SUNDAY SERMON - Biblical History Of The Watchers, Nephilim, & The Giants
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Length
1 hour and 2 minutes
Words per minute
156.10751
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
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Toxicity
18
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Hate speech
83
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Summary
In this episode, we continue our series of the book of Joshua, and focus on the entire chapter, focusing on verses 1 through 8, verses 16 through 20, and verses 25 through 29. In this sermon, we discuss the power of doubt in the face of God's Word, and how this lack of faith led to the destruction of the land of Canaan.
Transcript
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In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
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to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more
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positive reviews, the more the algorithm picks us up, and more people are confronted by the law
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and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a
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five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. Amen. This morning, we continue
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our series of the book of Joshua. We are now beginning Joshua chapter 8, and we're going to
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do our best to work through the entirety of the chapter, focusing our attention on verses 1 through
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8, verses 16 through 20, and verses 25 through 29. For the outset of this sermon, as a primary text,
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I'm going to read aloud verses 1 through 8, and that's the portion of the text that I would like
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for you to join me in standing for. So would you do that now? Let's stand for the reading of God's
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Word to show honor and reverence. I'll read the text in its entirety. When I finish reading the
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text, I'm going to say, this is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much
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if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God. Again, our primary focus here at the outset is
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Joshua chapter 8 verses 1 through 8 the Bible says this and the Lord said to Joshua do not fear and
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do not be dismayed take all the fighting men with you and arise go up to Ai see I have given into
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your hand the king of Ai and his people his city and his land and you shall do to Ai and its king
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as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for
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yourselves. Lay in ambush against the city behind it. So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to
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go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. And he
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commanded them, behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far
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from the city, but all of you remain ready. And I and all the people who are with me will approach
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the city. And when they have come out against us, just as before, we shall flee before them.
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And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say
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they are fleeing from us just as before. So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up
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from the ambush and seize the city. For the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And as soon
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as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the
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Lord. See, I have commanded you. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. The first
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thing that I've written in your notes for today is this. Ai was the second Canaanite city which
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Israel was commanded to conquer. In the case of Jericho, which was the first city, Israel was
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instructed to kill all its inhabitants and take none of the spoil. However, in the case of Ai,
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while Israel is still expected to kill all its inhabitants, Israel is granted permission from
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the Lord to take all the city's treasures and resources for themselves. God is exceedingly
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generous. If only we are willing to wait upon the Lord. Tragically, Achan was not. Okay, so to bring
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us up to speed, give a little bit of synopsis, background for those of you who have not been
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with us. What we've seen thus far in the book of Joshua is this. Moses was leading Israel in the
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wilderness for 40 years due to their hardness of heart and unbelief. And one of the primary
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instances that showcased and demonstrated this unbelief was when 10 or 12 spies rather were sent
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out to spy out the land of Canaan. And Joshua and Caleb were among them. Joshua and Caleb brought
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back a good report. But the other 10 spies, Israelite spies, came back saying we can never
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take the land. They said things such as we are like grasshoppers in their sight. The Nephilim
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are among them. And we're going to talk a little bit about the Nephilim today because I think it's
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integral to our text. And so they bring back a bad report saying the Nephilim are there. There are
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giants in the land. We are not able to overcome them. We are not able to oppose them. And because
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of this unbelief, it wasn't just minimizing the strength of Israel, but ultimately what it was,
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was doubting the covenant promises of the Lord. It was to minimize and exercise unbelief in God's
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strength. Not merely Israel's, but God's strength. And so, as a consequence, they were wandering in
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the land for 40 years underneath the oversight of Moses. Moses then dies. He is replaced by his
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successor Joshua. Joshua then demonstrates that he is the rightful heir, that God's promise is true,
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that he would be with Joshua just as he had been with Moses. This is signified by the Jordan River
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drying up. The water is heaped up in a pile so that Israel is able to go over the Jordan into
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the land of Canaan as though they were walking on dry land. And the first juggernaut city that
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Israel is tasked with conquering is Jericho. And they do conquer Jericho. And they do this by the
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strength of the Lord. And it is clearly a supernatural strength that they march around the
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city for seven days, one time each day for six days. On the seventh, they march around the city
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seven times. When they finish the seventh time, they give a great shout unto the Lord. They blow
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on the horns, the shofars, the trumpets. They sound, the victory sound, and the walls of Jericho come
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crashing down. Many testimonies in old Jewish writings say that the walls did not merely
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crumble, but that the earth gave way, that the earth opened up and swallowed the walls of Jericho.
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And then the men, the fighting men of Israel, were tasked to go and pursue the victory, not just to
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stand back and watch what God had done in breaking down the enemy's defensive walls, but then they're
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called to run them down, to pursue the victory. Not just subdue the enemy, but actually mortify
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and conquer the enemy. We talked about how this relates to sin in our own hearts at an individual
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level. We're not meant to just subdue sin, capture sin, quarantine sin. Sin, you can have, you can
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have quarter in this small corner of my heart, you know, but over here, I want to make sure that
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it's a sin-free zone. Now, that's not how we treat sin. What we do with sin is we are called to kill
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it. And you cannot kill that which you do not hate. And you will never come to hate sin apart
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from growing in love of Christ. And so we talked about mortifying sin. The illustration that I
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often use is Batman, right? He needs to just kill Joker. There's a certain point where it's like,
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okay, we've been through this enough times, we should have learned the lesson. Don't just subdue
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him. Don't just capture him. Don't just put him in prison. We know he's going to get out. Let's just
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go and give the death blow. And that's what we're called to do with sin. That's also what we are
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called to do. Not in a literal sense, but we are called to do this spiritually, culturally,
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politically, not just with a sin in our own individual hearts, but also in society as a whole.
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that we're not content with merely a heartbeat bill when it comes to abortion we want to say no
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there's no open season when it comes to the murder of any child we're not content to say
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well you can't kill these but you can still kill those no if God in his mercy causes the walls of
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Jericho aka row to fall if row falls then the very next thing that the people of God Israel are called
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to do is run them down. Not just celebrate. I'm not saying we don't celebrate. We celebrate and
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fight. Two things can be true at once. Christians need to learn how to walk and chew gum at the
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same time. Let's celebrate the victories that God gives us while we pursue the ultimate victory.
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That we're celebrating. God has caused the walls to fall, but we're going to pursue the enemy. We're
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going to run them down. So that's what we see with the first juggernaut city in the land of Cain,
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in the land of promise, right after crossing the Jordan River. We see Jericho, a mighty fortress,
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fall, and then Israel celebrating the initial victory of the defensive outer walls falling,
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but then running them down, pursuing the victory, and putting all the inhabitants of Jericho, that
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is the men, women, and children, and we'll get to this in just a moment, putting all them to death
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because God decreed it. God decreed it. Now, the word of the Lord, that which is inscripturated,
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that which you and I are called to follow, the secret things belong to the Lord, but those which
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He has revealed belong to us and our children forever. You and I, as New Testament Christians,
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that is coming outside of the means of Scripture.
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Joshua and Israel were receiving divine decrees from the Lord
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which He confirmed by incredible supernatural signs and wonders.
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And so they were called to do certain things that in Scripture,
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the children shall not be put to death for the sins of the father. God said this. This is his law.
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But as we saw last week, God never intended to bind himself in scripture and the Old Testament
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Torah, the Mosaic law, to bind himself in such a way that he could not issue a divine decree that
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might say otherwise. However, there's also a practical reason. A practical reason, not just
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that God is God and He can decree what He wills, but at a practical level, we do not merely have
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Israel putting to death bad people. We have Israel putting to death bad giants, bad kind of people,
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but not really. And this is where I think sophisticated Christians, they miss the point
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of the story because it seems too fantastical for us to believe. But the Bible is very clear
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in Genesis chapter 6 verse 4 that there were Nephilim in the earth at the time of the flood
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and also after. And we see also a confirmation in the book of Numbers that there were Nephilim,
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men of renown, that were in the land of Canaan that the Lord had commanded Israel to put to
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death and drive out. And then we also have, in the case of David, Goliath. And we have Goliath's
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four brothers. Goliath was a giant. You can look these things up, and you will see from, again,
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sophisticated people who hate the Word of God, that Goliath was about six foot nine.
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More likely, he was probably about nine foot nine, ten feet, and very possible even taller. There are
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about four primary time periods that we find in the Bible where giants are large, literally,
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and in charge. When we see Abraham fighting giants and possibly even fighting with some
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giants, coming to his aid to attack really, really bad giants. Kind of the enemy of my enemy is my
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friend. So we see some of this with Abraham. We see it later on in the the time period of Moses
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and Joshua. I should back up. The first would be Noah. So pre-flood, antediluvian world, Noah,
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then Abraham, then Joshua and Moses, and then another big time period would be David. And it
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seems as though one of the things that the Bible depicts is that each time giants are kind of
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getting smaller. It's as though this Nephilim DNA is starting to dilute, to be diluted. Now, to get a
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little bit of background in regards to the Nephilim, I'll give you the shortest version that I am
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capable of giving, which, you know, will be long, of course. But from my understanding, when it comes
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to angels, fallen angels, those who rebelled against God, there are different classes of angels.
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And now that's not meant to be understood necessarily as different races of angels.
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But there are different classes of angels with different prescribed duties and responsibilities.
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Now we can break them up into multiple subcategories.
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But to keep it simple, we can say that there are at least two subcategories of angels.
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There are God-facing angels and there are man-facing angels.
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There are God-facing angels, God-word angels in the sense of seraphim and cherubim.
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We think of the four living creatures with six wings.
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Two wings, they cover their faces. Two wings, they cover their feet.
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Two wings, they hover and fly around the throne of God covered in eyes
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holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and will be forever. Amen.
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We have the 24 elders in Revelation chapter 5 that constantly and perpetually fall before the
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throne of God, casting their crowns before Him. These would all be examples of God word, God
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facing angels. But the scripture is also clear that there are man facing angels. And this does
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not inherently mean that these angels are by default idolatrous. When I say that they are
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man-facing as an alternative to being God-facing, it does not mean that they are more interested in
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the affairs of men than they are the things of God. It is not as though they care for man more
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than they care and worship God, but they have actually been specifically assigned this duty
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by God. The book of Hebrews says, are not angels ministering spirits who have been appointed by God
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to serve the children of Abraham, those who are have been elected and called to salvation.
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So there are certain angels who have been prescribed by God, detailed by God with specific
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orders to be manward facing, not in an idolatrous fashion, but in their devotion and allegiance to
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the Lord. He has commissioned them to serve you and I, the spiritual children of Abraham, those
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who are to inherit salvation. I think of certain archangels like Michael or messenger angels like
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Gabriel. Michael, in the case of Daniel, he finally arrives on the scene to give revelation to Daniel
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and he says, I'm sorry I was held up in Persia because the prince of Persia, I had to do battle
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with him for a while before I could get to you. One of the things that we need to understand,
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and this gets to the issue of patriarchy, we need to understand that God works through fathers.
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God is the ultimate father. The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes down from the
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father of lights. We live in the father's world. And the father, the ultimate father, the heavenly
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father has appointed other lower lowercase f fathers in his world to serve as representative
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heads. Federal heads. We have civil fathers in the sphere of the state. We have ecclesiastical
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spiritual fathers in the sphere of the church. And we have familial fathers in the sphere of
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the home. Now the first federal head of the earthly created cosmos that God appointed as steward
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was Adam. And Adam forfeited his authority, his headship over earth to Satan. So God is the
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father. He owns it all. He's the ultimate father, the ultimate federal head. But he appoints Adam
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as a viceroy of sorts, as a human representative, representing not only his wife and all their
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future posterity, but even the creation itself. Not just human beings, but trees and rocks and
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mountains and rivers. That's why when Adam sins, God doesn't just say Adam is cursed or the woman
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is cursed, but he even goes so far as to say cursed is the ground because of you. This is why
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furthermore in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul underneath the inspiration of the Spirit
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writes that even creation, all of creation groans with eager expectations for the sons of God to be
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revealed. There are rocks and trees who are gloriously and eagerly, joyfully anticipating
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the final culmination of history, the revealing of the sons of God, and when they will be fully
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restored as Jesus ushers in the culmination of his kingdom on earth, fully as it is in heaven.
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Jesus even says that if you will not worship me, these very stones will cry out and worship.
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This is not hyperbole. Jesus was speaking literally. If man will not worship him,
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even creation will cry out. They cannot help but do so. All creation testifies to the glory of God.
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Furthermore, Romans chapter 1 says that creation sings, that it demonstrates God's existence,
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His eternal power and divine nature has been clearly displayed by what He has made. Furthermore,
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psalm i believe it's chapter 8 it might be 16 but it speaks of the skies which pour forth
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speech speaking to testifying to the glories of god his nature his character his power his
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majestic wisdom so adam was appointed by god the ultimate father as a human father over the
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physical cosmos the earth and Adam forfeited his headship federal headship to Satan through sin
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the woman was deceived and then Adam joined her in her sin this is not to exonerate Adam saying
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that the woman was deceived but the man wasn't therefore his sin was bad but not as bad as hers
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no, it was worse because he sinned with his eyes wide open. He knew better. And her initial sin
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and deception, the Bible's clear that he was with her and he did nothing to stop it. However, if Eve
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had only sinned, and this gets back to federal headship and patriarchy, if Eve had only sinned
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and Adam did not join her, the world would not have been thrust into subjugation. Because Eve
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did not represent God's rule on earth. Adam did. Federal headship matters. So God gives it to Adam.
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Adam gives it to Satan. And Satan gives this dominion, which is not just in the 17th dimension.
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It is earthly. It is tangible. It's physical. It's real. The Bible refers to Satan during this time
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period as the prince of the air, or the ruler of this age, or some translations even say the ruler
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of the world. And Satan has certain followers, his henchmen, and he assigns to them principalities.
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So think of the United States of America. We have states, or you might think of Canada,
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provinces. A prince is a ruler. A principality is a region. And so what the archangel Michael,
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going back to the book of Daniel that I referenced earlier what he's speaking of when he says I got
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held up with the prince of Persia he's saying there's a particular principality this kingdom
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this empire this region geographic region and there is a human ruler but behind that human ruler
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there is a prince a spiritual prince who influences him to do terrible things and I couldn't get
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through without having to fight him off. He actually has real dominion, real authority,
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physical authority in this place. Why? Because God has all authority. God then designates authority
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to Adam. Adam forfeits authority to Satan. And then Satan divvies it up. He delegates with different
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princes in different principalities. Does that make sense so far? Okay. Now these princes and
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Satan himself, these angels, many of them, maybe not Satan, but many of these angels are what we
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would refer to as the watchers. The watchers, going back to what I referenced in the beginning in terms
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of man-facing angels, ministering spirits, they're not idolatrous by default, inherently, but the
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watchers who chose to rebel against God and fall, they did commit idolatry. They were idolatrous. So
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Godward-facing angels, cherubim, seraphim, the four living creatures, 24 elders, but then other
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ministering spirits, angelic beings who have been commissioned by God to serve those, you and I,
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who are to inherit salvation. Some of these angels, these ministering spirits to man, watchers,
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man-facing angels, chose to join Satan in a rebellion against God. And there was a great
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spiritual battle that took place in the heavens, and they were defeated by the archangel Michael
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and cast down to the world. But woe to you, O earth, for the devil has been cast down to you.
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And then, we don't know, it seems as though probably a very short time in a literal timeline,
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a short time after Satan's rebellion and him being cast down to earth, he then takes the form of a
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serpent or possesses a serpent, very likely a dragon, because one of the curses is that it would
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crawl on its belly, which seems to imply that previously it had some kinds of legs and feet.
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So a dragon, if you will, tempts the woman, deceives her. She then leads her husband. Instead
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of him choosing to lead her, he abdicates his rule and authority and hands over his dominion,
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right? That's the dominion mandate, the cultural mandate given to Adam to be fruitful and multiply
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and to fill the earth and subdue it. He gives his rule, his dominion over to Satan. Satan delegates
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this rule to other watchers in different principalities, regions ruled by spiritual
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princes. There's always a human leader that rises up, whether it's the ruler of the
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Persians and the Medes or the Assyrians or the Babylonians. All these major human kingdoms that
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you and I can study by looking at literal human history. Major superpowers that were not just
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nations, but better thought of as empires that ruled the known world at the time and were
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exceedingly wicked. Why? Because they were totally depraved, just as you and I are apart from
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salvation. But in addition to total depravity, the human component of sin, they also had a spiritual
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component of leaders who were demonically possessed or at least influenced, where watchers, fallen
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angels, had far more reign at that time until something very significant later on took place
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in history, which I'll get to in a moment, namely Jesus. And all this is going on, and not only do
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you have principalities, spiritual principalities influencing totally depraved people. But you also
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have within those people, in some cases, a hybrid person that is half fallen angel and half man.
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And that's what we find in Genesis chapter 6 verse 4. It says that these watchers, these sons of God,
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is the phrase that's used, that they take the daughters of men, they see that they are lovely
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and come into them and produce offspring. Literally half demon, half, well, demon's not
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really the proper word, half fallen angel, half man. And these Nephilim, as they were called,
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men of renown, are of great stature in many cases. And then later generations coming down from the
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Nephilim, you have what we would consider to be a giant who is not necessarily 50% man, 50% fallen
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angel, the line becomes diluted and over time their height and stature begins to shrink. But you have
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these major periods throughout the Old Testament of giants. Now what ultimately happens in the
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coming of Christ is that Christ is the second, final, and better Adam. And Christ comes and
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ultimately what Satan attempts to do is he attempts to tempt him and get him to forfeit his rightful
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dominion in the same way that he did with Adam. Satan tempts him three times in the wilderness.
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He says to Christ in one of the temptations, he takes him up to a high hill, shows him all the
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kingdoms of the world, and says, if you would only bow down and worship me, I will give you these
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kingdoms. Now one thing that's important for us to realize is first, Satan, this is a real offer.
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he actually had these kingdoms. They were his. He took them from Adam. They're gods. God gave
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them to Adam. Satan took them. Adam forfeited them. So he's offering real kingdoms that he actually
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has dominion and power over. Now here's where evangelicals who are squishy and effeminate,
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which would make up about 95% of them, this is where they would get it wrong. They would say,
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see, Jesus says no. Satan gives a real offer to take the kingdoms of the world. A real political
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offer for political power. And Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. I don't care about
00:27:51.180
politics, right? No, Jesus, this is how we should understand it. Jesus says, I'm not going to allow
00:27:56.860
you to give me the kingdoms because I don't want them. No, I won't let you give me the kingdoms
00:28:01.640
because I'll take them. And he did. He took them. He didn't let Satan give him those kingdoms,
00:28:09.640
which would ultimately cause him to sin and then forfeit his own right, just like Adam did.
00:28:14.020
but instead he took those kingdoms by virtue of his life, death, burial, and resurrection.
00:28:21.240
And he announces, he pronounces his victory to all these fallen Nephilim and giants and spirits
00:28:29.160
down in Hades, not hell, but Hades, the realm of the dead, in Tartarus. He is standing with Abraham
00:28:37.420
in Abraham's bosom after his death in his burial. He goes down in the spirit. This is what Peter
00:28:42.700
says in his epistles and in the spirit goes down to Abraham's bosom pronounces his victory and he's
00:28:49.100
pronouncing his victory in many cases to angels who according to Jude and the book of Enoch which
00:28:54.520
is not inspired but I think helpful in many regards read it but read it with a grain of salt
00:28:59.920
but Jude says that that he's proclaiming there are angels locked in gloomy dungeons Jesus is not
0.88
00:29:06.260
giving them a second offer of salvation no he's pronouncing their defeat it's a nanny nanny boo
00:29:12.080
boo sermon. And Jesus did preach those, and it wasn't harsh. And we're allowed to have nanny
0.77
00:29:19.100
nanny boo boo sermons from time to time as well. And then Jesus takes the elect, the saints of the
00:29:26.820
Old Testament, along with Abraham and Abraham's bosom, and he goes with them and takes them to
00:29:32.580
heaven. Because now the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, it's, well,
00:29:38.060
his life and death, the penalty of sin has now been paid. Atonement has been made. And so the
00:29:43.320
bridge is now available for them not just to be in a paradise within the earth, in the realm of
00:29:49.980
the dead, Hades, but to actually be in the very presence of the thrice holy God in heaven. And
00:29:54.960
Jesus ascends with those saints to heaven. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father,
00:30:00.280
and he will return to judge the living and the dead. So this is a little bit of some
00:30:06.740
angelology, demonology, a little bit of background with these things, but it's important as it
00:30:13.780
pertains to our narrative, our text today, one of the things that Joshua and Israel are doing
00:30:20.460
is they're not just, they're not just killing totally depraved, sinful people.
00:30:27.580
They are driving out and putting to death by the sword demonic hybrids of people.
0.65
00:30:34.960
and the last big time period that we have with this there's really a fifth that we should
0.90
00:30:40.440
understand so you start with noah that the angels fall these watchers are sent by satan they're sent
00:30:49.040
to to try to pollute ultimately you have to understand the strategy here what's going on
00:30:54.760
is they're trying to pollute and stop snuff out the messianic line because satan was there that
00:31:00.920
day in the garden, he heard, he heard the first messianic promise that was issued by God in the
00:31:07.980
garden after the fall, that your seed, the seed of the serpent, will strike his heel, but he,
00:31:15.640
the woman's seed, he will crush your head. Satan knew that eventually the woman would have a seed
0.78
00:31:21.920
that would be his end, his demise. Satan, I believe, is filling the heart of Cain,
00:31:28.840
because in that sense, it's two birds killed with one stone. Abel might be the line. Cain might be
00:31:36.900
the line. And what does God say to Cain as he's jealous because God receives Abel's sacrifice and
00:31:42.060
not his? Sin is crouching at your door. Satan, the evil one, is crouching at your door. His desire is
00:31:49.120
to have you. That is to master you. But you must not be mastered by him. You must rule over him.
00:31:54.900
and Cain fails. And so Cain kills his brother. So if the line was enabled, the messianic line,
0.66
00:32:01.760
the seed promised to the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, if the line was enabled,
00:32:06.140
it's now been snuffed out. If the line was in Cain because of his corruption, that's been snuffed
00:32:11.220
out. But what the serpent did not foresee in the mercy and providence of God is that there would
00:32:16.000
be a third son, Seth, that would carry the line. And this continues all the way up to the days of
00:32:22.520
Noah. In the days of Noah, the Nephilim are prevalent on the earth. And Noah, though, is
0.92
00:32:29.260
blameless in his generations, which can be translated as perfect in his genealogies.
00:32:36.140
Very likely the only man left, along with his wife and three sons, who did not have a polluted,
00:32:42.600
hybrid, demonic DNA. We're getting real, real wacky today. But I think it's true.
0.99
00:32:52.520
and God spares Noah and wipes out the rest of the earth. And the reason I'm saying all this,
0.89
00:32:57.900
it's important as we seek to catechize our children. And we come to different, difficult
00:33:02.860
stories in the Bible, like God sent a flood and drowned everyone, right? And our kids are like,
00:33:09.920
you said that guy, you said he's loving, but he's doing a lot of drowning.
00:33:16.020
Well, it does help, first and foremost, let me be clear, God, let God be true in every man a liar.
00:33:21.640
If it's just drowning wicked men, God is just to do so.
00:33:27.120
But if God is drowning wicked men that are also part demon,
00:33:35.800
But again, Genesis 6-4 says that the Nephilim were on the earth before and after.
00:33:45.680
I think I've been persuaded to a second incursion.
00:33:47.940
I think you guys are right. I think that's really helpful.
00:33:49.560
One possibility, though, is that although Noah and his wife and three sons are blameless, perfect in their genealogies,
00:33:57.360
that the three wives of the three sons, because there are eight persons in all taken on the ark,
00:34:02.420
the ark being a type of Christ, the water being a type of God's judgment for sin.
00:34:07.640
So wrapped up in Christ, the Bible even says in the case of the ark that the Lord himself closed the door.
00:34:25.000
But one possibility is that Noah, his wife, and three sons,
00:34:34.400
There are eight in all that are taken up into the ark.
00:34:39.860
and one possibility is that the three wives of Noah's three sons were polluted. That they were
00:34:46.100
descendants of the Nephilim. And that it had been polluted, you know, not polluted, but diluted by
0.98
00:34:51.940
that point to where it was not externally visible. That Noah didn't know, oh my goodness, my son
00:34:59.340
married this woman and she's not pure. That's one possible interpretation. If there's any of the
00:35:05.500
wives of Noah's sons that were polluted, that had Nephilim kind of traced down DNA, very likely it
0.83
00:35:13.380
would have been the wife of Ham. All right, just one really fun unhinged take here. One possibility.
0.78
00:35:20.320
So Noah, when the ark finally lands, he plants a vineyard and he gets drunk with wine and passes
00:35:25.800
out in his tent. Probably the explanation that you've heard in evangelical churches is that,
00:35:30.840
you know, Noah, he's just cooped up on the ark. You know, he's shoveling animal poop for a really
00:35:35.240
long time. You know, he's just letting his hair down. He's exasperated and frustrated. And the
00:35:40.740
ark landed high up on a mountain. The altitude is very high. He wasn't used to that altitude. And so
00:35:46.140
he more easily gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent. All that's entirely possible. Entirely
00:35:52.900
possible. And then what happens is that one of his sons, namely Ham, goes into the tent. And rather
00:35:57.640
than covering and honoring his father in that moment of shame, he exposes it and mocks his
00:36:03.500
father to his brothers. And then what happens is that the other two brothers, they walk in
00:36:08.960
backward, holding the corner of a sheet on each side and cover their father's nakedness. When he
00:36:14.240
hears of what has happened, Ham dishonoring him, shaming him, he says, now this is where it gets
00:36:19.520
interesting, cursed be Ham for his sin of exposing my shame. Canaan. It is possible that maybe Noah
00:36:29.400
was drunk because of high altitude and just a little bit too much time on a boat with stinky
00:36:34.320
animals. It's also possible that maybe he was incredibly distraught because his grandson had
00:36:41.160
just recently been born with maybe six fingers and six toes. Just throwing it out there. Cursed be
00:36:48.860
Canaan. Now, one way or another, what we do know is that Canaan then fathered all these different
1.00
00:36:55.440
tribes in the land of Canaan, which brings us back to our text today and everything going on
00:36:59.740
with Joshua, the promised land. And in these Canaanite tribes, we know that the Nephilim
00:37:04.580
were among them. In fact, that's the report that's given by the 10 fearful spies that cause them to
0.97
00:37:12.920
have to ultimately give way to unbelief and be punished by having to wander in the wilderness
00:37:17.420
for an additional 40 years, 40 years longer than they had to. Now we can say that these 10 wicked
00:37:23.760
spies of Israel who bring a bad report are just giving into fear, saying we are like grasshoppers
0.98
00:37:30.060
in their eyes. Or we could also say that maybe it was true. That maybe the sin wasn't exaggeration
0.96
00:37:36.340
and lying out of cowardice. But maybe the sin was this is true, but you're still a coward because
0.99
00:37:41.860
you have Yahweh. And giants or no giants, Yahweh is superior to giants. And so again, these main
00:37:50.460
time periods, the fifth being Christ, you have Noah, Nephilim giants. The flood wipes them out.
0.55
00:37:57.240
Now the reason why I've been persuaded 80, 85 percent of a second incursion, meaning not that
00:38:04.200
a second wave of angels rebel against God, one wave of rebellion against God, but some of these
00:38:09.720
rebel angels taking the daughters of men, not all of them, then being locked in gloomy dungeons,
00:38:14.740
than some more of those fallen angels after the flood being commissioned by Lucifer to do it again
0.62
00:38:21.400
and try to pollute the line again, the messianic line, producing Nephilim and giant offspring again.
00:38:28.120
One of the reasons why I think that that is probable is because it seems to undercut God's plan and providence
00:38:36.400
of wiping the world out with a flood to get rid of the Nephilim if he knew Nephilim were on the ark.
0.51
00:38:41.420
if he knew that one of the wives of Noah's sons would ultimately continue. It seems like God
0.92
00:38:48.380
floated the whole world in an attempt to wipe out this demonic evil race and failed. And so I don't
00:38:55.220
really like theories that lend towards the failure of God. That's just a good rule of thumb when we're
00:38:59.680
doing, you know, theology. If the particular doctrine in question means that God, you know,
00:39:06.700
somehow failed, then it may not be true. So perhaps a second incursion, another group of
00:39:12.060
these fallen watchers now commissioned once more after the flood to take the daughters of men and
0.94
00:39:17.640
to produce these Nephilim demonic hybrids. And so that's how we end up with giants in the land
0.62
00:39:23.200
once again in the days of Joshua after Noah, after the flood. So you have Noah, then you have Abraham,
00:39:30.440
then you have Moses slash Joshua, then you have David, and it seems as though giants at this point
00:39:37.160
are already, that the line is being diluted. Giants are smaller in stature. Goliath is maybe 10 feet
00:39:44.620
tall. He had four brothers. Remember that there are five capital cities in Philistia, and it's very
00:39:51.940
likely that at this point in time, the giants are not ruling the land, but Goliath and his four
00:39:57.460
brothers are actually slaves taken capture by the Philistines. So think of like the orcs being in
00:40:05.260
charge, but having a cave troll, right? The cave troll is not the ruler of the orcs. The cave troll
00:40:10.680
is the slave of the orcs that bring in the cave troll, right? So you've got that kind of situation
00:40:15.000
going on. And it's very possible that Goliath and his four brothers, each giant is appointed as like
00:40:21.440
a mascot, a champion soldier with each of these five capital Philistine cities. And David, taking
00:40:29.000
five stones, in some sense may be a metaphor, symbolic, that I'm coming for you first, Goliath,
00:40:35.180
then I'll take care of your four brothers. Not only are we pushing back the Philistines, but we're
1.00
00:40:40.040
also going to wipe out the rest of the giants. The last thing, the fifth, so it's Noah, then it's
1.00
00:40:45.320
Abraham, then it's Joshua, and Moses, then it's David. The last one is Christ. And Christ does
00:40:50.900
what was done before in the physical sense. He now does in the ultimate spiritual sense.
00:40:56.480
Have you ever wondered why are there so many demons in Israel?
00:41:02.340
Jesus, so much of his ministry is casting out demonic spirits. And notice how these spirits
00:41:09.000
and what's ultimately that they're spoken of is not really demon, but disembodied spirits
00:41:15.000
or demonic spirits they're evil make no mistake but but what's probably going on is these are not
00:41:23.620
fallen angels demons in that sense but these are probably the disembodied spirits of the nephilim
00:41:30.740
hybrid fallen angels and part man that were wiped out in the flood and then further pushed back by
00:41:37.680
Joshua and Moses and David, but the disembodied spirits are now inhabiting people in Israel.
00:41:45.800
And why are they so successful in inhabiting people in Israel? Because Israel at the time of
0.75
00:41:51.380
Christ and his incarnation is 400 years removed since Malachi and the last word of the Lord.
00:41:58.380
The Bible said that the word of the Lord was exceedingly rare in those days. Malachi even
00:42:03.760
speaks of that the skies were turned to bronze. There was no more prophetic revelation. And Israel,
00:42:11.100
by the time Jesus burst on the scene, their hearts are so hardened towards the Messiah. He came to
00:42:17.500
his own, but they received him not. Israel had so hardened their heart against God, against the
00:42:23.920
things of God, that they were far more susceptible for this disembodied spirit to inhabit them. And
0.90
00:42:32.500
so Jesus comes and all this giant killing has already been done by the flood in the days of
00:42:38.440
Noah, by Abraham, by Joshua and Moses, and then by David kind of cleaning up the last of them,
00:42:46.080
at least the ones that we know about that didn't run somewhere else, which is entirely possible.
00:42:50.760
And then Jesus coming and finishing the job at the spiritual level. Notice that in one case,
00:42:56.720
these disembodied spirits they even say they so desire to take a physical body captive they say
00:43:03.280
please do not punish us before the appointed time would you allow us to inhabit the pigs
00:43:10.060
we'd rather have a person but pigs will do if you won't let us have a person they fill the pigs and
00:43:17.200
immediately possess the pigs causing them to run into the sea and drown and these are the kinds of
00:43:23.880
things that are going on. And this is the kind of warfare that's happening, I believe, in the book
00:43:29.860
of Joshua. That you don't just have good guys and bad guys. You don't just have Israel and then those
00:43:38.400
who are totally depraved apart from Christ and saving grace. But you actually have in many ways
0.96
00:43:44.380
God using Israel to snuff out at a biological level all of Satan's attempts to stop and inhibit
00:43:53.880
and dilute the messianic line. And later on, Satan continues these things, whether it be with Pharaoh
00:44:00.680
killing all the Hebrew-born boys. Right? If you don't think that there was a prince
0.94
00:44:07.080
behind this principality of Egypt, behind Pharaoh, possessing his heart to do this,
0.76
00:44:12.820
pharaoh wanted to do it so that israel wouldn't take over egypt that they wouldn't be too strong
0.55
00:44:18.180
he had his human reason but very very likely there was a demonic presence a prince over that
00:44:27.000
principality with his reason his commission orders from lucifer saying we've got to snuff out the
1.00
00:44:32.340
line the seed of the woman that's going to crush our head well let's kill all the hebrew boys
0.99
00:44:37.600
again, we see the same thing happen that Pharaoh did with Herod. And that's why we have Mary and
1.00
00:44:44.320
Joseph fleeing back to Egypt. Ironically, the very place where the line was attempted to be snuffed
00:44:50.340
out earlier in the days of Moses, now you find them finding refuge in Egypt because Herod
00:44:55.920
in Rome is trying to snuff out all the Hebrew boys. Once again, so you see this great battle
00:45:02.500
throughout the Old Testament, where it's not just that God announces His victory. He actually,
00:45:09.720
and this just speaks to the superiority and the infinite wisdom of God. God is so confident,
00:45:14.880
not arrogant, but confident because He is God. He's so confident of His victory that He doesn't
00:45:19.740
just announce, I'm going to win. He tells Satan in the very beginning exactly how he's going to win.
00:45:26.180
It's like if you ever see, you know, somebody who's just awesome at basketball, and he's like,
00:45:29.920
this is what's about to happen. And I'm going to dribble this way. Then I'm going to do this and
00:45:33.280
that. And I'm going to dunk on you. And then they do it. And everyone's like, whoa. That's what
0.95
00:45:38.160
God's doing. That's what God does. I'm going to do this. Try and stop me. You think he can snuff
00:45:45.380
out the line? You think he can do this? You think he can do that? You can't. I'm sovereign over all
00:45:49.900
things. I'm infinitely wise. And he brings about the Christ. And the Christ, Jesus, is the final
00:45:56.240
giant slayer. And he doesn't just slay giants like flesh and blood and the physical level,
00:46:02.700
but he goes and drives out all the demons in Israel. Now these disembodied spirits, last thing
00:46:10.620
I'll say, these disembodied spirits, they're driven out, but they're not necessarily, we know that
00:46:17.860
Satan has not yet been cast into the lake of fire, his ultimate destruction. There's a sense in which
00:46:24.640
he still prowls around like a roaring lion. I believe that Satan has been bound by the finished
00:46:30.100
work of Christ in his life, death, and resurrection. But even though he's bound on a leash, a tighter
00:46:36.440
leash, there's still a little bit of walking around room. And even though certain watchers,
00:46:43.100
fallen angels who took the daughters of men, they've actually been locked up in gloomy dungeons
00:46:47.760
perjured. There still could be influence. And the Nephilim spirits, not the fallen watchers,
00:46:54.300
the angels themselves, but their hybrid offspring, their disembodied spirits. What Jesus says is that
00:47:01.480
when a spirit is cast out, if the house, the person, is swept clean and put in order, but it's not
00:47:08.800
filled, the implication being by the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, our body is a temple, the
00:47:14.160
Holy Spirit, that they're not filled with faith and repentance and belief in the ministry and
00:47:19.340
dwelling ministry of the spirit, then what happens is that this demon goes through arid or waterless
00:47:26.000
places, disembodied, but eventually will come back, finding the house, swept clean and put in order and
00:47:32.320
bring back with it seven other demonic presences worse than itself. And the final state of the
00:47:37.900
person will be far worse. And from what we can tell, these disembodied Nephilim spirits still
00:47:46.420
have not been cast biblically into the lake of fire for final judgment. They are not among the
00:47:52.760
fallen watchers that were locked up in gloomy dungeons under the earth, which would be my
00:47:58.060
interpretation. Instead, they go through arid places. And what we see historically over the
00:48:05.980
last 2,000 years of church history is wherever the gospel goes, wherever a place is Christianized,
00:48:14.880
you begin to see progressively generation by generation over time far and far less demonic
00:48:22.800
activity. But wherever a place rejects Christ and holds to pagan idols you see the people there
00:48:32.080
eventually getting to a point where they're more susceptible to spiritual demonic possession and
0.77
00:48:40.220
you actually have demonic cases, just like you had in Israel because of their hardness of heart
0.59
00:48:45.980
when Jesus came 2,000 years ago. Now, what we have not yet experienced, but I believe
00:48:52.940
quite possibly are seeing the beginnings of right now, and this is interesting, if nothing else has
00:48:58.520
been interesting, is we have not seen at a societal, national level the principle of
00:49:07.960
being possessed by demons, the demon having been cast out by Christ and the Christianizing of that
00:49:14.300
place in the world, the house then swept clean and put in order by the Christian gospel,
0.78
00:49:19.040
but then the rejection of the Christian gospel with a house swept clean and put in order and
00:49:24.460
the demonic presence now coming back to re-inhabit. And I think that that's exactly where the West is
0.73
00:49:29.780
right now. What I'm saying is this. Catch this. We have seen places with pagan idolatry rejecting
00:49:37.540
Christ inhabited by demonic presences. What we have not seen is a place where those demonic
00:49:43.900
presences have been cast out. It's been swept clean by Christianizing and put in order, but then
0.98
00:49:50.700
a rejection of Christ and the demons seven times worse now coming back. The return of the strong
0.99
00:49:58.120
gods. I think that that's where the West is heading. So you're talking about people who are
00:50:04.580
pagan and demonic, having rejected Christ, making themselves susceptible to demonic influence and
00:50:11.400
activity, but at their disposal now, all the different technology and advancements that came
00:50:17.460
about as a result of the Christian gospel. So you're not just talking about demon-possessed people
00:50:28.480
and that's why one of our earnest prayers should be that god would send revival to the west
00:50:36.120
and that we would stop our process of apostasy and turn back to the lord turn back to the lord
00:50:44.400
we have attributed to human uh secular humanism that which rightly the glory and credit that
00:50:51.340
rightly belongs to God alone. We think that secularism has somehow garnished for us peace
00:50:59.420
and prosperity and technology and convenience and intelligence and all that. No, Christ did that.
00:51:09.540
You want to find first world countries on a map? You can look at the economic levels of nations,
00:51:19.380
or you can also just pull out a map of the last 500 years, some history, and just follow the
00:51:24.920
Reformation. Every nation that embraced the Reformation, oh hey, coincidence, turns out
00:51:30.400
that's a first world country. Coincidence? No. Now the principles of Christ bring about blessing,
0.99
00:51:37.880
peace, and prosperity. But to receive that blessing, peace, and prosperity, and in later
00:51:43.340
generations to forget and reject the lord and attribute all that blessing to secularism
00:51:49.720
darwinism the enlightenment and not christ that is ultimately to have christ come in
00:51:58.140
remove the demonic spirits sweep the house in order and then say seven more come on back come
00:52:05.980
on home. And just in case we're tempted to forget, Anglo-Saxons were once upon a time
00:52:15.780
painting their faces blue and red and sailing on Viking ships. We were pagan. You look at Norse
00:52:24.400
mythology. You look at Swedish history. It's not like, oh, we've just always been kind of put
00:52:30.240
together. No, no, no, no. No, we are pagan just like everybody else. The only difference is not
00:52:36.820
ethnicity. It's not pigment. The only difference is that God, in His mercy, did something marvelous
00:52:43.400
in the West. And if we will not humble ourselves, He will allow us to revert back into paganism,
0.99
00:52:51.040
be susceptible to demonic influence and even possession in some cases, and He'll restore
0.99
00:52:57.840
Christendom, somewhere in South America, somewhere in Asia, somewhere in Africa, just for another
0.80
00:53:05.320
500 years, just to prove that it was always the gospel's work and not man's. And you've heard me
0.94
00:53:11.840
say it before. I'll say it again. If we don't repent, 250 years from now, there could be
00:53:18.340
commercials in Uganda that say for just a dollar a day, you could send a little white kid to a
00:53:23.380
Christian school. It's all his work. It's all his grace. And Jesus is the final giant slayer.
0.97
00:53:37.160
Not just at the physical level, but spiritually. And we have fallen angels locked up in gloomy
00:53:44.560
dungeons. We have Satan bound, no longer able to deceive the nations, not like he was. Still
00:53:51.480
influencing, still prodding, still levels of deception, but certainly not like Assyria and
0.93
00:53:57.240
Babylon, the Persians and the Medes. And yet, despite all of this, our responsibility is to
00:54:04.140
humble ourselves and trust in Him. And if we do not, there are terrible things still at work in
00:54:12.040
our world. What I want you to understand, church, is this. Darwinism is a lie. Materialism is a lie.
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the world is not just stuff. It's not just matter. There is a spiritual world
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at work. It's real. It's significant. And it's powerful. We think we know everything.
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We don't. We think we know everything. We think we've studied everything. Oh, we have satellites.
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okay what's below the tree line over there in that forest where no one has gone
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oh we have submarines you mean the one that exploded
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five percent of the ocean floor we've explored five percent we don't know what's down there
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we've given way to atheism we've given way to materialism all these things
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by God's grace through revival and reformation I believe our great-grandchildren will look back
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and they'll make fun of us and rightfully so let's say they thought they knew everything
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remember when when people were so rebellious against God they thought that people came from
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apes. Let's just laugh at those people for a little bit. How foolish they were.
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If you want to be on the right side of history, believe this book.
1.00
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All of it. Have no problem verses, Doug Wilson has been fond of saying. No problem verses.
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believe this book you're going to believe this primitive neanderthal book
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it says there were giants okay then there were giants
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it says that there was god commanded genocide uh-huh let god be true and every man a liar there
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was a reason it condones slavery in a particular way and for that reason according to the infinite
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wisdom of God, it is permissible and even right. Do not be embarrassed by the Word of God.
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There are plenty of things to be embarrassed by. The Word of God is not one of them.
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So that's it. We'll just consider this to be a pretext for next week when I will get into
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the text. Okay. But I wanted to set the background. I wanted to do more. I'll be honest. I wanted to
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do more. I failed. But I wanted to at least set the background for what's going on in Canaan
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and what's going on with Joshua and what's going on with Israel. All these kinds of things. So
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we've seen them defeat Jericho and we will talk about how they defeated Ai. But here's the big
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point. The big point is this. AI, the reason they got whooped is because, well, there was sin in the
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camp. Achan took some of the devoted things from Jericho. It was all supposed to be given to the
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Lord. All of it. But he took it. His children were put to death, I believe, because they were complicit
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with their father in that sin. They knew about it and were hiding him and defending him. And then
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they go up against AI before they know that there's sin in the camp, before God reveals it to Joshua
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what Achan had done. And they get whooped. They take 3,000, about 3,000 men to go against Ai
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because the whole city, it's different than Jericho. Jericho was superior to Israel. Ai is
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only 12,000 people. The Bible says total. They go with 3,000 fighting men and they get whooped.
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They have to retreat. They have to flee. Then God reveals to Joshua there's sin in the camp.
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But it's not just get rid of the sin and then you'll be able to take Ai. That's the big thing
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that we need to see in Joshua chapter 8. Joshua chapter 8, there's really only a couple big
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overarching themes that you need to see. One is that it's not just Achan's sin, take care of Achan's
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sin, and then you can defeat Ai. That's not the only principle. The other principle is a city of
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12,000 is still going to require all the fighting men of Israel, which is over 30,000, to defeat.
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why why does it take over 30 000 men to defeat a city with only 12 000 population including women
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and children total there are giants in the sky big tall terrible giants in the sky they're giants
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that's why what we see is god supernaturally joshua holds out god commands him to do this
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holds out his javelin, and he keeps his arm outstretched until there's a total taking of
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the city. The city is in flames, goes up in smoke, and everyone is wiped out.
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Meaning this, Israel was dependent on the supernatural strength and power of God to defeat
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superior opponents, Jericho, and seemingly inferior opponents, Ai. God will not share
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his glory with another. God is determined, insisting that Israel will only attain success and victory
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by his providence, by his power, by his supernatural strength. And he's saying that these enemies,
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whether they be many or few, you're not just fighting against mere flesh and blood. There's a
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bigger story going on. And you're going to need me every step of the way. So the big ideas of Joshua
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eight is one. Whether we fight big enemies or small enemies, follow this script. Do what God
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says. Don't think, hey, we needed God for Jericho. We don't need him for AI. Let's just take 3,000
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men and get it done. Uh-uh. No, they need God to give them the strategy. Hold out a javelin. What's
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that got to do with anything? It's supernatural. You won't do it without my supernatural help.
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we stick to the script if anything joshua chapter 8 we could say it like this it condemns human
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pragmatism that it's not just pragmatism it's not just hey you know what god made the jericho
01:00:40.900
this border city fall there's roe and now we can you know we can use pragmatic human strategies
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little by little to do this and do that nah same thing you needed for jericho you need that to
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finish ai not pragmatism but the supernatural power of god the whole way and what's our job
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what's our responsibility in ensuring that god is with us in his strength and power doing what he
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says following the script not just coming up with our own pragmatic human strategies if god says
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stick out a javelin and hold it until the war is over you do it that's the idea the last thing so
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I am preaching it. We'll be done. The last thing that we see in the text is this. Jericho. They
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conquered Jericho. They don't get any of the spoil. The very next city. They're called to kill
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all the inhabitants, but all their resources and treasures and livestock, Israel's given
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permission by God to take. If Achan had just waited a very short period of time, he could
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have had everything he wanted. And what does this signify? Because we'll see other cities. These are
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all capital cities, different tribes of Canaanites, all descending from Canaan, the grandson of Noah,
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the son of Ham. And what we see is with most of these cities, God gives permission to Israel
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to take of the spoil. It was only the first city that God says, put it all to destruction and the
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devoted things bring into the treasury of the Lord. And the principle that you and I, even as New
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Testament Christians, can take from this is twofold with Joshua chapter 8. Threefold, Nephilim are fun
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to talk about. All right, two, the second part, pragmatism doesn't work. Stick to the script.
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Whether our enemy is big or small, we won't win without God's supernatural favor. And then the
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third thing, the first fruits belong to the Lord. Jericho is the first city that they conquer. Give
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it to God. And God lets you have the rest. All right. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word.
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Bless it to Your people. Bring glory to Yourself. Amen.