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Music You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You All right welcome back to sure foundation Baptist Church Welcome to the afternoon service you find a seat in the red or green animal 206. Oh say, but I'm glad 206 and the red or the green There is a song in my heart today something I never had Jesus has taken my sins away Oh say, but I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh say, but I'm glad Wonderful marvelous love he brings Into a heart that's sad Through darkest tunnels the soul just sings Oh say, but I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh say, but I'm glad We have a fellowship rich and sweet Tongues can never relate Abiding in him the souls retreat Oh say, but I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh say, but I'm glad Won't you come to him with all your care Hairy and horn and sad You two will sing as his love you share Oh say, but I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad Oh say, but I'm glad Jesus has come and my cup's overrun Oh say, but I'm glad Alright next up favorites Don't do anything too crazy with the game 436 Veto, next Jesse Did you listen to the sermon this morning? I'm just kidding Get you on the next one Brethren we have blood to worship And on earth our Lord Our God will you pray With all your power while we Try to preach the word All is made on thus the Spirit of the Holy One comes down brethren Pray and holy man All will be showered all around 328 I saw the giant of prayerless Upon mountain high he laughed so hard At my unmended knee No longer in the wilderness I'll stay so I cry I want that mountain it belongs to me I want that mountain I want that fountain where the milk And honey for where the grapes of esk will grow I want that mountain I want that mountain The mountain that my Lord has given me Alright young miss Alcorda Okay 467 if you need the lyrics Alright 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 Alright right there 7 The Old Rugged Cross 27 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 word of what sinners Must think 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 Alright next one 4.04 Alright 4.04 When the battle's over Am I a soldier of the Prosephobia of The Old Rugged Cross Or am I a soldier of the Prosephobia of the Prosephobia of the Prosephobia of the Prosephobia of the Prosephobia of the New Jerusalem Where a crown, where a crown Where a bright and shining crown And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the New Jerusalem 3.56 Alright 3.56 I must out-ease us all of my trials I cannot bear these Burdens alone In my distress he kindly will Help me, he ever holds And cares for his own I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear My burdens alone I must tell Jesus, I must Tell Jesus, Jesus can help Me, Jesus alone Oh, Miss Sheila 56, not 3.56, 5.6 Yes, 5.6 and then When we all get to heaven Sing the wondrous love of Jesus Sing his mercy and his grace And when the mansions bright and blessed He'll prepare for us a place When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing there will be When we all See Jesus, we'll sing And shout for victory 2 more Right there, I'm gonna get in so much trouble not knowing everyone's names Kathleen 3.55 The hazards of favorites On the first Total friend we have in Jesus All our sins and grief to bear Total privilege To carry Everything to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless Pain we bear Oh, because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer Alright, last one, brother Eli 472 Maybe one more, do we have time for another one? One more This is my Father's Word This is my Father's Word And to my listening ears Oh, nature sings and round me rings Oh, music of the spheres This is my Father's Word I rest in the fall of rocks and trees of skies and seas And the wonders run Kayla, orchestral privilege here Alright, same hymn, last verse This is my Father's Word Oh, let me never forget The full long scene of so strong God is the ruler yet This is my Father's Word Jesus who died shall be satisfied ever then and be one This time we'll have the announcements Is this your water? Do you want to just leave it up here for now? Alright, welcome back to Church Foundation, back to Church for the evening service Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements. Does anybody need a bulletin? Just lift up your hand Anybody need one? Alright, Jazzy needs one back there Where's my ushers? Alright, on our front page we have the first of the week, it says Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time On our inside page there we have our service times 1030 a.m. for the Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service 3.30 p.m. We're in Joshua chapter 11 tonight Thursday Bible study, 6.30 p.m. we're in 1 Chronicles chapter 21 And so many times, Melissa Blow, we had our so many times today. Did anybody have a salvation that just snuck through somewhere? I know we had some good conversations, some people said they believed but didn't pray Alright, well, we'll just pray that those people call upon the name of the Lord and all the numbers We had another baptism in Indianapolis this morning Praise the Lord for that The Sweetheart Banquet is coming up, that is this Saturday People were asking me about side dishes and stuff like that and you're more than welcome to make a side dish if you are coming. I'm not requiring it or anything like that obviously, but if somebody wanted to make something, you're more than welcome to I know that some people wanted to do that and they thought maybe we're only just serving meat We are going to have beans and cornbread along with the meat I was thinking salad is always good too, so help the digestion I think, Julian, you were going to bring what? Mac and cheese Oh, I know brother Ramon is bringing potato salad So if somebody else wants to bring something, you're more than welcome to You don't have to, but if you have some other idea and you want to bring something the more the merrier. If somebody wanted to do a dessert, that would be really cool Like peach cobbler or something like that I'll provide the ice cream Scoop of vanilla ice cream It begins at 4pm with the pictures. We'll have a little picture booth set up You don't have to dress up, but you can dress up. I think that's kind of the fun part of the fun of it The rest of the schedule is inside the group. I'm sure we'll repost it So you know the exact schedule. Pastor Weeb will be preaching for us and we'll have the not so newlywed game and the winner We'll have probably three places of winners and of course we'll have a grand prize for the person Questions right. And let's see I think that's pretty much it. Just make sure you sign up and Pastor Weeb will be preaching for us on the pm service on February 16th, which is the next day The Kids Valentine's party is at 11.15 at the church on the 20th and February 22nd is the Super Soul Winning Saturday 12-3pm in Hazel Dell We haven't chosen the food afterward, but we are going to have some food afterward And then March 14th-16th is the Spokane 6 year anniversary. I'll be preaching there on Friday night and Remi will be preaching the Sunday services March 29th is the Soul Winning Marathon. Haven't chosen the destination or location yet. March 30th is men's preaching night for the evening service. April 13th is the Lord's Supper We'll be there for that evening service also. April 19th is the Mega Marathon and Easter is on April 20th and the KGB conference is coming the 15th through the 18th Lots of stuff coming up and we're family integrated Of course you all know that and all the offering information is at the bottom of the page. Sing Happy Birthday to Kathleen She's turning 16 on the 15th. And that's all I have for announcements My grandpa's favorite dessert was cowboy cake so if you want the recipe come see me after the service It's basically a German chocolate cake, but it's like a freedom fries type of thing where you have to give it an American name 129, Rock of Ages 129, Rock of Ages On the verse Inside which load Be of sin the double cure Save from wrath and make me pure Could my tears forever flow Could my zeal no longer know These for sin Could not atone Thou must save and thou alone In my hand no price I bring Simply to thy cross I cling While I draw this Fleeting breath I shall close in death When I rise to worlds unknown And behold Beyond my throne Rock of Ages have for me Let me hide Myself in thee Amen. At this time we'll collect the opera Brother Jesse, can you bless yourself? Lord, we ask you to bless this opera and we ask you to bless both the gift you gave her that we can use for your further admission. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Open your Bibles to Joshua chapter number 11. Joshua chapter 11, if you don't have a Bible there should be one underneath the seat in front of you, Joshua 11. Joshua 11. Joshua 11, the Bible reads, And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent Jobab king of Madon and to the king of Shemron and to the king of Akshaf and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains and of the plains south of Chenoroth and in the valley and the borders of Dor on the west and to the Canaanite on the east and on the west and to the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite in the mountains and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah and they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people even as the sand that is upon the seashore in the multitude with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel. Thou shall hoof their horses and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua came and all the people of war with him, against them by waters of Merom suddenly, and they fell upon them. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them and chased them unto great Zidane and unto Mizrath-ma'am and unto the valley of Mizpah eastward, and they smote them until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him. He hooved their horses and burnt their chariots with fire. And Joshua at that time turned back and took Hazor and smote the king thereof with a sword, for Hazor before time was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was not any left to breathe, and he burnt Hazor with fire. And all the cities of those kings and all the kings of them did Joshua take and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. But as far as the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only that did Joshua burn. And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle and the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves, but every man they smote with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe. As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. So Joshua took all that land, the hills and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen and the valley and the plain and the mountain of Israel and the valley of the same, even from the mount Helak that goeth up to Seir even unto Belgad in the valley of Lebanon under the mount Hermon and all their kings he took and smote them and slew them. Joshua made war a long time with those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon, all other they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly and that they might have no favor but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses. And at that time came Joshua and cut off the Achims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Deber, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah and from all the mountains of Israel, Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Achims left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod they remained. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war. Will you pray for us? There's so much Bible in this sermon that there's no way possible you can't get something out of it, so. Alright, we're in Joshua chapter 11. I'm probably going to have to cut some of this stuff out of it, but last time we were in Joshua chapter 10 is when the king of Jerusalem gathered all the kings, and it was basically like the south and the southeast and those areas, and it was Adonai Zedek, which he was the king, and last chapter they didn't really, they didn't kill him or capture him, so I noticed that in the end they didn't really get him, and actually they get him in Judges chapter 1. So somehow he escapes even though he's the one that started, he's the one that gathered all those kings together in the last chapter, but Joshua still had victory over all those places, but they did not take Jerusalem. It doesn't list them. I was kind of skimming over, and I don't think that they, they didn't get to Jerusalem, but they do end up getting to Jerusalem eventually, but they still don't take the stronghold of Zion until David's time. So the Jebusites were just, if you notice like, well the title of my sermon tonight is Joshua finishes the conquest, but in reality there's pockets that he doesn't get to, and it takes them a long time, and they still don't really subdue the whole promised land because of laziness and their lack of faith, and Joshua finally, you know, he eventually just has to get onto them and say, hey, if you don't have enough space for your tribe, then get out there and get some more land, because they kind of, they probably get tired of fighting. They probably get tired of the war, and as Christians sometimes we get tired of fighting too. We get tired of wars. We get tired of being attacked and things like that, and this is, you know, in the end of this chapter it says that they, they kind of, you know, the war is kind of over, but there's still pockets. There's still battles that go on, and so they really have to go and start just pulling people out of their strongholds and really digging in to get some of these guys, but really the main part of the conquest of the promised land is done in this chapter. So, the last chapter you kind of had, like, where Jerusalem was and those areas to the south, and now it's kind of north of that area into the east and north of, it's part of it south of where Galilee, you know, the Sea of Galilee is. In the New Testament times, of course, it's called something different. In the Old Testament, then you have those areas off to the west, but where Jesus lived up in those areas, that's kind of where they're battling up there. Now, verse 1 says, And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Medan, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Axaph, and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and the plains of the south of Chinnoroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west. So, Chinnoroth is the Sea of Galilee. That's what it was called in the Old Testament, and today it's called the Sea of Tiberias, and it's also called Kinneroth, or Chinnoroth is the same thing, basically. So, that's the Sea of Galilee. So, that's the area in which they're fighting the plains of the south. They're taking all kinds of different areas, but when you see Kinneroth or Chinnoroth in the Bible, that's what it's talking about, that northern area where the Sea of Galilee is. So, verse number 3 of the Bible says, And to the Canaanite on the east, and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon, in the land of Mizpah. So, if you kind of look at this from a soul-winning application of taking of the Promised Land, you have all different territories and each location has different challenges. So, like, if you kind of divide up Vancouver, you have the richer parts of the areas that are harder, more strongholds of, you know, unreceptivity, but then you have areas of receptivity, like near Fourth Plain and some of the apartment-style areas. And, of course, it's gotten less receptive as we've been here for many years, and you get the diminishing returns, but there's still pockets of people that are getting saved every single week here in Vancouver, and obviously it's not as receptive as when we first started soul-winning here, but eventually we're trying to take the whole territory, you know, and this kind of pictures, I think, soul-winning for us is that the children of Israel went in to take the Promised Land. Obviously, they're slaying people and killing them, but we're trying to, you know, kill that old man in people and give them the new man and give them everlasting life. So, it's a little different. You know, our mission's different. We're not trying to literally kill people. We're just trying to kill that old man and give them the new nature, right? So, but if you look at it like different territories, we do have different territories, and there's certain territories we don't really like to go to. Like, the sea coast is kind of tough down there by where the mansions are, where you can have a nice view of the river here. You know, those are the areas that we don't really like to go to so much because you're doing a lot of walking, there's a lot of hills. That's the hill country, you know, where the people that have giant amounts of money, they're not giants, but they have giant amounts of money, and so they're a little tougher. You know, they have the iron chariots down there. But, you know, so, I mean, I guess if you look at it like that, when we, you know, in our city, in our Jerusalem, you know, we're spreading out to all the different areas. You know, God said for us to go to every area and every place we put our foot down is ours to claim. Verse 4, it says, And they went out, and they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore and multitude. So, he gathers this huge army, this Jabin king of Hazor, and it says there's much people. So, when you think about Canaan and that area, the Canaanites are a more population area than you would probably imagine. And you kind of think that maybe they're not as sophisticated, they're like, you know, these cavemen or something. They're not. They have a very sophisticated, they have castles, they have walls, they have fortresses, they have more sophistication than you would think. And this city called Hazor, the tell is still there, the ruins of that place are still there, and they've uncovered a lot of it. There's actually a national park there. There's all kinds of different places. If you just look it up on Google Maps, you can zoom right into the ruins of it and look at it right now on your phone if you wanted to, but don't not pay attention to the sermon. But even after the service, you can just zoom right into it and you can look at where Hazor is. Today, there's multiple little points. You know, when you look at Google Maps, you can just kind of look at pictures of stuff. You can look through all the pictures and look at the, there's some pretty cool pictures on there. They have a, there's a place that says the Canaanite underground water source, and there's a, they dug down where you could get the water source from underneath, so they had sophistication even back then. We're talking 3400 years ago. So, I mean, and they were living there for longer than that, so they had sophistication even back then, but it says they had a host as the sand is upon the seashore multitude with horses and chariots, very many. So the children of Israel are up against, you know, they had a big standing army, but not as big as the armies that they were facing. They already in the last chapter faced a huge army already, and now they're facing an even bigger army it seems like, and it says when all these kings met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. And the Lord said unto Joshua, be not afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel. Thou shalt hawk their horses and burn their chariots with fire. So, what's the commandment that God's giving them? Is that word, that word h-o-u-g-h is spelled, is pronounced hawk, and I preached about this, I don't know, maybe a month ago. So, if anybody's lived in Vancouver very long, there's a school called, people say it's Hugh Elementary, but it's actually Hawk Elementary. And that word is pronounced hawk, and what hawking their horses is, is when they cut the equivalent to the Achilles tendon on the horses, so after they defeat them in battle, all their horses are to have their Achilles tendons cut on them so that they can no longer be used as horses for battle. This is what God's commanded, those poor little horses. Well, they can be used as ponies, you know, for pony rides or something for little kids, but they're no longer going to be able to be used for horses for battle against the children of Israel. And it says, and burn their chariots with fire. So what, so they can no longer be used against the children of Israel. It says, so Joshua came and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom, suddenly and they fell upon them. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Mizreph-oth-Maim, and unto the valley of Mizpah, eastward. And they smote them until they left them none remaining. So the Bible's very clear about this. They killed everybody in that host. And it was a huge host as the sand is of the sea. I mean, it's basically just saying it was such a great number that it's basically uncountable. Obviously, God probably knew exactly how many there were, but it's just kind of given us that picture that it's such a huge host that, you know, it's insurmountable with the amount of people that they had. But God finds a way to defeat these enemies because God fights for Israel. Now, something worth mentioning is that, you know, many times, and really in most cases when we have God's enemies come against us, they're more powerful in might, they're more powerful in resources, and in number, carnally speaking, than we are. It always seems like whenever some great enemy attacks they are more powerful. I mean, David and Goliath, looking at them on paper, the tale of the tape and the UFC Octagon, who do you think people are going to pick? They're going to pick Goliath, a man of war from his youth, versus David with a little sling and five smooth stones. Most people are going to bet the house that Goliath with his armor bearer with the shield, he's got full armor on, a gigantic sword, he's nine foot nine, who knows how much he weighed, probably over 500 pounds easily, and nobody's going to pick David. But God always finds a way for his people to win, even in insurmountable odds, even in insurmountable numbers, and obviously the devil gives his children vast amounts of wealth, vast amounts of influence, vast amounts of people, I mean, even just talking about this morning, all these taxes and all these wicked people that are just hoodwinking us with taxes and stuff, how does that happen? Well, the devil puts his people into strategic places, and that's how whole governments go bad, that's how whole kingdoms go wrong, that's how, I mean, there's a guy here from the Netherlands, and the Netherlands used to be a Christian nation, now they're very far from that, I mean, very far. England used to be considered a Christian nation, now they're basically a Muslim nation. So are the next, I mean, these countries in Europe, I mean, Romania, what's the name of it now? The Czech Republic is the most atheistic nation, and that's where, like, they were literally Baptists, it was basically like a Baptist nation at one point, and now they're as far away from Baptists as you can possibly imagine. They are just the worst atheistic nation on the planet. Hopefully that turns around at some point, maybe the pendulum will swing the other way, but that's just how it is. But it's the Lord that we must rely upon when the enemies come to attack. Now, of course, we have our own personal enemies, and then there's God's enemies. God's enemies, this is what God does to His enemies. He destroys them. He makes sure that they get completely annihilated and destroyed at some point, but our personal enemies, this is not what we do to our personal enemies. Our personal enemies, we're supposed to love, we're supposed to pray for them, we're supposed to do good unto them, and so on and so forth, but God's enemies, these are God's enemies. These are people that hate God, and the Bible makes it very clear in this passage that that's the case, but you know, once we start counting on our own might, our own intellect, and our own power, that's when God's people start to fail, is that we, and we must rely completely upon the Lord for our victories, and once we start getting pride in our own self, our own strength, our own intellect, our own money, our own, you know, we start thinking we're pretty cool, that's when God kind of pulls the power source out from us. The Bible says some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. So, there's a lot of people who will trust in their military might. There's a lot of people who will trust in the horses of war, but God hawked all their horses of war. God made sure that they couldn't come against them again, and he allowed this small in comparison army to completely wipe out a whole nation of wicked people, you know, and did the children of Israel have some kind of military training in order to do this? I mean, they're basically slaves in Egypt, not basically, they were slaves. I mean, where did their military might come from? From God. God is the one that allowed them to be mighty. He's the one that's raining down hailstones upon them in the last chapter, making sure that all those people got destroyed. The Bible says in Joshua 11, 9, it says, and Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him. And what did he say to do? Hawk their horses, burn their chariots, and then make sure that none of them escape alive. That was the whole mission that Joshua was given, and who was the mission first given to? The mission was first given to Moses, and then when Moses died, then that charge was given to Joshua, and God gave that charge to Joshua, Moses gave the charge to Joshua, ordained him to do that, he became the leader, now they're following Joshua to fulfill the will of the Lord. But notice how Joshua always ends up doing what God says. It says, as the Lord bade him, he did what God said. He hawked the horses and burnt their chariots with fire. Isn't that what God told him to do? Yes, it is. So when we're dispatching and contending with God's enemies, it's important that we deal with them as the Lord bids us to. Well, God doesn't tell us to kill his enemies. That's true. Because we don't fight the same battles in the New Testament the same way as they fought in the Old Testament. We fight spiritual battles in the New Testament. So in the Old Testament, though, the Lord would get upset when people would go too far. Like when they, the Edomites, they burnt the king of Edom into lime, his bones into lime, and God said he's not going to hold back his judgment for them doing that. And he said to be, you know, like they were why did King Saul end up being taken away as the king of Israel? Because he refused to do what God said when it concerned Agag and the other sacrifices. He said, well, we just saved these special ones, and we just saved Agag alive, and that's not what God said to do. So because he did not do what God said to do, he removed him from being king, and he replaced him with David, a man after God's own heart. So there are also rules in the New Testament for dealing with enemies. Whatever God says we're supposed to do, that's what we're supposed to do. We're not allowed to slay them, obviously, and but we are supposed to preach against them in their folly, rebuke them in their false doctrine. People sometimes ask me, hey, pastor, what are we supposed to do when we run into Mormon missionaries? Rebuke them, sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. You know, we're supposed to tell them to get out. I mean, I just tell them to get out. I used to try the whole nice thing, but how many Mormon missionaries I've gotten saved? Zero. You know how many Jehovah's Witnesses I've gotten saved that came to my door? Zero. And I've tried the nice thing. I've never invited them in my house, but I've tried to preach to them. But they're coming with a false gospel. The Bible says not to bid them God's speed because you're a partaker of their evil deeds. Don't say God bless you to them. Don't wish them well. Oh, have a nice day. You're a partaker of their evil deeds. They're false prophets. We're supposed to contend and fight with the enemies of God, and not physically, obviously, but spiritually, when we do but there's people that are like, you know, because this is what the Mormons will say, contention is of the devil. You know that verse isn't in the Bible? It might be in Joseph Smith's abomination that he calls scripture, but it's not in the Bible. Actually, the Bible says we're supposed to contend for the faith. Look at Jude chapter 1. Jude chapter 1, verse 3. When they say, contentions of the devil, what are they saying? When the Holy Spirit of God put it upon Jude to put that scripture in the Bible, that is scripture. So when a Mormon says contention is of the devil, when you're trying to contend for the faith, what are they saying? I mean, to me, that's like borderline blasphemy with the Holy Ghost. Isn't it? Look what it says. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. That we should contend. I exhort you. What does that mean? I encourage you very strongly to what? That you should earnestly contend for the faith. Oh, but Christians aren't supposed to fight with people. That's what the sissy Christian religion will teach you. That we're never supposed to contend for things. But you know what? I think God does want us to contend for things. Now I'm not saying that we should contend that we're in a boxing match with them over it. You know, obviously we're supposed to, you know, after the first and second admonition, we're supposed to reject them and keep on doing what we're doing. But this thing that Christians aren't supposed to fight, that's not true because, you know, earnest means what? Sincere, intense conviction. It should be something that's a passion in us that the common salvation that's once delivered to the saints is important to us. You know, last time I checked I thought Sure Foundation cared about the common salvation and the faith that's once delivered to the saints. I think we care about that in this church, don't we? What about, and it says that we should contend. So to have an earnest contention is sincere, intense conviction to strive or to fight is what contend means. We fight for the truth of the gospel is what that's talking about. Look at verse 4, it says, for there are certain men crept in unawares. And this happens where they come into our church, this happens where they come into other churches, and it says that we're foreordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Look, this is going to happen all throughout the New Testament. It happened in the Old Testament, but it's going to happen in the New Testament. There's going to be times when we have to fight for the faith. We cannot keep our sword back from blood. We need to fight for the faith. I'm not saying literal blood, I'm talking about spiritually. We have to use this Bible to contend. Now look at 2 Timothy 2 verse 1. I'm already losing my voice here. Does somebody have like a cough drop or something? If anybody has like a lozenge or a cough drop or a cup of tea, something. Anyway, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1, the Bible says this, thou therefore my son be weak, is that what it says? Be a sissy Christian, is that what it says? No, it says be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We should be strong in our faith. We should be strong in that grace. It says, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. The Christian faith grows by teaching other people to preach the Gospel and to teach the truth of the Bible. It says, thou therefore endure hardness. You know, it's not always easy being a Christian, but we do have to endure hardness. We have to endure our kids being sick. We have to endure, you know, the hardships of life being a good soldier. It says as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You know, I know I talk about this a lot, but it's true. Being a soldier sometimes is hard. Being a soldier of who? Jesus Christ. It's hard sometimes. It's not always easy. But look what it says also in verse 4. It says, no man that warth entangleth himself, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. You know, we were chosen the moment we got saved, we were chosen to be soldiers. And you're like, well, I didn't really know that was the case. Well, it doesn't matter whether you know, now you know. You just read that verse with me, now you're beholden to the Scriptures. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Did you put lemon in it? Just kidding. Just kidding. So, yeah, the Bible says to endure hardness as a good soldier. Soldiers aren't always in optimal conditions, are they? Sometimes they're in trenches. Sometimes they're dirty. They don't get to take showers for a while. And, you know, we get the luxury, we have showers, okay? We don't have to endure this type of hardness, but there's other types of hardness that we do have to endure. You know, we're Christian families. And some people are single. You know, and sometimes that's hard. And sometimes we have to endure, you know, hardness of battles. And going out and fighting these battles out in the highways and the hedges that we have to fight, and sometimes just not getting someone saved for a long time. It can be discouraging. But, you know what? We are supposed to endure hardness, and it says that no man that warth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life. What is that talking about? Worrying about taxes. Worrying about, I mean, worrying about all the things that go on in this life. Hey, who's going to be at the WWE Royal Rumble? Who cares? Is there some stupid game going on right now? Is that what you guys are all worried about? How long is Pastor going to preach? Are we going to miss the Super Bowl? Who cares? You're going to see Taylor Swift slutting it up with her thighs showing or something? Is that what you're worried about missing? I mean, does she have anything that goes past the knees? Probably not. You're worried about missing Captain Pfizer in his last game? Scoring another touchdown? You know the refs are already going to win it for the Kansas City Chiefs anyway. Watch them lose though. Just make more drama for next year. Anyway. So it says we're not supposed to entangle with ourselves in the affairs of this life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier. Who are we pleasing here? Who are we supposed to be soldiering for? The Lord Jesus Christ. It says that if any man strive for masteries, that word strive means to struggle or fight vigorously. You know, and the Christian life can make you want to give up and quit fighting sometimes. It can make you want to just quit. Sometimes it can. You're like, well, I don't ever feel that way. Well, some people do. Some people do feel like quitting. And, but it says if a man strive for masteries, yet he's not crowned except he strive lawfully. Now, when you're talking about sports, you know, if you're striving to master some kind of a sport, what's it saying? Well, that you have to strive lawfully. You're not supposed to cheat. You know, you have all kinds of people in sports cheating at every level. Even in peewee sports. Even in sports where it's not professional. People are always looking for an edge to cheat. I coached my kids football until I couldn't coach them anymore. I coached my boys in wrestling. I coached basketball. I coached t-ball. I'm not even good at some of those sports. I never even played, I never even wrestled very much. But I still coached. I just learned so I could do it. But, I was not a cheating type of coach. When I coached football, I coached technique. I coached how to play the game fair. I coached shake your, shake hands with the players after the game. Do not take your helmets off until you're off the field. Look people in the eyes and shake their hand and say good game. I was a person that wanted to teach children how to play the game right and not cheat and be respectful. But there are people out there that would even teach young children to cheat in a game and then what does that do to that kid growing up? They just think it's okay to cheat because coach taught me how to cheat? What a piece of crap you are if you're that kind of a coach. I remember I coached Remy's team, it was the Cowboys, I know I'm sorry about that, but the Cowboys, we basically, we went undefeated in our league and we played this team called the Jets in the championship game. We already beat the Jets one time, barely beat them, and then we played them again and they were cheating in the game. They were taking cheap shots, Remy was the running back, he scored two touchdowns, they called one of them back, but he scored a touchdown in that game, but he, you know, I installed like this pretty sophisticated offense the night before and the wind was blowing like 50 miles an hour or something like 40 miles an hour during the game, so I had to get rid of all the passing plays. But anyway, Remy gets tackled on this play and one of the kids walked over and just with his cleats just stomped right on his leg. And that wasn't the only cheap shot during the game, their team was just known for playing dirty. But what kind of a coach teaches a person to do that? A piece of garbage, that's what kind of a coach does that. But why am I saying this, why am I explaining this? Well, because nobody likes a cheater. And the Bible says that when we're striving with our enemies, when we're striving for masteries, when we're soldiering, when we're warring, when we're entangling ourselves, you know, we don't want to entangle ourselves with the matters of this world when we're soldiering though. When we strive for masteries, we strive lawfully. What does that mean? We keep within the rules. Just like Joshua, when he's fighting all these battles, he's doing what God said to do. Here's what God said. Whatever place he's fighting with, God said, don't be afraid. Hawk their horses, burn their chariots, leave nobody breathing. Alright, check, check, check, done. Whatever he says to do, that's what he does. So, in the New Testament, we should also follow the same logic. We should follow the same rules. When God says don't do this or do that, we don't do that. Does that make sense? In New Testament Christianity, there's things that we don't cross the line with. You know, and sometimes it's easy to get in the flesh, especially when our enemies don't have rules that they have to follow. They don't have rules of etiquette that they have to follow because they're scum. Because they're pieces of garbage like that coach was, teaching people to not have to keep the rules. But we have to still keep within the rules because we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says we must, we're not crowned unless we strive lawfully. So, in sports, there's that saying, and this is what cheaters always say, if you're not cheating, you're not trying. Well, I hate that. I hate that saying. I think that saying's garbage. If you're not cheating, you're not trying. No, if you're cheating, you're a piece of scum. It's like Lance Armstrong, you know, he's doping up and gets cancer because he's done so much steroids. Yeah, he broke all these records, but, you know, he's a piece of garbage. Nothing even was really real. It's like these dudes that pretend to be women and, you know, they beat the women's lifting thing by like 400-something pounds. Like, you really didn't beat the women's record, dude. You're a man. It's like Mark McGuire's Sammy Sosa. Who remembers the battle, okay, if you're old enough to remember that. I mean, it was fun to watch. Them just smashing home runs. But they're on just massive amounts of steroids, and they're, you know, huh? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, their arms are like this big, and they're just like, just smashing home runs. And then Barry Bonds, I mean, his head, when you look at him as a rookie, is like just super tiny, and then when he's like on roids, his head's like this big. He has no neck. He's like, he's breaking all these records, but they're cheating. But what I'm saying is that as a Christian, we can't be like them. They can do, they can say all the nastiest lies, they can rail, they can make up lies, they can do all these kinds of things, but we can't be like that. We can't be like that because we have to strive lawfully. So we do what God says, and God's going to make sure we win anyway. Against all odds. Against all attacks. Against all resources. When everything seems to be lost, everything seems like they're going to win, God comes in with the clutch and makes it happen. Now, in our world, it might seem like they're winning, but cheaters always get caught, don't they? They always get caught in whatever scam they're trying to do, you know, deflategate for the Patriots. Who remembers that? They're letting the air out of the balls so that Tom Brady can throw a better spiral or something. They're, you know, the NBA, they're point shaving so they can cheat on the basketball games. They got caught. I mean, people always get caught. But, you know, God's enemies do have a lot of advantages, and sometimes it's frustrating, I'll admit that. But, you know, and the flesh does want to kick in and do things sometimes that you shouldn't want to do, but the enemy has always been able to do things that we can't do. You know, Cain killed Abel. Abel couldn't defend himself. He just gets killed. But you know what? Retribution is always going to happen for God's people no matter what. They can make up stories, they can fudge the truth, they can make false accusations, they can do false rumors, they can just do whatever they want, but we can't do anything back. And they've been trying to take the kingdom of God by violence for many years. Notice that these armies, none of them resisted God, none of them just tried to make peace with Joshua except for one group, right? I'll cover that here in a minute, but look what the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 9. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 9. One specific thing that the Bible teaches is that even though people rail against us, in the New Testament, we can't rail back. We cannot rail back. This is fighting within the rules. We can't do what they do. Here's a perfect for instance. 1 Peter 3, 9 says, Not rendering evil for evil. If they do something evil to us, we cannot do something evil back to them. Or railing for railing. If somebody rails against us, we cannot rail back. But controwise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil. In his lips, that they speak no guile. You know, they can speak guile, but we're not going to speak guile back. What is guile? Well, it's cunning deceit. It's deceitfulness with their mouth trying to make something happen. Let him eschew evil, or hate evil, and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it, or follow after peace. We as Christians should be seeking peace. That should be the goal of us as Christians, not to seek harm towards other people, or evil towards other people. It says, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. So we should just know that God's got our back when we're doing the things right, following the rules, not doing harm for harm, railing for railing, evil for evil. And it says, But if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be trouble. Well, it's interesting that they say, be not afraid of their terror. Sounds like people try to terrorize Christians. It's because they do. It's because they do. It says, skip to verse 16, it says, Having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. There's a lot of people that like to accuse you of being an evildoer. Those people need to be ashamed. Those people need to be ashamed because they falsely accuse people. But God is going to make sure that they get what's coming to them. And obviously if someone's saved, I don't want people to get destroyed or killed or whatever, but these wicked people that are reprobates, like the people in our story tonight, those people are getting what they have coming to them because what have they done? Child sacrifice, they're homos. All kinds of witchcraft, observing times, worshiping false gods, bestiality, everything on the list that God said that he would destroy them for, they've done. So, it says, for it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. God would rather be suffering, because we could suffer either way, but wouldn't he rather suffer for doing something right than suffer because you did the wrong thing? Because you reacted in the wrong way? So, when it comes to railing, people have a weird definition of railing sometimes. And they get it from the dictionary. And sometimes the dictionary isn't always the right definition. And in the word railing is a perfect example of that. A lot of people like to go to the Webster's 1828 dictionary because I don't know, it's kind of like a Baptist thing or something, but in the Webster's dictionary, and in every dictionary, it pretty much has this same similar or similar definition. Here's what it is. Clamoring with insulting language, uttering reproachful words, adjective expressing reproach, insulting as a railing accusation. So, it's kind of getting that from the railing accusation it says about in Jude where it says that the angel did not give a railing accusation against the devil, right? But, what is clamoring? Clamoring is yelling or, you know, is yelling something, right? So, that's what clamoring is. Insulting language. Clamoring is yelling or shouting reproachful words. So, and then reproach is disapproval or disappointment. So, if someone's railing, isn't railing sin? Because you can get kicked out of church for railing, right? That is one of the sins, the six sins in First Corinthians chapter five. So, if you can get kicked out of church for railing, isn't railing always sin? Because fornication, is it always wrong? Yes or no? Is there ever an excuse for fornication? No. Is covetousness always wrong? Yes or no? Yes. Is idolatry always wrong? Yes or no? Is being a drunkard always wrong? Yes or no? Is being an extortioner always wrong? Yes or no? So, if everything so far that I've said on that list is always wrong, it's always a sin, then so is railing. So, if the Bible says that being a railer will get you kicked out of church, then every time the word rail or railing is used, then it's a sin in the Bible. So, if the dictionary defines it as clamoring with insulting language, yelling at someone with, you know, insulting language, or uttering reproachful words, or adjectives expressing reproach insulting as a railing accusation, that's not a very good definition. Because you can yell at somebody and yell, like, hey, maybe, like, Jesus, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! I mean, that's insulting language. Isn't calling someone a hypocrite insulting? And there's an exclamation point after the word hypocrites. So, by that definition, Jesus is a railer. Otherwise, how do you define it? Because you could make Jesus a railer by saying that. That definition is not a right definition. You have to define words if the definition in the dictionary is wrong, then you have to use the Bible, especially if it's something that's a sin that could get you kicked out of church, wouldn't you have to define it through the Bible? Well, let's do that. Let's do that. You're like, well, why are you doing this? Because people don't understand what the word railer means sometimes. And I've seen some pastors with some weird definitions of railing, and I just want our church to understand what it actually means. And that it's always a sin, and that's why someone would get kicked out of church. So, let's look at some examples of that. Let's look at 1 Samuel 25, 10. 1 Samuel 25, 10. So, if I'm right about this, then every instance I'm about to go to is going to be a false accusation against somebody because I believe that railing is that you're, yeah, you can be abusing them with your language, you can be yelling at them, but what you're doing is you're accusing them of something that's false or saying something false about them and it's not true. So, 1 Samuel 25, 10 says, And Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. So, did David just break away from Saul? Did he just break away from Saul because he's just breaking away from his master? Or did David have to leave because Saul was trying to murder him every time he got the chance? Which one's actually true? So, did Saul, so what's Nabal saying? He's lying about David, isn't he? Is that an accusation? Yes, it is. He's lying about him. Look at verse 11, it says, This is also another railing accusation because he knows exactly who they are. He knows that they're David's men. But now he's trying to act like he doesn't know who they are. This is another untrue statement. He knows who they are and he just doesn't want to help them. So, verse 12 says, So, told who? David. Everything that Nabal said. And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And David also girded his sword and they went up after David about 400 men and 200 abode by the stuff. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, So, what was the railing that he did? He accused them of things that they did not do. He accused David of breaking away from his master. That's a railing accusation. What would that be then? It would be a sin, wouldn't it? Okay? He made false accusations about David that he broke away from his master after saying he didn't know them. When he did. So, is the Bible definition that I believe right? It is in this case, I believe. Now, let's go to 2 Chronicles 32, 17. You have Rabshakah, Rabshakie, however you want to pronounce that. I like shakah. Rabshakah. But he is appeared to the kids, he's speaking to the children of Israel, he writes a letter to, basically he's ripping on God himself in this letter. So, 2 Chronicles 32, 17 says, he wrote also letters to, what's it say there? Rail on the Lord God of Israel. Well, that's a bad idea. So, what's he doing? He's railing on God. And to speak against him, saying, here's what he said, So shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand. What ends up happening? The next day, all their soldiers are dead corpses. So, what's his railing accusation? That God can't deliver the children of Israel, the God of the Bible cannot deliver them. Is that a railing accusation? Yes, and God proves it by killing every single one of his soldiers and then the king of Assyria dies by his own son's hands. So, he's saying something about God that's not true. It's a railing accusation. So, and it's against God, which is even worse. Here's one against Jesus, turn to Mark chapter 15 verse 29. Mark 15, 29. Mark 15, 29. So, this is against Jesus specifically. And they that pass by railed on him, this is when he's hanging on the cross, they railed on him, wagging their heads, just shaking their heads and saying, ah, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days. Is that what Jesus said? Did he say, I'm going to build the temple, like he's talking about the real temple, I'm going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, is that what he said? No. What are they doing? They're falsely accusing him of saying that. That's a railing accusation. Now, in verse 30 it says, save thyself and come down from the cross. Now, in Matthew chapter 27, you can turn there if you want, if you don't want to, you don't have to, but it says, it's a parallel passage to the exact same story though, which is, they're railing on him still. But Matthew 27, verse 40 says, and saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself if thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. So, if he doesn't come down from the cross, does that mean he's not the son of God? No. If he doesn't come down from the cross, he's still the son of God. So, again, they're falsely accusing him of something that is not true. They're trying to say that he's not the son of God if he doesn't come down from the cross. That is a false accusation. That is railing. So, they railed on him. And then it says, likewise, the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. Is that true? He could have called legions of angels to come and rescue him whenever he wanted. Jesus laid his life down willingly. It says, let him come down from the cross and we'll believe him. That's not true. They would not have believed him, even if he did do that. But, again, a railing accusation or a rail is when they're accusing you of something that you didn't do or something that's not true. It's always a lie. It's always a sin. And, yeah, it usually does come publicly like that or with some sort of, you know, rebuking language or they're mocking him and making fun of him. And the last one is Luke 23, 39, it says, and one of the male factors which were hanged railed on him, saying, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. Again, if Jesus doesn't save himself and them, does that make him not the Christ? Again, another false accusation, like, it's not like, oh, well, if you really are Jesus, you will save us, you will save yourself. I mean, that's a dead man talking right there. He knows he's going to die. It's kind of like a schoolyard taunt almost. But it is still a false accusation. That's why it says he railed on him. You're like, why are you going into this, Pastor Thompson? Well, because we need to understand words sometimes. We need to understand what railing is. Because if I was going to kick somebody out for railing, it needs to be for the actual definition of what railing really is. So, because people got it twisted. There's people that actually don't understand what railing actually is, and they'll go, you railer! It's like, that's not railing. If it's the truth, it's not railing. If it's, like, Jesus calling them a generation of vipers, and how can they escape the damnation of hell, that's rebuke. Rebuke is not railing, unless it's not true. Then if it's a false accusation, then that would make it railing. Does that make sense? So, anything that you would get kicked out of church for in 1 Corinthians 5 should be always a sin, it's always wrong, there's no objectivity to it. It's not like, well, it's not really railing because like if you're taunting someone at ping pong, and saying I own you, and then you're just playing, I mean you're railing against me. That's not railing against somebody. That's just like gamemanship. It's, you know, what men do, right? So, you know, when the Bible says that we're not even supposed to rail against the devil, Michael the Archangel says he didn't bring a railing accusation against the devil, but said the Lord rebuke you. Hey, when you think that someone's doing evil, but you can't prove it, you should just say the Lord rebuke you, you know, or the Lord judge between you and me. And then you're safe. That's the safe play. So, when people are railing against you, and you just be like, hey, you know what, I don't know what your whole purpose in doing this is, but I'll just say this, what you're saying about me is a false accusation. That's why we don't go railing for railing. You don't rail against them just because they railed against you. You don't surmise evil against them just because they railed against you. We have to fight within the confines of what the Lord allows us to fight with. Does that make sense? And you're like, well, what does that have to do with Joshua? Really nothing. Except for the fact that Joshua had to fight within the rules that the Lord gave him back then, and I'm trying to apply this to New Testament Christianity. Because you're like, well, how does Joshua apply to us? Well, it does apply to us. Because it applies in the fact that we need to fight the battle that we fight in the New Testament, which is a spiritual battle. We're not going around chopping people up with swords. This is the sword we use. The spiritual sword. And if we're not fighting our battles correctly, we can get ourselves in trouble with God and not even realize we're doing it. And especially if you have some bozos interpretation of what railing actually is. Because if they have the Webster's 1828 edition of what railing is, they're wrong about it. Because then they're making Jesus a railer. Then they're making anybody that rebukes anybody that they don't like, oh, that's railing. How's that railing? Because it does make Jesus a railer, if you read the 1828 edition. So, now Joshua 11 10, we're running out of time here. Let's look at verse 10 back in our text here. But railing also can be evil surmising. When you're evil surmising about somebody, that's usually when you just don't like that person and everything they do is you're like saying, they're doing this for some evil reason. And that's wrong too. It is a form of railing if you're just thinking that everything they do is evil or wicked. And then saying it as if it's a fact. You gotta be careful with stuff like that. So, and what is surmising? Supposing that something is true without having evidence to confirm it. You gotta have the goods before you can make an accusation. So, Joshua 11 10 says, And Joshua at that time turned back and took Hazor and smote the king thereof with the sword, for Hazor before time was the head of all those kingdoms. I already kind of told you about the Tel Hazor and it's visible today still. Went over that already. But at that time, that was like the capital of the north basically. And it is a huge acreage. If you just look at it on the map, in Google Maps, you'll see just how big that place is. It was a gigantic city and there's still evidence of it there today. But you know, the Bible's just made up, right? Joshua just made, you know, the Bible's just written by, you know, Bronze Age goat herders and none of the stuff that they said was true is all completely, it's all fairy tales, right? It's all completely fairy tales and none of it's true. Isn't that funny though? Because like you see all those tales all around Israel, I guess that Joshua you know, they just waited and then went around and just made up all these names for them. Even though that's what the archaeologists call the same, they call them the same names today. But this happened 3400 years ago. And all those places are still ruinous heaps today and they're still digging those places up and trying, and they're like, oh I guess Joshua was right. But then they try to find a reason why it wasn't really Joshua or something. But this is what people that hate the Bible do. They want to make a reason why it wasn't really true. Verse 11, And they smote all the souls that were therein, with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was not any left to breathe. And he burnt Hazle with fire, so he burnt this place with fire, the capital city, and all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them did Joshua take and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them. So he did not burn all the cities. Save Hazor only, that did Joshua burn. Which makes sense because you want to leave some infrastructure, you want to leave some places for the people to actually move into these cities once they kill everybody and get rid of their bodies, then they just kind of move in, all the trees are still there, they can get the fruit and all that stuff. And it says, And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the children of all Israel took for a prey unto themselves, but every man they smote with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe. As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua, he left nothing undone. Of all that the Lord commanded Moses. See, you know, Joshua was the man, he didn't leave anything undone. And as men that's how we should do our jobs too, amen. So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the land, and the valley, excuse me, the valley of the same, even from the mount Halak that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-Gad, in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon, and all their kings he took and smote them and slew them. And Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. So basically, it kind of makes it seem like, well God said tomorrow this time all these people are going to be dead, but then it says he made war with them a long time. Like I said, he had to go and root out a bunch of stragglers and strongholds and things like that, and the children of Israel the same. So, and it says there was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon, all other they took in battle. And really that kind of just teaches what the Bible teaches throughout it, that there's always a remnant after the, you know, according to the election of grace, right? So back then, the remnant were the small amounts of Gentiles that would be saved. So even David's mighty men that were named Uriah the Hittite, and you know, they had all these different people that were of different nationalities or whatever that were saved and remnants of the Gentiles. And the Gibeonites, I believe, are that picture. Out of all the people in the whole land of Canaan, who were the only people that got saved, you know, saved physically, and probably some got saved spiritually, I would say, were the Gibeonites. They're the only ones that humbled themselves, you know, they tricked them, but that's the only way they'd saved their lives. I would have done the same thing. But, then of course you have, like, Moses' father-in-law their descendants came, so he had some Gentiles that were saved along the way, but now it's the opposite. Now it's like all the Gentiles are the ones that are saved, and there's very few Jews that are saved now. So, like, it kind of flipped the script, really, in the way things all worked out. Now, the Bible teaches that there are few that are saved. Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 says, Enter in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. So, it's not that people can't get saved, it's just there's only one way to get saved, and that way is Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. And the Bible says, because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. So, if you apply this to the picture you see of the Canaanites, only the Gibeonites were saved out of all the inhabitants. Only them made peace with the children of Israel. So, and then it says in verse 20, For it was of the Lord to, what's it say there? Harden their hearts. It was of the Lord to harden their hearts. What does that mean? What does that tell you about them? Anybody? Reprobate. They harden their hearts. I didn't write the Bible. That's what it says. That they should come against Israel in the battle, and He might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that He might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses. So, if God hardened their hearts, that means that they're reprobates, right? I'm going to have you turn to one last passage, John chapter 12, and I'm going to buzz through the rest of this and we'll be out of here, okay? Just hang tight with me for just a few more moments. So, John, I don't want to have to repreach, I don't want to have to preach anymore out of this chapter. I want to move on to the next chapter next week. So, John chapter 12, look at verse 37. It says, But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him, talking about the Pharisees, Sadducees, and all them, that the saint of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart. Who did it? God did. That they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. So, just jump back right over to Joshua 11, 20, it says, for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts. God's been doing this for thousands of years. So, when people start to go, oh, God did genocide to the Canaanites, they, it says it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle. Why? Because they were reprobates. Because they rejected God. Because they were a bunch of homos, and child molesters, and, you know, whatever else they were doing that was wicked, God was done with them. The fullness of the wickedness and the iniquity of the Amorites had full come in. The Canaanites were done. God had already cursed the Canaanites. Noah cursed the Canaanites. He said, curse be Canaan. He did that for a reason. It was a prophetic cursing on them. So, you know, when the world sees God instructing the so-called genocide of people, it's really, he's instructing the genocide on psychopath reprobates that have no place in our society whatsoever. They have no place. And then people are like, you know, it's just like some of these people that, like, have been deported or whatever. And it's like Selena, what was her name? Selena Gomez is like, making some video about her crying about why people are being deported. It's like, dude, one of those guys kicked his pregnant wife to death in front of her five-year-old son, and she's crying for that guy? That guy should have been executed, then sent back to his country. You're going to cry about criminals being sent back to their country? That's who he's going after right now. Now, we can have a discussion later on about other people being sent back, and yeah, I mean, I agree, there's some complicated stuff that's probably going to take place. But right now, it's criminals. He's like, get the Venezuelan gang members out of here. Do you have a problem with that? I don't. I think we should put all the criminals and, you know, get them locked up or, you know, obviously locking up is not a biblical answer, but anybody that's a pedophile or a murderer, you know, or does, you know, there was a guy in Chicago that got locked up and taken out of here. He was in Chicago from 2009 to 2025, and because Chicago's a sanctuary city, this pervert was allowed to stay there in Chicago molesting kids and hurting kids all those years. And while he gets a free ticket back to his own country, he should have been killed and then sent back to his own country again. But people just have this, you know, bleeding heart for these criminals. Let's cry for him. You know, people mocked her and I'm glad she took the video down because it was like the most phony, bologna, whiny, crying video. You know, she should be mocked for that video because it was ridiculous. But anyway, she's an actor, folks. You know, who makes a video of themselves crying and then uploads it to the internet? That's bizarre, okay? It's bizarre. Alright, so I said I was going to be done. Okay, hang on. We're almost there. Let me get there. Let me get to the last couple verses here. Verse 21, and at that time came Joshua to cut off the Anakims. These Anakims are like the giants, right? They're the remnants of the giants. It says, from Hebron to Deborah and Anab and from all the mountains of Judah and from all the mountains of Israel Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. So Joshua was a giant slayer himself and it says there was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath and in Ashdod there remained. So what does that mean? Well, it's foreshadowing the coming of Goliath and his brothers and his sons. So that's where Gath is. Goliath is called the Gittite because he was from Gath. So that's where the remnant of the giants are living with the Philistines. So it's kind of cool how the Bible's just kind of foreshadowing us and leading us up to the point where the only Anakims left are the ones that are in the Philistine's camp. And it says, so Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes and the land rested from war. So the land rested from war and what a day that'll be when we get to rest from the final great war that we're battling in. But while we're in it, let's give it all we got. Knock every door we can. Battle the enemies wherever they are. Slay the giants even if they're ready to pop out years down the road. Prepare the next generation of our children for the battle. Teach them the Bible. Make sure they get saved. Train them to go forth and win souls and teach them to pray and rely on God for their strength and not of their own might. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this chapter in the Bible and for total victory, Lord. We know that only you can give us the strength that we need to fight against your enemies and I pray, Lord, you'd help us to strive lawfully and, Lord, that we wouldn't get caught up and swept away in carnality and fighting in the flesh. Lord, sometimes it's hard when the enemy can just seemingly do whatever they want. But, Lord, I pray that you would just help us to keep things in perspective and Lord, not to fall for the carnal traps that the enemy tries to lay for us. I pray, Lord, that you'd bless our church that you'd give us safety and peace during the week. Lord, help us to win souls and we pray that you'd just bless us as we go our separate ways and take care of us. Help those that are sick in our church to come back to full strength and we'll give you the praise and honor for it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...