid to be in the minority we shouldn't be afraid because we're not part of the mainstream culture and obviously like I said the majority of people in this world don't even claim to be a Christian but even among so-called quote-unquote Christians you know the mainstream is a false religion Roman Catholicism or these mainline Protestant denominations that teach all kinds of pagan garbage and they teach a workspace salvation and so forth so don't be afraid to be in the minority because if you've got God on your side that's all that matters no matter how small the group is if God be for us who can be against us so he says don't be afraid when you see the enemy as being so huge because the Lord's with you the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt which pictures salvation you know we have been saved as well spiritually they were saved physically verse number two it says and it shall be when you're come nigh unto the battle that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people and shall say unto them here o Israel ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies let not your hearts faint fear not and do not tremble neither be you terrified because of them for the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you and this is still today one of the biggest enemies that God's people face is fear you know if there's one thing that I could change about the pastors across America it wouldn't be that I would give them some piece of knowledge that they don't have or somehow straighten them out on Bible prophecy or straighten them out on end times or straighten them out on the sodomites because I don't really think that's the biggest problem I think the biggest problem with preachers is that they're scared to preach what they believe I don't even want to preach what I believe I just want them to preach what they believe think about how great churches would be across America if every pastor just got up and boldly proclaimed what he believes even if he doesn't have my exact doctrine or believe exactly me just I just wish every Baptist preacher would just get up and preach what he believes oh it's not the same as what I believe no problem preach what you believe but the problem is these guys aren't even preaching what they believe let alone what I believe because they're scared in many cases to get up and just preach the Word of God boldly and in reality there's no reason to be afraid the reason that I'm not afraid to get up and preach everything I believe and to just get up and shout it from the house tops and put it online and just put it out there for everybody here here's why I'm not afraid cuz there's literally nothing to be afraid of it's not that I am just pastor lionhearted up here cuz I'm not it's just that I just I just realized there's nothing to be afraid of and so that's the thing it's not that I'm like facing some great danger and you know standing it's just you know what it's a big boogeyman out there because the Lord God is on our side to protect us and defend us and the chances of something bad happening to me are almost nil I don't even care even if this whole building is surrounded by angry people with pitchforks and and torches like like they do it steadfast now I'm just kidding but anyway you know even if even if our church were surrounded by angry people and even if people are threatening us everything I know that from reading the Word of God the vast majority of the time God protects his people God protects preachers God is there and they're just saying look don't fear don't fade don't tremble don't be terrified I'm with you I'm on your side and you know I just believe that God's gonna protect me that's why I'm not afraid because I just believe God's gonna protect me now in the rare event that something bad happens to me well then you know what I guess I just you know drew the short straw and I'm the one of the lucky guys who gets to be a martyr of our Lord Jesus Christ but that's so rare because the vast majority of the time God's constantly protecting people in the Bible and they're constantly just getting away with preaching everything in the Bible and so there's no reason to be scared I just wish that pastors would somehow just realize that you know they can pretty much just get up and preach whatever however the Spirit leads and there's really nothing to worry about especially in America I mean come on we have freedom of speech let's use it and let's preach the Word of God boldly unashamedly why hold back why be scared why not just get up and just preach it and you know obviously I think about things from the perspective of a pastor because I am a pastor but even just as a layman or even as a lady in the church a boy or a girl you know you've got to overcome fear when it comes to just going out soul-winning getting out soul-winning right that can be a little scary if you're not used to it you've got to overcome that just like I have to overcome the fear to get up and preach the Bible and maybe offend people you know you've got to overcome the fear of going out there and knocking those doors and preaching the gospel because it can be a little scary but again there's nothing really to be afraid of right I mean what what could possibly go wrong you know if you you're gonna stumble and and you're gonna say the wrong you're never gonna see these people again we're in a giant city with 4.8 million people so don't even worry about it you got to get over that fear and just get out soul-winning get out there and preach the gospel do what's needed God's there with you though you know when you when when Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission and said to go teach all nations he said lo I am with you always even to the end of the world and so if God's with us that should give us a boldness and a confidence to get out there and knock those doors and face those lost people and you know in many cases the people that you're witnessing to are more nervous than you are they're nervous to be facing you you're at the door and you're confronting them with the gospel and you're asking them if they're going to heaven you know they might be just as nervous in that conversation as you are or more nervous they're not judging you they're just they're just trying not to to you know make a fool of themselves in many cases and so fear not God's with you God's gonna protect you God's gonna take care of you don't let fear paralyze you from doing the will of God Bible says in verse 5 and the officers shall speak unto the people saying what man is there that had built a new house and it's not dedicated it let him go and return to his house lest he die in the battle and another man dedicated now here's what I like about this is that it shows that God actually looks down at the enterprises and the goals and the activities of human beings and he has respect for those things on some level that he basically understands that there's a certain joy and fulfillment in building your own home building a house and living in it and God says hey if a guy has built a house I want that guy to be able to enjoy the house that he has built I don't want him to build a house and then he dies in battle and then someone else ends up dedicating it and then same thing in verse 6 what man is he that has planted a vineyard has not yet eaten of it let him also go and return into his house lest he die in the battle and another man eat me say look you know you went through all this work you've planted this vineyard and you haven't gotten to enjoy that yet I want you to be able to go home and enjoy that and that it doesn't all just be in vain from your perspective and then lastly he says what man is there that had patrolled the wife and had not taken her let him go and return to his house lest he die in the battle and another man taker I believe that God looks down and he sees us doing these things in our lives like getting married building a house building a vineyard right doing our jobs and and maybe building a business or having a career or getting married and these things are not bad things in fact God apparently respects them on some level because he says hey you know you did that work I want you to be able to enjoy that and that it doesn't just go to someone else because you know some people can get overboard on the Christian life thinking that the only things we could do have to just be directly serving God and anything else we're doing is a big waste and you know we need to just be soul winning and reading our Bibles 24-7 and there's no fun allowed no career allowed and how dare you get married and there are even people out there who think it's more spiritual to be single and that somehow if you get married it just is just some kind of a spiritual weakness or something like that but yet in reality as we study the Bible we find that for the vast majority of people it is God's will that they get married God has ordained for every man to have his own wife and for every woman to have her own husband that is God's plan a for most people now of course there are exceptions to that and there are people for whom it is God's will that they remain single and there are a lot of people that are gonna be single and that's God's plan for their life and that's God's will for their life and that's their best Christian life that they can live is as a single person and the Apostle Paul was one who was single and God used him greatly and he was following God's will just remaining single but we don't want to impose that on other people or have this attitude that everyone has to follow that path in order to reach you know maximum spirituality you don't want to get a wrong view a perverse view toward marriage marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge he who so findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtain a favor of the Lord so that means God looks down from heaven and he sees you young man getting married and he is pleased with that he likes that he looks down and he smiles on that but I also would take it a step further and say that he looks down and he sees you building that house and he sees you building that vineyard and he appreciates that now obviously spiritual things in our life are the most important things in our life we're to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness but the Bible doesn't say seek only the kingdom of God and his righteousness no because obviously there's nothing wrong with having a family having a career building a business doing something with your life in fact God wants us as men to work hard he doesn't want us to be lazy he doesn't want us to sit around and be unproductive he wants us to go out and work hard in whatever our hand finds to do whether that's a secular employment or whether that's some kind of a clergy employment either way we're to do everything to the glory of God and God loves us and doesn't just use us as his worker drones in the beehive and then just kind of use us and abuse us and discard us no God loves us and cares about us and he actually wants us to enjoy our life so he actually wants us if we work hard at building house he wants us to be able to dedicate that house he wants us to be able to eat you know eat of that vineyard he wants us to be able to enjoy our wife and enjoy the family life God has provided those things for us good clean fun good clean pursuits and ambitions that we have as human beings it's normal for us to have those goals and dreams and wishes and in fact if we'll put God first if we'll seek God first and his righteousness he'll in many cases allow us to fulfill those things that we want to fulfill if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness the other things the food and the clothing that we need will be added unto us say it the Lord but not only that the Bible talks about how if we give up things for Christ if we give up houses and lands and we give up brothers and sisters and a wife whatever we give up for his sake in the Gospels he said he'll give us a hundredfold in this life lands and houses and and all those things why because God will give us the desires of our heart if we put our trust in him and so God's not expecting you to be an ascetic living in a monastery with a bunch of other dudes beating yourself and and and you know chanting the same prayer five million times okay God understands the need to live a life of production when it comes to even our physical needs and and work in the farm or work in the job building the house he understands our desire for companionship and so he has allowed for us to get married and he even takes pleasure in us getting married so that's what I like about this passage is that it shows look you're fighting the Lord's battle you're doing the Lord's work here going out with the armies of Israel but if you're in these situations where you've just built a house or just planted a vineyard or just gotten married you know I want you to get to enjoy the fruit of your labor and I think that says a lot about God's mentality toward those type of activities in general and then the Bible says in verse number 8 and the officers shall speak further unto the people and they shall say what man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted let him go and return unto his father's house lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart now what's interesting is that we actually see this happen one time in the history of the children of Israel and and the thing about these laws and I've mentioned this before is that sometimes I think that when we read books like Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy we sometimes have the mistaken idea that the things that we're reading actually happened the way that God says they should happen so this is the law of God so God's saying hey this is what you should do this should be the punishment for this crime this should be what you do at the year of Jubilee this should be the rules but if we actually look at the history of the nation of Israel they rarely follow God's rules right so we have to understand there's a big difference between what God says to do and what people actually do God's law as found in the Pentateuch was never fully perfectly implemented in the nation of Israel at any time because it was always implemented by human beings and they're leaving things out we don't see a single instance of them ever celebrating the year of Jubilee for example you know and actually following those rules and there are lots and lots of other rules that we could point to and say you know they didn't follow this I mean for example you know we we think a lot about this in 2023 just because of how weird our country's getting but we think a lot about the command in Leviticus 2013 that says that if a man lie with mankind as he also lied with a woman they've committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them so we have this rule in Leviticus 2013 to execute homos but the question is did the children of Israel always at all points in their history execute homos because when you see a king like Asa come along he has to get all the sodomites out of the land well what were they doing in the land in the first place when did the land get infested with sodomites right obviously somebody was dropping the ball on Leviticus 2013 and then Joshua fat has to come along and get rid of the sodomites that remained from the days of Asa his father because again some idiots were just allowing these fags to exist and they didn't actually follow God's Word okay and so there's a difference between what actually happens and what's supposed to happen so what's interesting about this passage that every single time they go to battle they're supposed to be sending home everyone who's scared every time every single time they go to battle they're supposed to say all right who built a house and you haven't dedicated it yet go home who planted a vineyard it hasn't eaten up the fruit thereof go home who married a wife and has not yet gone in under her go home all right anybody who's scared fearful faint-hearted go home you never see the children of Israel ever do this the only time you see part of this fulfilled is in the book of Joshua with Gideon right Gideon goes out there with 32,000 soldiers and God specifically tells him in a vision that he needs to send home everybody who's scared but really you know he shouldn't have even had to tell him that in a vision that's just something they should have been doing anyway and every battle they should have always been making that announcement but of course Gideon makes that announcement and he says all right whoever's fearful go home and it's the only time in the Old Testament that you can find this actually happening and out of 32,000 troops 22,000 of them go home right so the the majority end up going home like two-thirds of them end up being like oh great bye see ya I'm scared see you later and you say well come on this isn't practical I mean how are you gonna how you gonna win a war if two-thirds of the troops are going home but here's what the Bible says it gives the rationale right here it says in verse number eight what man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted let him go and return unto his house lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart so if you've got these scared people in the military it's actually gonna weaken the entire army because what you have to understand about warfare especially in the ancient world is that everything relied upon staying organized staying in formation the way that they fought was you know they had these battle lines and they didn't want to have any gaps in the battle line they didn't want to get outflanked or outmaneuvered and so it's very important that everybody's in their position everybody's keeping rank everybody is following orders and not just cutting and running randomly because then it's easy for things to just go to chaos right they didn't have the communication techniques that we have today they didn't have modern weapons and modern styles of warfare you know it's it's pretty much just a basic arrangement of troops and they get out there and they need to stay in formation and they need to have the guts to keep marching forward until an actual retreat is sounded and so if you have a scared guy and he just turns around and starts running away that can easily become contagious and so you don't want that fear to spread and it's the same way today in the Christian life when you have preachers who are afraid to stand up for the Word of God when you have Christians who are afraid to do what's right afraid to preach right well then that ends up spreading and then it ends up causing everybody to be scared of their shadow everybody to be scared of nothing and then pretty soon the people who are standing up and boldly proclaiming the Word of God are very few indeed but at the end of the day God can do a lot with a few people who are actually obeying now what's interesting is that before he sends home the scared people he says in verse 3 look at the second half of verse 3 let not your hearts faint fear not do not trample neither be ye terrified because of them for the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you now in light of that statement anybody who then turns around and goes home in verse 8 is not right with God because of the fact that if they had faith in the Word of God they would know I'm here I'm doing the will of God God is on my side God has promised to be with me God has promised to protect us and so scared go home well that would mean that I was doubting God because you just finished telling us in verse 4 that God is on our side and that we're doing the will of God we're fighting the Lord's battle here and so if these people actually believe the Word of God that the Lord was with them and they wouldn't be scared they wouldn't be going home would they and so these people that are going home in verse 8 are not right with God you don't want those kind of people around anyway you know you fast forward to the early church in the book of Acts and you read about all those exciting times in the early church where there's all kinds of great preaching going on by the apostles and multitudes of people are getting saved and the apostles keep getting thrown in prison then they get out of prison and there's all kinds of buzz amongst the people of Jerusalem about Christians and it talks about how people are just so amazed and blown away by what God's doing in the local church and then they hear about what happens to Ananias and Sapphira and and great fear falls on everyone and so forth but one of the things is that in Acts it talks about a lot of people really marveling at what's going on in that early church but then it talks about how the rest of the people many people dared not join themselves under them so a lot of people they're admiring what God's doing in the church in the book of Acts they're excited about it they're praising God about the mighty outpouring of his spirit but they themselves dared not to join that church you know they don't want to get too close to the fire unless they get burned you know and that church is on fire in a good way doing great things for God in the book of Acts and some people are just scared to even be a part of it well you know what we don't need those kind of people at the end of the day you know some people might think that our church is a little too intense which our church is not as intense as the book of Acts Church you know what I mean like no you know we're not up here saying why did you lie to the Holy Ghost and people falling over dead and you know where our church leadership isn't in and out of prison every week or anything I mean you know yeah we have a little excitement here but not as much as the book of Acts and yet some people would dare not to come to faithful word Baptist Church they want to listen to preaching online they want to admire maybe the soul winning and the mission strips from afar but they don't necessarily want to get involved because they're scared some people are literally scared to come to church here and they want to go to church where it's safe you know they want to be they want to be at the bumper bowling Baptist Church you know because they're afraid to bowl the gutter ball you know they're they're over at a safe place okay whereas our church is a church that there's action going on and that could be intimidating to some people some people are afraid to come to church here or to come to other churches like ours because they're afraid of what people will say or what people will think they're afraid of getting a little bit of persecution or something from being associated with the fundamentalist Baptist Church but at the end of the day if people are scared nuts to them you know I'm not gonna change our church to somehow make it friendly to the cowards of this world you know if you're too much of a coward to sit in the congregation of faith for Baptist Church and listen to a sermon you know then you're just a big-time coward and you don't even belong here anyway keep listening online you know sucking your thumb but at the end of the day you know we don't want to be surrounded by scared timid people because then that could rub off on us we want to be surrounded by bold Christians who aren't afraid to get out there and witness for Christ and aren't afraid to go out there and preach the gospel to every creature and and and so forth and you know some people are just they're so scared of so many things and obviously there are dangers in this world you know and and and some mission strips could be more dangerous than others some soul winning areas but honestly like how dangerous is it really to go soul winning in the ghetto you know I mean it's not that dangerous sometimes people freak out and they're just like you know oh be careful in this neighborhood no look it's not like we're there in the middle of the night or something you know we're there in broad daylight we got the Bible we're winning souls I mean the chances of something happening are so small yeah we could always get struck by lightning you know something bad could always happen but the other day we go on these missions trips and oh it's a high crime area yeah but we're out in the daylight we're doing God's work God's protecting us we're staying in a group it's you know we're not telling you to go soul winning in Jamaica at 1130 p.m. by yourself or something okay obviously we're going so many in these places in the daytime and we're being safe and at the end of the day God has to protect us you know it can God protect us or not when we're out doing his work we're out doing his will is God gonna protect us not you know I just believe God's gonna protect us doesn't mean that we shouldn't be smart and take precautions the horse is prepared against the day of battle but safety's of the Lord you know so yeah take the precautions but at the end of the day you really got to rely on God to protect you but people act like it's so oh it's so scary I remember we were going to Dearborn Michigan we had a soul winning event back in 2015 called marching to Dearborn and we did a big soul winning marathon in Dearborn Michigan we had about 60 soul winners come out it's a great day we had a bunch of people saved great time but I remember people contacting me and they weren't kidding they were serious they're like pass or don't do it you're risking your life it's the you know Dearborn's under Sharia law you're gonna be beheaded and I'm just like what are you serious and you know I started so many people were saying this stuff to me I started getting nervous like I what am I missing something here like is this some really scary thing so then I go online to try to you know because when everybody's telling you this you know you start wondering like I'm is this really a thing I was like come on I'm like it's the United States of America they're not beheading Christians in Dearborn you know so I went on you know I went to get to the bottom of this I went to YouTube you know to get the facts and I go on YouTube and and I I type this into YouTube and you know Dearborn Sharia whatever and this video comes up Christians stoned in Dearborn and I look at this video of Christians being stoned in Dearborn Michigan and it turned out the Christians being stoned was that there were these obnoxious Christians going to like a Muslim event and heckling they were heckling some Muslim parade street preaching or whatever and basically some of the angry Muslims threw empty water bottles at them and that was them being stoned like an empty plastic bottle that weighs like one ounce is like like bounced off a Christian's head and it was like persecution level 1000 according to these people but that was you know Christians being stoned ever of course we went to Dearborn and it was it was the most normal soul winning thing we've ever done there was never any danger I mean all of the Arabs and Palestinians and and various types of Muslims that were in Dearborn were offering us cookies and they were having us come in and and eat and and yeah and the funny thing was I think it was even during Ramadan and they even gave us cookies they were like we can't eat but here eat these cookies and so I was served cookies by Muslims during Ramadan in Dearborn and I'm telling them like you guys aren't saved you got it you know you got to believe that Jesus is the Son of God or you're gonna go to hell when you die like you got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you got to get saved and there and it's just like all right you know here have another cookie nobody tried to behead me or stone me or anything like that but but but I then literally I kid you not I go to the airport after we're done with the sowing event I go to the airport and I run into a guy guy walks up me hey aren't you pastor Anderson oh man so cool to meet you he said I was gonna go to that Dearborn event but I ended up not going because I was scared because I heard about all the hype about the persecution of Christians and so I actually just stayed away from the event just to be safe you know and and I told him I said there's nothing to worry about and this guy missed out on the event because of fear right and and that's how it often is we get scared of these things and really we're just scared of a phantom we're scared of a boogeyman you know if God's with us God can protect us and so if you know if people are fearful and faint-hearted and that and somehow that keeps them out of church well then maybe they just don't belong in church you know if they're gonna have that mentality now look I want people to come to church but they need to they need to get a little bit of a backbone and show up to church because we don't need a we don't need a spineless congregation you know I'm glad think about this you say well don't we want all these scaredy cats to come to church so that we can have three times as many people you know instead of having 10,000 we'd have 32,000 don't we want all those people here's why we don't though okay because let's say persecution comes and all the sudden persecution came and all of a sudden from one day to the next all of a sudden our church two-thirds of the people are gone don't you think that'd be kind of demoralizing if faithful or Baptist Church we're in a fight and we showed up on Sunday morning and the auditorium is two-thirds empty that would be a little bit discouraging and then that could even cause other people to think oh man you know the ships going down I'm out of here this this place is is in trouble whereas in the past when we've had big fights battles protesters whatever the persecution we usually only lose a small handful of people and it's not really noticeable when we have a big fight or something we only lose a few people and then it doesn't have this feeling of oh everything's falling apart retreat you see what I'm saying I mean can you imagine if we came under fire and then three-quarters of the church leaves people would start thinking like whoa what's going on here you know whereas 90 some percent of people have the backbone to fight and stay well then we're you know it's gonna be like nothing even happened and so that's why we don't necessarily want our church to be filled with cowards and people who just run away at the first sign of persecution now I still think that those people should have a chance to serve God and God loves them and God could still use them and so that's why we have all these watered down namby-pamby churches for them to go to and you know I like I don't want namby-pamby churches to stop existing because God has a plan for the namby-pamby church to babysit all the little you know pants peers that you know need a place to go to church you know what I'm saying I'm not and I'm not even being facetious right now I'm being dead serious because you know what all of God's children should be going to church and they should all be serving God and if they don't have the guts to go to big boy church then they need to be down at the baby church because at least I just wanted to be in church somewhere and so you got some some namby-pamby watered-down preacher if he's right on the gospel then I'm thankful to God for him because somebody's got to babysit those brats and I don't want to do it so he serves a purpose he has a function and I'm not saying that in a mocking way I'm actually dead serious that literally you know there need to be the weak churches out there for the weak Christians because it's better than going not going to church at all at least they can do something for God even if they're not ready to go to the actual front lines of serving God and so he says you know we don't need these scared people send them home and it shall be when the officers have made an end of speaking out of the people verse 9 days shall make captains of the armies to lead the people so verse 9 tells me that there's an expectation that a lot of people are going to be sent home because if only a few people were gonna leave if only a handful of people are gonna leave you could actually make the captains at the beginning but he says you know don't get organized don't get too organized or make captains yet because entire swaths of people are gonna leave and then you're gonna have these like half-empty battalions and half-empty platoons and squadrons so you know send all the scared people home then get organized for battle once you know how many troops you have because you don't want to organize the 32,000 guys and then two thirds of them leave you know you might as well just get organized with the final 10,000 and of course in the Gideon story that's a special story so they end up sending home the rest of the people as well and only keeping 300 people and God's showing them that he can do something huge with 300 people so answer me this if if God could do something big with 300 people in the book of Judges can God do something huge with a church of 300 people in 2023 absolutely so you know you'd rather have a church with 300 quality people in it 300 people who are you know trusting in the Lord they're not scared they're ready to take a stand they're ready to fight the good fight you'd rather have those 300 quality warriors than just 10,000 people of dubious merit and so yeah there are lots of other churches out there this is not the only church but I think that a lot of the people who go to our church are special and you know because they they really are serious about serving God and I think that's great and I'd rather have a group of just warriors for God even if it's only a few hundred people then to just pastor a church of thousands and well very few of them are really that serious about serving God and again there's a place for those people you know the thousands and you know it's the watered-down Church down the street so verse number 10 says this when thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it then proclaim peace unto it and it shall be if it make the answer of peace and open unto thee then it shall be that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee and they shall serve thee and if it will make no peace with thee but will make war against thee then thou shalt besiege it so he's giving them some rules of engagement he wants them to give the enemy a chance to surrender and to avoid bloodshed if possible but he's very clear on this that this is only for the cities that are far from them look at verse 15 thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far from thee which are not of the cities of these nations but of the cities of these people which the Lord thy God did give thee for an inheritance thou shalt save nothing alive that breatheth but thou shalt utterly destroy them namely the Hittites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Parisites and the Hivites and the Jebusites as the Lord thy God commanded thee so when it comes to Canaan land itself they are supposed to completely wipe out the nations of the Canaanites because these nations were super evil super perverted and God didn't want his people mixed in with these super perverted evil corrupt people and so he wants them totally wiped out verse 18 that they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they have done unto their gods so should he sin against the Lord your God so he says you know these people are super wicked and they're right in your backyard you got to wipe all these people out don't keep anything alive that's breathing but when it comes to other cities and nations that you'll fight against in the future well proclaim peace unto them try to resolve it without actually fighting if you do end up fighting then he says to them in verse number 13 when the Lord thy God at the limit into thy hands thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword but the women and the little ones and the cattle and all that is in the city even all the spoiler of shalt thou take unto thyself and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies which the Lord thy God hath given these they can take prisoners of women and children and they're not supposed to kill the women and children only the man because wiping out the Canaanites is a special circumstance because they were so perverted so evil and because God is giving them their land and so that was kind of a one-time special deal to completely wipe those people out now look at verse 19 we'll read this last part and then be done it says when thou shalt besiege a city a long time and making war against it to take it thou shall not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them for thou mayest eat of them and thou shalt not cut them down for the tree of the field is man's life to employ them in the siege only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat thou shalt destroy and cut them down and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee until it be subdued so the Bible is saying look when you besiege a city and what does it mean to besiege a city this is when they surround the city and don't let anyone come in or out so in the ancient world cities are walled and that is a very strong defense against attack being inside of a walled city makes it very hard for the enemy to conquer and so what the attackers would often have to do instead of trying to attack the city and then they've you know they've got the low ground as it were people are up on the wall throwing things down and shooting at them and just picking them off and they're just open targets instead they would just be patient and just surround the city not let anyone come in or out and eventually they're just gonna run out of food run out of water and eventually they're just gonna have to surrender now in the meantime sometimes the attacking army would create machines of warfare for actually assaulting the city and breaking down the walls breaking down gates or hurling projectiles into the city so they could burn the place down or whatever and so these type of weapons of war they wouldn't necessarily always bring them from home but they would often manufacture them on the spot so they would show up to besiege a city and then they're gonna start chopping down trees and building wooden instruments of war right building machines and catapults and battering rams and whatever else they're gonna use to attack that city and so what he's saying is don't chop down the fruit trees only cut down trees that don't bear fruit because the fact that the fruit trees you know that's people need those to live people need those to eat and you guys yourselves are gonna be able to eat of those throughout this process and so only chop down the trees that are not fruit bearing and then use those for your engines of war for your bulwarks if you want to make a battering ram or a blockade or whatever you want to build now the spiritual application you could take here is that the Bible used the term trees to refer to preachers or prophets in the New Testament it talks about trees that bring forth evil fruit as being false prophets and it talks about trees that bring forth good fruit as being good prophets or good preachers and you'll know the tree by its fruit right and so a spiritual application you could take here is that if there's a tree that's bearing fruit we shouldn't chop it down meaning that we shouldn't attack our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that are actually winning souls for Christ that are actually fruit bearing Christians they're not damnable heretics they're not teaching damnable heresy they're not unsaved and if they're actually out there winning people to Christ or preaching the gospel and getting people saved then we should leave the fruit trees alone right we shouldn't chop down the fruit trees you know if there's some false prophet out there that's for sure not bearing good fruit well then you know we'll take the acts of the Word of God and chop down at the false prophets and false teachers because all throughout the New Testament the Apostles are warning about heretics and false prophets and calling them out by name and often warning God's people of false prophets and false teachers and so as a pastor that's my job to point out the heretics and the false prophets and the false teachers but if there's a saved man of God who's a soul winning Christian I'm not gonna attack him just because he's doing something I don't like or teaching something I don't like you know I'm gonna reserve my attacks for unsaved preachers or heretics or non fruit-bearing trees and I don't want to just attack my fellow saved Baptist pastors who are just you know wrong on this or wrong on that you know we should give a lot of grace to those who are actually saved and bearing fruit and and be hesitant to want to cut them down even if they do make a mistake or preach something that's wrong if it's not a deal-breaker as far as damnable heresy if they're saved and they're bringing forth fruit well then we should not cut them down right we should we should leave the fruit trees alone and so this chapter is a great chapter about going to war against the enemies of Israel and today we would apply it to the spiritual warfare that we're all engaged in we need to have the boldness to get out there even though we're outnumbered knowing that the Lord is on our side get out there and proclaim the Word of God whether it's a pastor behind the pulpit preaching the whole counsel of God or whether it's a man woman boy or girl out there knocking doors winning souls to Christ or witnessing on the playground or wherever you know let's all get out there and fight the spiritual battle and let's have the boldness to realize that God's gonna protect us and so we can go out there and preach the gospel knowing that of God before us no one can stand against us those birds in a board of prayer father we thank you so much for this passage Lord help us to apply it to our lives and and help us to let these things really sink into our ears and and that we would not fear to serve you Lord help us to always have the the courage to do what your word tells us to do and in Jesus name we pray amen