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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 I think he's changing that clock, it's messed up. 🎵Music🎵 Alright everybody, welcome to Sherwood Foundation Baptist Church. If you could find your seats and grab your blue song books and turn to page number 82. We're going to be singing Look to the Lamb of God and then we're going to be doing favorites for a second, so start brainstorming that. Welcome to Sherwood Foundation Baptist Church, if you could find your seats and grab your blue song books and turn to page number 82, we're going to be singing Look to the Lamb of God. Song 82 and then favorites for a second, so start thinking about which ones you want to pick. Let's sing it out on the first. If you from sin are longing to be free, look to the Lamb of God. He to redeem you died on Calvary. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. On the second, when Satan tempts and doubts and fears assail, look to the Lamb of God. You in His strength shall over all prevail. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Are you a weary, does the way seem long? Look to the Lamb of God. His love will cheer and fill your heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Fear not when shadows on your path may fall. Look to the Lamb of God. Enjoy your sorrow, Christ is all in all. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Amen. Good seeing Brother Brandon, would you open us up with a word of prayer? Amen. For a second we'll be doing favorites. So if you have a favorite song, now is the time. Mother. Jesus loves the little children. I'm not familiar with that. What number is that? Find it somewhere. Jesus loves the little children. 438, that's what it is. Song 438, Jesus loves the little children. Song 438 on the first. Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Little Jacob. The B-I-B-L-E. We're just doing Sunday school songs. What number? 199. Song 199, the B-I-B-L-E on the first. The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E Bible. Miss Dixie. 129. All right, we're breaking the Sunday school theme. Song 129, He is mine. Sing it together on the first. Long before the fall of man, God designed a master plan. He exchanged the sinner for the sinless one. Jesus left His throne on high, came to earth to bleed and die. He said, Father, not my will, but thine be done. He is mine. He is mine. I am blessed beyond all measure. He is mine. I have pardoned full and free through the blood He shed for me. Safe forever I shall be. He is mine. He is mine. Little Zeke, 49. Mother stole it, messed up. 49, How Great Thou Art. Song 49, How Great Thou Art. Oh, Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the world Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Be Thou my vision. Song 323, Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, not be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou my best thought by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Who do we got? Brother CJ. 518. I'll fly away, song 518. Song 518 on the first. Some glad morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away to a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away. I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away. When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away. Where's the birthday people? Where? Oh, he's not there. Pastor, you have a birthday request? It's in the wrong hymn book. We could switch it though. 136, just because you're the pastor. Come back to you, okay. Who else do we have? Miss Jessica's not here? Oh, no. Missed out on the birthday special. Okay, one of your kids will take the place. Tim? Timothy. 225? 23. 223? The love of God? Song 223 on the first. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen 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. The love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song. Pastor. A closer walk with the... Try to find it. Closer. 311? Song 311, just a closer walk with thee. Song 311, sing it together on the first. I am weak but thou art strong. Jesus keep me from all wrong. I'll be satisfied as long. As I walk, let me walk close to thee. Just a closer walk with thee. Granted Jesus is my plea. Daily walking close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord, let it be. Miss Jessica. What book are we in? Blue. 435 on the third. 435 on the third. Song 435, I love to tell the story. Maybe you have one or two more after this. 435 on the first. I love to tell the story of unseen things above. Of Jesus and his glory. Of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story because I know it is true. It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. I love to tell the story. Twill be my theme and glory. To tell the old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, it is pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story, for some have never heard. The message of salvation from God's own holy word. I love to tell the story, twill be my theme and glory. To tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. The final song, oh no. Eilidh or Eli, which one should I pick? Oh no. Eilidh. 95. I'm sorry, Eli you'll get it next time, for sure. Song number 95 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. Amen. Good seeing you. At this time we'll have our announcements. Alright, welcome back for the evening service. Let's take a bulletin to go through the announcements again. Anybody need a bulletin? Slip up your hand. Nobody? Nobody was here earlier. Alright. Except for Jacob. Alright. He doesn't get one. He never will. Until he's 18. Alright, on our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says, And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in the season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. And that is the one person that reads the word of God, right? Alright, on our inside page there we have our service times. It's 3.30 a.m. for our Sunday morning service. Sunday evening service, 3.30 p.m. We're in Joshua chapter 10 tonight. And Thursday Bible study, we're in 1 Chronicles chapter number 20. And that's the chapter about slaying the giants. So it's a pretty cool chapter. And so many times, listen below, we had so many today. I think we had three salvations total. Unless anybody, oh, you guys had, you had three. Wait, hold on a second. Who are you reporting for? Are you reporting for the whole group? Oh, you guys had some on your group? Okay, okay, I just want to make sure. Okay, so you guys had three. So we had six total today. Okay, praise the Lord. Alright. Alright, I just want to make sure, because we had three also, so I was like, okay, wait a second, we're having double reports. I just want to make sure we weren't getting double reports. Well, praise the Lord for six salvations. We're having a really good month in January there. So praise God for that. We've had a lot of visitors lately. So, amen. So, alright. And the New Testament challenge, don't forget to get that done. And one year anniversary for SFBC Indy. If you haven't subscribed to their YouTube channel. The last I looked, they had like two off from having 500 subscriptions. So we're doing pretty good building that YouTube channel. And next weekend is going to be the ordination of brother Justin. And we're going to have some sowing. I think the weather is supposed to be better than it has been. I think it's been like 10 degrees there lately. So definitely going to have to maybe buy a new coat or something. We're not used to that kind of cold here. But anyway, so that's coming up next weekend. And then the Sweetheart banquet on the 15th. And we're going to need to have a sign up. So, Jude, could you get on the sign up for the Sweetheart banquet? Or Share Bear or somebody? Get on that. We need to know if you're coming for sure. And then, I'm not sure if Miss Sheila is still going to do her thing. The kids and the, I don't know. I need to talk to people tonight about the Sweetheart banquet food and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, I'm reminding myself and I'm saying it out loud. So, that's what old people do when they turn 50. They start forgetting things and have to have audible conversations in public that they should be having in their mind. So, I want to say thank you to everybody that wished me happy birthday and this is really cool. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed the cake. I think there's more cake left over. I'm not taking that cake home. You guys need to eat that cake or take home that cake. Alright. So, did you say take it home? Alright, she's mouth. Yeah, take home. I don't want that cake left here. I want you to take it home. You, you know, you need sugar in your life. So, some of you need to get sweetened up a little bit and have some sugar. No, I'm not preaching the sugar doctrine. Sorry. Especially CJ. You need sugar. No, I'm just joking. No. Anyway, I'm kidding. But please take it home if you want some extra cake. Alright. And thank you for all the gifts that people gave me. I really appreciate that too. I definitely didn't expect any of that but I do appreciate it. So, alright. You only turned 50 once. So, I don't know if I'm going to make it to 100. So, but you never know. Alright. Let's see what else is happening. Oh yeah, Pastor Weeb's going to be preaching for us that weekend at the Sweetheart Banquet and then also for Sunday. So, don't forget it's a Western theme, all that good stuff. And then off in the distance we have other stuff going on, the KJV Conference. And other soul-winning opportunities. All the other stuff is stuff we've already covered. It's Nick's birthday on the 29th. He's turning 12. He's got one more year before he knows everything. Right, Nick? Do you know everything already? It's getting close. He's almost there. Yeah. Alright. Well, that's all I got for now. So, let's go ahead and sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. Speaking of that, brother Nick, do you have a favorite for the birthday? The birthday's favorite? You passing on to someone else? He's thinking about something. Man, this is some deep contemplation. Come and dine. Okay, here we go. Which one is this? 141. I was looking for you right there and I didn't see you right there. That's kind of crazy. 141, come and dine. 141, come and dine. 141. Let's sing it together on the first. Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed. He invites His chosen people, come and dine. With His manna He doth feed and supplies our every need. Oh, tis sweet to sup with Jesus all the time. Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now, come and dine. We'll just keep going for this song on the second. The disciples came to land, the sobeying Christ's command. For the Master called unto them, come and dine. There they found their heart's desire, bread and fish upon the fire. Thus He satisfies the hunger every time. Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now, come and dine. Soon the Lamb will take His bride to be ever at His side. All the hosts of heaven will assemble Thee. Oats will be a glorious sight, all the saints in spotless wine. And with Jesus they will feast eternally. Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now, come and dine. Amen. Good seeing you, Brother Ramon. Would you bless the offering for us? Thank you. Thank you. All right, go ahead and open your Bibles to Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter number 10. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one underneath the seat in front of you. Joshua chapter 10. Joshua 10. The Bible reads, Now it came to pass when Adonai-Zadik, king of Jerusalem, had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and her king. So he had done to Ai and her king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon made peace with Israel and were among them, that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. Wherefore Adonai-Zadik, king of Jerusalem, sent unto Ohem, king of Hebron, and unto Piram, king of Jarmoth, and unto Japhia, king of Lightgish, and unto Deborah, king of Eglon, saying, Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon. For it hath made peace with Joshua, and with the children of Israel. Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmoth, the king of Lightgish, and the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua, to the camp of Gil-Gausain, Slack not thy hand from thy servants, come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. So Joshua ascended from Gil-gal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee. Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gil-gal all night. And the Lord discomforted them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah and unto Makeda. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died. They were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Agilent. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel, and Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal. But these five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makeda. And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makeda. And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them, and stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them, suffer them not to enter into their cities, for the Lord your God had delivered them into your hand. And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with their very great slaughter, till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into the fenced city. And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makeda in peace. None moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel. Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave. And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmoth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of a good courage, for thus shall the Lord do it to all your enemies against whom ye fight. And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees. And they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. And it came to pass, at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain unto this very day. And that day Joshua took Makeda, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed them, and all the souls that were therein. He let none remain, and he did to the king of the Makeda, as he did unto the king of Jericho. Then Joshua passed from Makeda, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah. And the Lord delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel. And he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein. And he let none remain in it, but did unto the king thereof, as he did unto the king of Jericho. And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it. And the Lord delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah. Then Horem king of Gezer came up to help Lachish, and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him, none remaining. And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him, and encamped against it, and fought against it. And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish. And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron, and they fought against it. And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein, he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon, but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein. And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Deborah, and fought against it. And he took it, and the kings thereof, and the cities thereof, and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein, he left none remaining. As he had done to Hebron, so did he to Deborah, and to the king thereof, as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king. So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded. And Joshua smote them from Kadesh Barnea, even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon. And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp, to Gilgal. Brother Alex, will you pray for us? Dear Father, thank you for the book of Joshua. We ask you, Phil, pastor of the Holy Spirit, that people just wonder what comes out of this chapter, and give us the Holy Spirit and ears to hear, and be attentive, and learn from your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Alright, last week we were in Joshua 9, and if you remember, the Gibeonites basically made themselves the servants of Israel. They were like, we saw what's already happened to everybody else before, and we are going to just pretend, they just pretended like they were from this faraway country, and pretended that all their stuff was worn, and they were from this faraway land, and basically tricked Joshua and the children of Israel into making a pact with them that would ensure that they would not be harmed by them, and then they realized they were just from a few days away from them. And then, so then they basically swore to them that they would not harm them or hurt them, which brings us here, where the king of Jerusalem finds out that these people had made a pact with Joshua and the children of Israel, and basically, they're not confederate with the rest of the Canaanites anymore, and so instead of going after Joshua directly, they want to go and kill all the Gibeonites, which had made this pact with the children of Israel, and so that's kind of basically where this story starts out, and because they are the servants of Joshua and the children of Israel, they're under obligation to protect them because they've made this covenant with them. Look down at verse number one here, where the Bible says, Now it came to pass, when Adonai-Zedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and her king. So he had done to Ai and her king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them. So he hears about everything, and then the last thing is that Gibeon made peace with Israel. So they don't like that, he doesn't like that. What I want you to notice is that, you know, we were talking about Jerusalem this morning, and Salem, and all these different things, but it's interesting that, what this guy's name is, Adonai-Zedek, and Melchizedek was the king of Salem, we talked about that this morning, and so he has that last name, that last part of his name is Zedek. And so in Hebrews 1 it says, For this Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave the tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness. So Melchizedek, his name means king of righteousness, so the Zedek at the end there, that means righteousness. And so Adonai-Zedek, that last part of his name means righteousness also, and Adonai means lord. So he's the lord of righteousness, that's what his name means. But is this a good king or a bad king? He's a bad king, right? So he's got a name that he doesn't deserve, but it's interesting that this is about 600 years later, this is 600 years after Abraham met Melchizedek. And the Bible's very clear that Melchizedek met Abraham after the slaughter of the kings, and I was talking earlier in between the services about this, that it kind of solidifies my belief that Melchizedek was, he was a human being, he wasn't actually a pre-incarnate Christ, their names are similar, I just believe that he was a king, and that he was a priest at the same time. And I'm not going to preach a whole sermon about it, obviously I've preached about it before, but it just does kind of bolster my belief that Melchizedek was a human being and he pictures Christ. But I am going to preach a whole sermon about it where I add some different scriptures to it, but the more I study it, the more I find that I'm believing my new interpretation of that. But anyway, I'm not going to get too deep into that, but I do want to go back to a verse that I showed you earlier this morning. Let's go back to Psalm chapter 76 verse 2. So remember, Salem is the same place as Jerusalem. It's just now called Jerusalem since the last time we saw it. When Abraham met Melchizedek, it was called the king of Salem. Now, Salem is basically the same word as Shalom, you know, we're just English-izing it here, but Shalom means peace, right, in Hebrew. So that means, the city name means peace, so when it says, and after that also in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 2, it says, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. So the Bible interprets itself for us, helps us to understand what these things mean, so in Psalm 76 verse 2 it says, in Salem also is his tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion. So Melchizedek means what? It means the king of righteousness, and Salem means peace. That word Jerusalem means you will see. So that adding of the word onto that Jerusalem means you will see peace, is basically what the name Jerusalem means. So Adonai Zedek means the lord of righteousness, and where he rules is you will see peace. But it's just weird because this is a Canaanite place, this is where the Canaanites lived. But we have this weird understanding, sometimes I think that we just will look at stories in the Bible and we think there's no other saved people in the world besides just Abraham. Like Abraham's the only saved person in the whole world, and there's nobody else that's saved, and so it's hard for us to, sometimes I think it's hard for us to grasp that there is a guy named Melchizedek that's saved, and he actually serves God, and he's a king, so there's plenty of other people saved in the world than just Abraham. I don't think that it's true, this weird thought that people think that there's, I mean think about Moses' father-in-law. The Bible says he was the priest of Midian. Who was Midian's father? Abraham. So it's not like Abraham didn't teach his sons about God or something. I mean do you think that he just said, Hey little heathens, it's time for you to go, and then just sent them off without, you know, he didn't teach his children how to get saved? The Bible actually says different than that. He would teach his children. That's why he picked them. But the line of the Messiah went through Abraham. But I don't think that Abraham would just be like, yeah, I'm kicking all my kids out, and I'm not going to teach them who the God of the Bible is. There are people that were saved probably all over the world, just like there's people saved all over the world right now in places that nobody would think are saved. Because people will still say like, what about the pygmies in Africa? The pygmies in Africa know about Jesus. That is just a wives' tale. That is just a reason for people to say that it's not fair for people to go to hell if they haven't heard of Jesus. So anyway, so I just wanted to kind of point that out because it's interesting how they have the same names. But so we're supposed to believe that that was just a Christophany, but then this guy comes and he has a similar type name, but he was just named after a Christophany that wasn't really a king. He wasn't a real priest. I don't know, I just, I don't think that dog hunts. It seems like that that was the line of kings in that area that had similar names probably, kind of like, what is the Philistine king's names? They're called Abimelech, right? Which is a name for kings of Philistines. So anyway, let's move on here. Let's see. Verse number two. It says that they feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city as one of the royal cities and because it was greater than Ai and all the men thereof were mighty. So, yeah, they had made peace and were among them and greatly feared because Gibeon was a great city. So they were afraid because Gibeon was such a great city and they were like, well, if these guys are such tough fighters and this is a royal city that they would go and grovel before Joshua and the children of Israel, that made them more afraid of Joshua. So what's he do? Well, it says, wherefore Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent unto Hohem, king of Hebron, and unto Piram, king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia, king of Lakish, and unto Dabir, king of Eglon. So he's trying to reach out to all his homies to help him, right? And what's he want to do? It says, come up unto me and help me that we may smite Gibeon, for it hath made peace with Joshua and the children of Israel. So they want to completely destroy the Gibeonites. And it says, therefore, the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lakish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together and went up and all their hosts, and it camped before Gibeon and made war against it. So this declaration of war is basically like declaring war against Israel themselves, because they've already taken them under their wing and promised to protect them and promised to not have any harm come to them. Now, the kings of the Amorites, it's saying specifically these are kings of the Amorites, but later on, Lakish becomes a Philistine city later on. And Hebron is also known as Kirjath Jerim, which is one of the sanctuary cities, and Eglon, I think, also becomes a Philistine city. So at some point, these cities turn over into different places, but Gibeon becomes part of Benjamin. And the Benjaminites are the ones that rape the priest's daughter, and then they're Sodomites, and then the children of Israel have to come up and smoke all the Benjaminites and almost kill the whole tribe because of what they did, but that's in Gibeon. But it doesn't say the Gibeonites did that. Who did it? The Benjaminites. And instead of turning into Jerusalem, he's like, no, I don't want to go to Jerusalem. Let's go to Gibeon, where our brethren, the children of Israel, are, and that was the worst thing they could have done, because those specific children of Israel were really bad. Now turn to Genesis chapter 15, verse 13. So this Adonai Zedek, I kind of, you know, I preach that series about the Antichrist and people that picture him, but I never thought about this guy, but he kind of seems to picture the Antichrist, this Adonai Zedek, because he has the name like that he's this righteous guy, like the lord of righteousness. I mean, that's what his name means. And he's this wicked person that hates God. He hates God's people. And Joshua, he pictures the lord Jesus Christ. So there's a lot of foreshadowing of the end times in this chapter, and you even see it with the five kings, because in the end times, they're battling against the seven nations of the Canaanites. Well, how many, there's seven heads and 10 horns in the beast system, so the seven heads are 10 kings that come out of the seven nations or the horns, right? So, I mean, there is some similarities there, but this guy who says he's the king of Jerusalem, which he is here, but he's not really righteous. He's not a good king. He's not righteous, and he kind of pictures the Antichrist, because when the Antichrist comes, he's gonna pretend like he's good, too, isn't he? This guy has the name, but the Antichrist is gonna actually say he is God. He's gonna actually say he is righteous. He's gonna say that he is the Messiah. He's gonna claim to be God, but then he is anything but God. He's anything but good. He is gonna be the most wicked person ever. Anyway, you're in Genesis 15, verse 13. Look what it says. Look what it says. It says, and he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years. This is talking about, of course, when the children of Israel are stuck down in Egypt, and Abraham's having this thing where he's having this kind of crazy, this crazy dream that's basically where he has to do all these sacrifices and darkness comes upon him, and God's just kind of revealing to him what the children of Israel are gonna go through, and it says, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, talking about Egypt, and afterward they shall come out with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and thou shalt be buried in a good old age, but in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So God isn't gonna overthrow the Amorites at this time. When he met Melchizedek, Melchizedek is a good guy. He's a good king. He's a good priest, and he's a servant of the most high God. That's what the Bible says, but apparently, so there's 400 years that pass after that, and after Abraham's time, it's actually about 600 years pass, and then we're here at this moment where the Amorites' time is up now. Their iniquity is full, and God's ready to destroy every single one of them and wipe them out, and that's what happens in this chapter. So it is gonna come to pass that they're gonna be so wicked that God does remove them and gets rid of them all. Look at Joshua chapter 10, verse number six in our text there. The Bible says, and the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp of Gilgal saying, slack not thy hand from thy servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. So they're crying out to Joshua and the children of Israel. It says the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua. I'm not sure exactly how they did that. They just had some rider go at full speed and get there, but the distance is about 20 miles, so it takes quite a while for someone on foot to get that far, but someone riding a horse could get there pretty quickly. I don't know exactly how they got that message there that fast, but it's only about six miles from Jerusalem according to the calculations that I saw. Six miles to Gibeon, which of course we talked about this morning in the sermon, so it should be a little bit fresh in your mind there, but it's interesting though, because again, foreshadowing of just Joshua picturing Jesus. What are they doing? They're sending to Joshua. They're asking Joshua to help them. What do they specifically say? Slack not thy hand from thy servants. Come up unto us quickly and save us and help us, and when Jesus' servants call upon him, he will answer the call every single time, so that's something that we as Christians should understand. Hey, we get ourselves into trouble a lot, and we get ourselves, or sometimes we don't even get ourselves into the situation. We're just in a situation, and just realize that you have a great resource, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and he also is the mediator for us. He's the go-between between us and God, and we can ask anything in his name, and he will help us. He says he will. Turn to Psalm chapter 34 verse 21. Psalm chapter 34 verse 21. Keep your finger here of course. We're gonna come back. But remember, last week, in chapter number nine, when they tricked Joshua and the children of Israel, Joshua cursed the Gibeonites and said, you have to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, and when he did that, so they became bond servants to the children of Israel forever, so it's not something they can get out of, but also, it's not like the children of Israel don't have any responsibility towards them. They do have responsibility towards them, and when we become children of God, God has responsibility for us, just like a child would have over his, I mean a father or a parent would have over their children. Look at Psalm 34, 21. It says evil shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. When our enemies that attack us and hate us, they come against us. The Bible says they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. You might not see it at first. It might not be when you want it to happen, but eventually, those people that hate the righteous and are always trying to cause problems and doing wicked devices and hating the righteous, they'll be desolate, and what does that mean? Well, what is God doing to all these cities? They're gonna be ruinous heaps, desolate. They're just like these humps out in the wilderness with a bunch of all the trash, including them and their dead bodies, and all the stuff that they had is piled up in a big pile, and they're called tails, right? They're just this thing out in the middle of the desert, and they are desolate heaps forever. So look at verse 22. It says the Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants. He redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. So the opposite is true for us, and just like when the Gibeonites, they said, hey, we're gonna put our trust in Joshua and the children of Israel. They're essentially putting their trust in the Lord to protect them, and so they're like, hey, save us, help us, and so what does Joshua have to do? Well, he has to go and do that. He has to go and save them and help them, and he made this deal that he swore to not harm them, and they work for them now, so Joshua's gonna do what? He's gonna protect them. Look at verse seven. It says, so Joshua ascended from Gilgal, and he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor, so he's not just taking him and a few troops. He's taking everybody. We're all in. They're just all the people of war with him, all the mighty men of valor, and the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee. And when God's on our side, nobody's gonna be able to stand against us. It might seem like they can put up a little bit of a fight, but eventually they all get knocked down just like everybody else does. Every enemy that's ever gonna come up against us is gonna fail, and it might seem like they're winning. It might seem like they're doing damage, but eventually, like I said last week, every enemy that's ever come up against us has lost and failed, and where are they now? You forget about them, right? They're a ruinous heap. Their life's a wreck, and so are they. So look at verse nine. Joshua, therefore, came unto them suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night. Now, like I said, it's about a 20-mile journey from Gilgal to Gibeon, and it's also about a 3,300-foot ascend, so that's why it says he ascended all night, so he's got this long hike. It's like when you're going through a mountain pass, and it says a 5% grade, and then slowly you kind of chug up those mountains. That's kind of what's happening, but they're on a hike doing this, and they're walking all night long, so they're probably pretty tired after this, but it says, verse nine, Joshua, therefore, came unto them suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night, and the Lord discomfitted them before Israel, and you'll notice that a lot of times in the battles that God just wants us to set our battle in a ray. He just wants us to make an effort, and then God will step in and do the rest, and this happens in our life, too. There's a lot of times that we're in battles, and it's like I don't understand how God's gonna fix this situation. I don't understand how God's gonna save this marriage. I don't understand how God's gonna straighten this kid out. I don't understand how God's gonna fix my finances. I don't understand how God's gonna get me a job. I don't understand how all this is gonna work out. I don't understand how God's gonna help me pay my bills, but you know what? The Lord always steps in and does the impossible thing, and it's like if you walk 20 miles all night long, and then it's up a mountain, this is like the proverbial story of I used to walk 20 miles uphill all night long to get to school or whatever in the snow. This is kinda like that, but you'd probably be kinda like, oh man, I can't believe we've walked all night. Now we gotta fight, but what's it say in verse 10? And the Lord disconfited them before Israel and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon and smote them from Azekah and unto Makeda. So the Lord did this. But what you gotta understand is they're fighting too, but God is like fighting before them and with them. He's killing them, and he's killing more of them than the children of Israel. Look what it says in verse 11. And it came to pass as they fled from before Israel and were in the going down to Beth-horon, and the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them. This is a supernatural occurrence, obviously. God is intervening and throwing stones from heaven upon them. It says unto Azekah, and they died, and were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. So God is killing more than they are with the sword. So God is literally fighting with them and for them. Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Agellon. So Joshua, he just speaks to the Lord, and he just said this as in, he's just asking God to do this, for the Son to stand still upon Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Agellon. And the Son stood still, and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. There's not this written in the book of Jasher, so the Son stood still in the midst of heaven and hated not to go down about a whole day. There's a lot of different views upon this passage right here. Now first I just want to talk about the book of Jasher. The book of Jasher is not something that's totally put together and available to us today. This is a contemporary book around this time that is probably not available to us. I'm sure that there's a book out there called the book of Jasher, but it's not from this time. That's, I mean, that's my understanding of it, but I think that people just try to say, well, hey, this is the book of Jasher, and it's not really the book of Jasher necessarily, but it's not a book that belongs in the Bible. This is a separate book. It's like maybe a contemporary history of things that happened, but people will say, well, what about the book of Jasher? How come it's not in the Bible? Well, it's because it's not part of the Bible, otherwise it would be in here, because God promised to preserve his word, right? So he's just saying, hey, this is written in the book of Jasher also, and there's other places in the Bible where it mentions the book of Jasher, but for those people that would be like, well, what about the book of Enoch? Well, the book of Enoch is a phony. It's not part of scripture either, but the book of Jasher isn't a phony book because the Bible references it as a book, but it's not saying it's a book of the Bible. It's probably some sort of history of some sort, but it is definitely not a book that belongs in the Bible. So it says, so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hated not to go down about the whole day. And so basically it says, and there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. Now, the other thing is is that perspective is everything. So to us, what do you say when you see, you sit there and you're waiting for the sun to do what? Sun rise, right? But is the sun actually rising or is that our perception of what it's doing? Because I don't believe in the flat earth, folks, but that's what the flat earth people will say is that the sun actually does, that the sun revolves around the earth. And it would seem like they have something here like, oh yeah, see, the sun stayed and the moon stayed, but it's from our perspective because what really is going on here is that we perceive that the sun moves. We perceive that the moon moves, but it's really the earth that's moving. And so the sun does not revolve around the earth. The earth revolves around the sun. And that's proven scientifically. And you're like, well, the Bible's better than science. I agree with you. But I mean, it's still from the perspective that when you say, hey, the sun's rising, that's our perspective of it. But that doesn't mean that the sun is actually circling around the earth. And people that believe the geocentricity thing, there's a lot of problems with the way that they model everything. It doesn't work. And obviously there's a lot of controversial things about space and the flat earth and all that kind of stuff. But I've flown to England multiple times. And a couple times I've flown over, basically almost over the top of the earth. There's a reason why I don't fly directly in a straight line all the way over to England. Because if you look at it on a globe or on a map, it looks like you would just go straight across. It'd be the best way. So why do they always fly over the top? Because it's a shorter distance over the top of the earth than it is to go around because the earth is bigger in those areas. So why would they just take me, if it was just flat, why would they do that? That doesn't make sense. So when you fly over the top it saves time. That's why it only takes four and a half, that's why it takes nine hours to get to England from here. But because I'm flying basically over the Arctic Circle, I'm flying over Greenland, Newfoundland, all that stuff. And I've landed in Iceland, and then from Iceland go to England. There's a reason why they do that. Because, brother Evan, you've flown to Australia. You flew underneath. Did you fly by Antarctica? Was there a big ice wall there? Did you almost fall off the edge of the earth? No. Yeah, I mean, he's flown over and saw the curvature of the earth from like a special, like there was no fisheye lens that was fooling you or anything like that? Okay. Yeah, these flat earthers were saying that Australia doesn't exist, that it's a fake place that is made up. And then he flew on a flight, sorry to bring you up there, but he did fly on a flight that was from, you know, where did you fly out of? Chile. Chile, he flew from Chile to, where did you fly to? Australia. But what part? Sydney. Flew to Sydney from Chile because they said that flight is always canceled, it doesn't exist, but he flew it. Was it straight through flight? Yeah. Then Australia's real though. Were they saying like g'day mate and all that kind of stuff when you were there? I rest my case. So, well, Galileo, I'm sure you've heard of Galileo, he was like a scientist in the early 1600s. Like he basically, I don't want to botch the story because I'm not like really super up on it right now, but he basically was saying, he's the one that put forth these models that made the scientific sense about it and the Catholic church wanted to, you know, did they want to burn him, Bill? I don't know. They wanted him to present his case and recant. Oh yeah, they wanted him to present his case and recant and I think that he did, but then at the end he kind of just like, but I don't really recant or something, like he kind of just was like psych, you know. But they wanted, you know, they believed that the earth, the sun rotated around the earth because they were taking this as like literal instead of like from the perspective of Joshua. So I mean, so there's people that are like, oh, you're so dumb, don't you know? And it's like, well, Jesus Christ is the son of God and I'm not saying the sun or that star that comes up from our perspective and goes down every day is, you know, is God, but it does represent the sun and it rises every morning and sets every evening and, you know, that picture is that the sun rises. You know, in the Bible it says the sun of righteousness rises with healing in his wings and it specifically spells it as S-U-N, sun. So the picture of that is that he's the light of the world and that star, the sun, he's the day star, the morning star, that's the morning star. He represents the morning star, so why would the sun revolve around the earth? The earth would, you know, man was made for his pleasure and so I'm just saying the picture of that, that picture is not right. So geocentricity, you know, especially since it's unscientific and I don't have time to get into all that, but it's unscientific and Galileo was right, okay, I'll just say that. You can read about him if you want to, but the Catholic church, I mean, they wanted to brand him a heretic and probably, if he wouldn't have recanted, they probably would have burned him at the stake for it. I'm guessing. They like to burn people at stakes. It's kind of one of their favorite things. They like steak. So anyway, let's move on here, but I mean, that's what my perspective is. That's what I believe is that the sun stood still and I just believe that God, this is a miracle of God. This isn't, you know, this isn't something you could just explain necessarily except for the fact that it's a miracle and that yes, you know, the sun did not go down in their view, it did not go down and so it just stayed a long day. So he already was up all night and then had a long day, but what was the whole point of it? That they had to take care of business and it says, and there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel. So that's an interesting thing to say though, but who's the man, that one man who they hearken, that God hearkened to his voice like that? What was his name? Joshua. And then Jesus Christ, the son of God is born and then does he hearken unto the voice of Jesus Christ, the son of God who is a man also? Yes he does. And Jesus says that multiple times while he's here on the earth, so again, there's the picture of Joshua representing Christ and the Lord fought for Israel and Joshua returned and all of Israel with him unto the camp in Gilgal. Now verse 16, it says, but these five kings fled and hid themselves in a cave at Makeda. So now here again you have some foreshadowing of the end times and I won't have you turn there but in Revelation it says, and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said unto the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that seteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who is able to stand? And who shall be able to stand, excuse me. So I mean this kind of just reminds me of these kings, these five kings, what are they doing? They're hiding and in the end times when Jesus Christ comes back, he's going to, people are gonna freak out when they see him. They're gonna freak out and they're gonna do the same, they're gonna say to the mountains, they said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that seteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. They're gonna be terrified of Jesus Christ when they see him. Verse 17, in our text here it says, and it was told, Joshua saying, the five kings are found hid in the cave of Makeda and Joshua said, roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave and set men by it for to keep them. So and I kind of said that earlier that these kings kind of picture like the end times kings. It kind of seems like there's some foreshadowing going on here. But he says just roll these stones and it says, and stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies and smite the hinders most of them, suffer them not to enter into their cities, for the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand. It came to pass when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter till they were consumed that the rest which remained of them entered into fence cities. And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua, Makeda, and Peace. None moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel. Then said Joshua, open the mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave. And they did so and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave. The king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lakish, and the king of Eglon. And it came to pass when they brought out those kings unto Joshua that Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with them, come near and put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said unto them, fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and be of good courage for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight. And this is again a good thing for us. Obviously we're not going out and fighting physical battles where we're actually putting knees on necks and doing this kind of stuff and killing people with swords but God still is subduing enemies of ours also. And it says, and afterward Joshua smote them and slew them and hanged them on five trees and they were hanging upon the trees until evening. So he's done this already before. He did this to the king of Ai and then he buried him with rocks outside the camp. You know, just like Jesus Christ and he's taking heed to the law of Moses where you're not supposed to leave them hanging up in the evening. Well, it's interesting that he does this again. But I was kind of thinking about this, like why is he doing this? Why is this picture being shown to us? And it is for judgment and it is to show people this is what happens when you mess with God's people. You know, they're hanging up on these trees. But you know, I mean obviously the Romans came up with crucifixion later on but it sounds like he kills them first and then hangs them on the tree. But it still pictures what Christ had to do for us. But it's like, well why are these criminals being, why are these wicked kings being, this being done to them? Because Jesus died the death of a wicked person that's why. Jesus died in, you know, he died in place for us who are the, like, we are those wicked people that deserve to die. We are the ones that deserve to get thrown into some cave in a stone rolled over the grave, right? Jesus paid the price for these types of people. And so he, Jesus died a death that these wicked men actually deserve and so they're getting what they deserve. But it just kind of shows later on that this is what Christ got that he didn't deserve. He didn't deserve to die like that. And so when you see that gruesome death of Christ and what he went through, it can help us to appreciate the fact that, like, he literally didn't do anything wrong. They're spitting on him, they're beating him, they're ripping his beard out. It says, and it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, the Joshua commanded and they took them down off the trees and cast them into the cave where they had been hid and laid great stones in the cave's mouth which remained until this very day. So what did they do with Jesus when he was taken off the tree? They put him in a tomb and he made his grave with the wicked, the Bible says, right? And what did they do? They rolled a stone over that tomb. So I mean, obvious foreshadowing of Jesus there. And that day Joshua took Makeda and smote it with the edge of the sword and the kings thereof, he utterly destroyed them and all the souls that were therein and let none remain and he did to the king of Makeda as he did unto the king of Jericho. And I was just kind of looking at pictures and looking up the names of these places and this is just like probably a smaller city but when I was looking at Makeda, it remains this day. You can still see the heap of this place in Israel today. You can just type that in on a Google search and then you can just see the little mound out in the middle of nowhere where this ruinous heap is still there today that Joshua destroyed. So, you know, it's still there today. It's still a ruinous heap that Joshua took care of back in the day. So, and that was thousands of years ago. Look at verse 29. Joshua passed from Makeda and all Israel with him to Libnah and fought against Libnah and the Lord delivered it also and the king thereof and into the hand of Israel and he smothered it with the edge of the sword and all the souls that were therein. He let none remain in it but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho. Joshua passed from Libnah and all Israel with him unto Lachish and encamped against it and fought against it. So, I remember the king of Jerusalem brought all these kings against him but now he's already defeated that army. He already had that long day where he took care of all those people but now he's going to all the cities. He was already gonna go to those cities anyway. They just kinda helped him out by just gathering together in one place. So, now he's just systematically going to each city and destroying the rest of what's there. All their soldiers are pretty much beaten because they all went with the king of Jerusalem to get smoked at Gibeon and now Joshua's just, like I said, just going from place to place, just destroying each one, one at a time. It says, and smote it with the edge of the sword and all the souls that were therein according to all that he had done in Libnah. Then Horem, king of Gezer, came up to help Lachish. Joshua smote him and his people until they left him none remaining. So, when he's getting involved in somebody else's business, well, you're dead too. That's kinda what happens. Verse 34, and from Lachish, Joshua passed unto Eglon and all Israel with him and they camped against it and fought against it and they took it on that day and smote it with the edge of the sword and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day according to all that he had done in Lachish. And Joshua went up from Eglon. It's like, you get the picture here, he's just smashing one place after another. Nobody can stand before him, just like God said. And all Israel with him unto Hebron and they fought against it and they took it and smote it with the edge of the sword and the king thereof and all the cities thereof and all the souls that were therein he left none remaining according to all that he had done in Eglon but destroyed it utterly and all the souls that were therein. And Joshua returned and all Israel with him to Deir and fought against it and he took it and the king thereof and all the cities thereof and he smote them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein he left none remaining and as he had done to Hebron so he did to Deir and to the king thereof as he had done also to Libnah and her king. So Joshua smote all the country of the hills and of the south and of the vale and of the springs and all their kings he's getting poetic here now he left none remaining but utterly destroyed all that breathed as the Lord God of Israel commanded. And you know Joshua did everything that God commanded it's specifically telling us this for a reason again because he pictures Christ did Christ do everything his father commanded him to do? Yes he did. And so and Jesus Christ is gonna do the same thing when he goes into the millennial reign you know he's gonna bring his enemies before him and slay them before and they'll be slayed before him just like you see happening in this chapter and he's gonna rule them with a rod of iron he's gonna dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel you know and it's gonna be kind of cool to be on that winning side isn't it? Where we don't have to do anything you know we'll have to just kind of be with him like yeah yeah uh huh uh you know but he's gonna be the one doing the dashing just like he does in this chapter it's like all the people are getting killed most of them are getting killed by God God is the one that's making all these supernatural things happen the hailstones are killing most of the people and the children of Israel are just like yeah yeah you know just getting people here and there they're having to make the effort to go they're hiking you know they're getting some exercise getting their you know steps in for the night you know the 20 mile hike or whatever it's like yeah then they show up and you know they're not going through the motions but they're fighting but God is fighting for them and that's the main thing to take away from this is that hey when we fight and we take our position and we make a stand and we don't compromise our Christianity God will fight for us and he will fight with us and we have nothing to fear from our enemies ever but it's when we compromise when we compromise in our heart when we compromise our decisions when we say well I don't know this is just a little too radical for me pastor it's like I'm not trying to get you to be radical the Bible just says what it says and you know if we try to live our best the best we can to the Bible we're going to be doing okay nobody's perfect nobody's going to perfectly follow everything that's why we needed Jesus to come for us in the first place I'm not saying it's okay to do stuff wrong I'm just saying that you know God understands our frame that we are but dust and he understands that we're not going to be perfect but to say to just be compromisers well I think that it's okay for me to drink because you know Jesus turned water into wine that's compromise that's not doing the truth and those are things that he's not going to fight for us with you know he's going to destroy us when we do stuff like that he's going to destroy us when we just blatantly try to make up things that are okay in the Bible because you heard some idiot pastor say something here or there and you shouldn't fall into those traps of if some pastor is out there saying it's okay to drink you should not listen to him like Afshin Yotten who was telling people it was okay to drink I mean you're going to turn into a lush if you already have a drinking problem you're going to continue that's just a green light to go and drink alcohol that was what my problem was with them and you know we talked about it many times I'm not sure where he's at with it now but it's just that was my main problem it's like dude if you have people going to your church and you use alcoholic wine for your Lord's Supper then what you're doing is you're causing people to sin because if they're an alcoholic and they taste wine just that taste of alcohol is going to get them wanting to drink more it's just like you know if you're like well it's okay to smoke cigarettes you know it's just fine there's nothing in the Bible that says it's okay yeah you can smoke cigarettes it's fine Charles Spurgeon smoked a cigar drank a bit of scotch every once in a while you know and then you're just like oh yeah well Charles if Charles Spurgeon did it then it must be fine he was a Baptist right and then you just you're a person that it was hard for you to quit smoking and then you're just like smoke a cigar and then you turn green and then after a while you start getting used to it and then the next thing you know you're smoking again and you can't quit look avoid that stuff avoid those pitfalls in your life the flesh wants you to do those things it wants those buttons pushed it's like oh yeah I remember that yeah those receptors in your brain do the things that you used to do and it doesn't necessarily have to be those things I'm just giving examples it could be anything but anyway let me move on here I gotta hurry up so where was I in verse 41 Joshua smote them from Kadesh Barnea even unto Gaza and the country of Goshen even unto Gibeon and all these kings and their land did Joshua take one time because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel and Joshua returned and all Israel with him unto the camp to Gilgal so this is like their base of operations Gilgal this is where they first started out you know they came down from the mountains they camped there and then Jericho is like a straight shot across the river from them so they'd always come back to this spot where they're kind of set up their base camp is and so it's just kind of telling us the all around story how they defeated all the Amorites now I'll have you turn to one last scripture and we're outta here Luke chapter 19 verse 11 I kind of alluded to this but I just kind of wanted to read a couple verses here real quick and we'll be done alright so people act like Jesus is just this he's just he's never gonna fight he's always just gonna be peace love white dove it's you know he's gonna be in a vesture dipped in blood he's gonna have a different look on his countenance when he comes back we don't even know what he looks like now we've never seen him but the way John describes him sounds scary and you know a completely red outfit on a white horse that's that's gonna strike fear in the hearts of enemies that's the point and we are gonna be there with him observing all this stuff but when he throws the beast and the false prophet into hell alive and then when Satan is thrown into the lake of fire and all that stuff you know that's gonna be a great day when he kills the army of the beast and those ten kings when he destroys all that stuff and he does it by himself it's gonna be a great day but that's not the last battle that's not the end I mean if we're ruling and reigning with Christ there's obviously people to rule and reign over and I'm not saying that you know I'm just excited to get into some violence or something but like there's gonna be uprisings there's gonna be people that will still rise up and try to start stuff but I mean I think it'll probably be very few and far in between you know once peace has been established I think you know usually at the beginning of a regime that's when things get ugly but after like everything's the powers kind of put over people they're not gonna be doing that kind of stuff very often when they see you know like right now if people got the death penalty and they were killed right away you know they were hung where everybody could see it or they were whatever was supposed to happen to them whatever death penalty it was people would be a lot less likely to be doing the stuff they're doing if pedophiles were killed in a horrific way and everybody could see it on television or something they'd be less likely to do those things wouldn't they they might think about those things but no hey if I do that then you know I'm gonna get shocked to death and then chop to pieces or something whatever it is that they're gonna do and you know the bullet is the last thing that hits them then it's the people are gonna be less likely to do those things so if you have the law of the Lord which is you know if you do certain things you're dead that's it the investigation happens hey were you doing this were you teaching false religion huh uh huh yes you know they're just done end of story it doesn't drag on with appeals and if you have lots of money you get to get out of it like OJ and he has to sell his baseball cards and that's all that happens to him he goes to prison for a while for other stuff cause he tried to steal back his memorabilia or whatever I mean isn't that what he went to jail for you know and now he's in hell so but what a kangaroo court that was you know to get everybody's mind off of what Bill Clinton was doing so Luke chapter 19 verse 11 it says and as they heard these things he added and spake a parable because he was nigh to Jerusalem because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear he said therefore a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return and he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them occupy till I come but his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us so you know but the other there are people you know these people are the Jews right this is what it's talking about they would they didn't want Jesus to reign over them and that's kind of where we're at now we're occupying the people that are saved are occupying till he comes but when he comes skip down to verse 27 what's going to happen? When he comes back and his kingdom is set up what's going to happen it says but those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me it's kind of like Joshua saying bring these kings out and stand on their necks real quick and then he's going to slay them just like Joshua slayed those kings in this chapter tonight and the enemy again the enemy doesn't get to win God's people get to win every time in every era and even when it seems bleak even when it seems like there's no hope even in countries where God's light seems to be dimmed but in reality when God's people rise up and do that which is right and say hey I'm going to take a stand I'm not moving from where I'm at I'm still going to go soul winning I'm still going to go to church and be a light in my community I'm going to be a light at my work I'm going to be a light in my home when I'm out in the public I'm going to be a light there too hey even in a place like the Pacific Northwest where it's darker in the wintertime and it stays light longer it's like the sun stands still here in the summertime but we can still shine bright here we're still getting people saved we had 12 people saved last Saturday the Gospel still works here and you know we get on dry streaks some of us and I understand go on some missions trip or go to a place where it's more receptive and get your get your fix you know you're like oh yeah got somebody saved and then come back and keep working where you live right sorry about that yeah got 10 salvations then come back you know but we need people here we need people in Seattle we need people in Yakima we need people in other areas because if we're not going to do it then who is if we all just go to one spot then what that spot is just going to shine bright and then there's not going to be places for other people to go to church there's not going to be places for other people to get the Gospel anyway let's bow our heads for prayer Lord we thank you so much for the Gospel we thank you so much for Jesus and Lord we thank you so much for winning Lord that we get to win and one of these days the reproach is going to be removed and people are not going to be able to treat us the way that they treat us now in some instances Lord and we do have it easy here compared to a lot of people around the world I pray that you would help us to be thankful for the great things that we do get to enjoy in this country and the great privileges that we do get to have here in comparison to some countries that treat and are allowed to treat Christians horribly and Lord I pray that we be thankful for what we have and that we take stands in this world and stand up for righteousness stand up for truth Lord you help us and keep us on the right path in Jesus name we pray, Amen Alright our last song is song number 322 He Leadeth Me Song 322 He Leadeth Me Song 322 Let's sing it together on the first He leadeth me O blessed thought words with heavenly comfort fraught what e'er I do where e'er I be still to Scott's hand that leadeth me He leadeth me He leadeth me by His own hand He leadeth me His faithful fault where I would be for by His hand He leadeth me sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom by water still or troubled sea still tis His hand that leadeth me He leadeth me He leadeth me by His own hand He leadeth me His faithful fault where I would be for by His hand He leadeth me Lord I would clasp Thy hand in mine nor ever murmur nor repine content whatever lot I see since tis my God that leadeth me He leadeth me He leadeth me by His own hand He leadeth me His faithful fault where I would be for by His hand He leadeth me and when my task on earth is done when by Thy grace the victories won in death's cold wave I will not flee since God through Jordan leadeth me He leadeth me He leadeth me by His own hand He leadeth me His faithful fault where I would be for by His hand He leadeth me Amen Good scene, brother Jesse, would you close with a prayer? Lord we thank you for the sermon this afternoon