The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Biblical History Of The Watchers, Nephilim, & The Giants

00:00:00.000 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month

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00:00:16.360 and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a

00:00:23.480 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. Amen. This morning, we continue

00:00:30.160 our series of the book of Joshua. We are now beginning Joshua chapter 8, and we're going to

00:00:35.940 do our best to work through the entirety of the chapter, focusing our attention on verses 1 through

00:00:41.080 8, verses 16 through 20, and verses 25 through 29. For the outset of this sermon, as a primary text,

00:00:50.860 I'm going to read aloud verses 1 through 8, and that's the portion of the text that I would like

00:00:56.880 for you to join me in standing for. So would you do that now? Let's stand for the reading of God's

00:01:01.540 Word to show honor and reverence. I'll read the text in its entirety. When I finish reading the

00:01:06.560 text, I'm going to say, this is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much

00:01:11.160 if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God. Again, our primary focus here at the outset is

00:01:17.260 Joshua chapter 8 verses 1 through 8 the Bible says this and the Lord said to Joshua do not fear and

00:01:24.540 do not be dismayed take all the fighting men with you and arise go up to Ai see I have given into

00:01:32.860 your hand the king of Ai and his people his city and his land and you shall do to Ai and its king 0.88

00:01:40.440 as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for 0.98

00:01:47.840 yourselves. Lay in ambush against the city behind it. So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to

00:01:54.900 go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. And he

00:02:03.320 commanded them, behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far

00:02:10.420 from the city, but all of you remain ready. And I and all the people who are with me will approach

00:02:16.780 the city. And when they have come out against us, just as before, we shall flee before them.

00:02:24.040 And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say

00:02:30.220 they are fleeing from us just as before. So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up

00:02:37.260 from the ambush and seize the city. For the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And as soon

00:02:44.120 as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the

00:02:50.080 Lord. See, I have commanded you. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. The first

00:02:58.160 thing that I've written in your notes for today is this. Ai was the second Canaanite city which

00:03:03.680 Israel was commanded to conquer. In the case of Jericho, which was the first city, Israel was

00:03:10.580 instructed to kill all its inhabitants and take none of the spoil. However, in the case of Ai,

00:03:17.840 while Israel is still expected to kill all its inhabitants, Israel is granted permission from 0.89

00:03:23.880 the Lord to take all the city's treasures and resources for themselves. God is exceedingly 0.86

00:03:31.020 generous. If only we are willing to wait upon the Lord. Tragically, Achan was not. Okay, so to bring

00:03:40.080 us up to speed, give a little bit of synopsis, background for those of you who have not been

00:03:44.800 with us. What we've seen thus far in the book of Joshua is this. Moses was leading Israel in the

00:03:51.740 wilderness for 40 years due to their hardness of heart and unbelief. And one of the primary 0.91

00:03:59.160 instances that showcased and demonstrated this unbelief was when 10 or 12 spies rather were sent

00:04:08.020 out to spy out the land of Canaan. And Joshua and Caleb were among them. Joshua and Caleb brought

00:04:15.840 back a good report. But the other 10 spies, Israelite spies, came back saying we can never 0.87

00:04:22.920 take the land. They said things such as we are like grasshoppers in their sight. The Nephilim

00:04:30.120 are among them. And we're going to talk a little bit about the Nephilim today because I think it's

00:04:35.360 integral to our text. And so they bring back a bad report saying the Nephilim are there. There are

00:04:41.480 giants in the land. We are not able to overcome them. We are not able to oppose them. And because

00:04:48.760 of this unbelief, it wasn't just minimizing the strength of Israel, but ultimately what it was,

00:04:55.580 was doubting the covenant promises of the Lord. It was to minimize and exercise unbelief in God's

00:05:03.400 strength. Not merely Israel's, but God's strength. And so, as a consequence, they were wandering in

00:05:10.720 the land for 40 years underneath the oversight of Moses. Moses then dies. He is replaced by his

00:05:18.360 successor Joshua. Joshua then demonstrates that he is the rightful heir, that God's promise is true,

00:05:26.140 that he would be with Joshua just as he had been with Moses. This is signified by the Jordan River

00:05:32.780 drying up. The water is heaped up in a pile so that Israel is able to go over the Jordan into 0.72

00:05:39.360 the land of Canaan as though they were walking on dry land. And the first juggernaut city that 0.96

00:05:46.900 Israel is tasked with conquering is Jericho. And they do conquer Jericho. And they do this by the 0.90

00:05:55.740 strength of the Lord. And it is clearly a supernatural strength that they march around the

00:06:02.020 city for seven days, one time each day for six days. On the seventh, they march around the city

00:06:09.300 seven times. When they finish the seventh time, they give a great shout unto the Lord. They blow

00:06:16.000 on the horns, the shofars, the trumpets. They sound, the victory sound, and the walls of Jericho come

00:06:24.020 crashing down. Many testimonies in old Jewish writings say that the walls did not merely

00:06:30.180 crumble, but that the earth gave way, that the earth opened up and swallowed the walls of Jericho.

00:06:37.000 And then the men, the fighting men of Israel, were tasked to go and pursue the victory, not just to

00:06:44.620 stand back and watch what God had done in breaking down the enemy's defensive walls, but then they're

00:06:51.620 called to run them down, to pursue the victory. Not just subdue the enemy, but actually mortify

00:06:58.480 and conquer the enemy. We talked about how this relates to sin in our own hearts at an individual

00:07:05.200 level. We're not meant to just subdue sin, capture sin, quarantine sin. Sin, you can have, you can

00:07:12.780 have quarter in this small corner of my heart, you know, but over here, I want to make sure that

00:07:19.160 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

00:07:24.780 it. And you cannot kill that which you do not hate. And you will never come to hate sin apart

00:07:30.060 from growing in love of Christ. And so we talked about mortifying sin. The illustration that I

00:07:35.260 often use is Batman, right? He needs to just kill Joker. There's a certain point where it's like, 0.99

00:07:40.880 okay, we've been through this enough times, we should have learned the lesson. Don't just subdue

00:07:46.100 him. Don't just capture him. Don't just put him in prison. We know he's going to get out. Let's just

00:07:50.800 go and give the death blow. And that's what we're called to do with sin. That's also what we are 0.86

00:07:55.980 called to do. Not in a literal sense, but we are called to do this spiritually, culturally,

00:08:02.840 politically, not just with a sin in our own individual hearts, but also in society as a whole.

00:08:09.180 that we're not content with merely a heartbeat bill when it comes to abortion we want to say no

00:08:16.400 there's no open season when it comes to the murder of any child we're not content to say

00:08:22.880 well you can't kill these but you can still kill those no if God in his mercy causes the walls of

00:08:30.000 Jericho aka row to fall if row falls then the very next thing that the people of God Israel are called 0.97

00:08:38.060 to do is run them down. Not just celebrate. I'm not saying we don't celebrate. We celebrate and 0.90

00:08:44.720 fight. Two things can be true at once. Christians need to learn how to walk and chew gum at the

00:08:50.360 same time. Let's celebrate the victories that God gives us while we pursue the ultimate victory. 0.92

00:08:57.140 That we're celebrating. God has caused the walls to fall, but we're going to pursue the enemy. We're

00:09:02.980 going to run them down. So that's what we see with the first juggernaut city in the land of Cain,

00:09:08.960 in the land of promise, right after crossing the Jordan River. We see Jericho, a mighty fortress,

00:09:15.920 fall, and then Israel celebrating the initial victory of the defensive outer walls falling, 0.99

00:09:22.300 but then running them down, pursuing the victory, and putting all the inhabitants of Jericho, that 0.99

00:09:28.600 is the men, women, and children, and we'll get to this in just a moment, putting all them to death 0.95

00:09:34.900 because God decreed it. God decreed it. Now, the word of the Lord, that which is inscripturated, 0.93

00:09:43.140 that which you and I are called to follow, the secret things belong to the Lord, but those which

00:09:47.940 He has revealed belong to us and our children forever. You and I, as New Testament Christians,

00:09:54.000 we are called to follow the script.

00:09:56.760 We do not have a divine decree

00:09:58.800 that is coming outside of the means of Scripture.

00:10:03.260 But Joshua did.

00:10:05.220 Joshua and Israel were receiving divine decrees from the Lord

00:10:09.420 which He confirmed by incredible supernatural signs and wonders.

00:10:16.120 And so they were called to do certain things that in Scripture,

00:10:20.040 for instance, we have the verse that

00:10:21.520 the children shall not be put to death for the sins of the father. God said this. This is his law.

00:10:28.320 But as we saw last week, God never intended to bind himself in scripture and the Old Testament

00:10:35.380 Torah, the Mosaic law, to bind himself in such a way that he could not issue a divine decree that

00:10:42.700 might say otherwise. However, there's also a practical reason. A practical reason, not just

00:10:49.700 that God is God and He can decree what He wills, but at a practical level, we do not merely have

00:10:56.580 Israel putting to death bad people. We have Israel putting to death bad giants, bad kind of people,

00:11:07.720 but not really. And this is where I think sophisticated Christians, they miss the point 1.00

00:11:15.440 of the story because it seems too fantastical for us to believe. But the Bible is very clear 1.00

00:11:23.640 in Genesis chapter 6 verse 4 that there were Nephilim in the earth at the time of the flood

00:11:29.940 and also after. And we see also a confirmation in the book of Numbers that there were Nephilim,

00:11:38.900 men of renown, that were in the land of Canaan that the Lord had commanded Israel to put to 0.96

00:11:44.900 death and drive out. And then we also have, in the case of David, Goliath. And we have Goliath's 0.93

00:11:52.180 four brothers. Goliath was a giant. You can look these things up, and you will see from, again,

00:11:59.360 sophisticated people who hate the Word of God, that Goliath was about six foot nine.

00:12:05.900 More likely, he was probably about nine foot nine, ten feet, and very possible even taller. There are

00:12:14.220 about four primary time periods that we find in the Bible where giants are large, literally,

00:12:21.540 and in charge. When we see Abraham fighting giants and possibly even fighting with some

00:12:30.800 giants, coming to his aid to attack really, really bad giants. Kind of the enemy of my enemy is my

00:12:37.020 friend. So we see some of this with Abraham. We see it later on in the the time period of Moses

00:12:44.320 and Joshua. I should back up. The first would be Noah. So pre-flood, antediluvian world, Noah,

00:12:52.900 then Abraham, then Joshua and Moses, and then another big time period would be David. And it

00:12:59.920 seems as though one of the things that the Bible depicts is that each time giants are kind of

00:13:05.540 getting smaller. It's as though this Nephilim DNA is starting to dilute, to be diluted. Now, to get a

00:13:14.320 little bit of background in regards to the Nephilim, I'll give you the shortest version that I am

00:13:20.480 capable of giving, which, you know, will be long, of course. But from my understanding, when it comes

00:13:28.620 to angels, fallen angels, those who rebelled against God, there are different classes of angels.

00:13:34.780 And now that's not meant to be understood necessarily as different races of angels.

00:13:39.640 I personally believe there's one angelic race.

00:13:42.960 But there are different classes of angels with different prescribed duties and responsibilities.

00:13:49.960 Now we can break them up into multiple subcategories.

00:13:53.240 But to keep it simple, we can say that there are at least two subcategories of angels.

00:13:59.160 There are God-facing angels and there are man-facing angels.

00:14:05.820 There are God-facing angels, God-word angels in the sense of seraphim and cherubim.

00:14:12.440 We think of the four living creatures with six wings.

00:14:16.080 Two wings, they cover their faces. Two wings, they cover their feet.

00:14:19.180 Two wings, they hover and fly around the throne of God covered in eyes

00:14:23.060 and crying out day and night,

00:14:24.900 holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and will be forever. Amen.

00:14:33.460 We have the 24 elders in Revelation chapter 5 that constantly and perpetually fall before the

00:14:39.920 throne of God, casting their crowns before Him. These would all be examples of God word, God

00:14:47.000 facing angels. But the scripture is also clear that there are man facing angels. And this does

00:14:53.480 not inherently mean that these angels are by default idolatrous. When I say that they are

00:15:00.900 man-facing as an alternative to being God-facing, it does not mean that they are more interested in

00:15:07.000 the affairs of men than they are the things of God. It is not as though they care for man more

00:15:12.220 than they care and worship God, but they have actually been specifically assigned this duty

00:15:17.960 by God. The book of Hebrews says, are not angels ministering spirits who have been appointed by God

00:15:26.440 to serve the children of Abraham, those who are have been elected and called to salvation.

00:15:32.740 So there are certain angels who have been prescribed by God, detailed by God with specific

00:15:39.640 orders to be manward facing, not in an idolatrous fashion, but in their devotion and allegiance to

00:15:47.880 the Lord. He has commissioned them to serve you and I, the spiritual children of Abraham, those

00:15:54.000 who are to inherit salvation. I think of certain archangels like Michael or messenger angels like

00:16:02.180 Gabriel. Michael, in the case of Daniel, he finally arrives on the scene to give revelation to Daniel

00:16:08.540 and he says, I'm sorry I was held up in Persia because the prince of Persia, I had to do battle

00:16:16.400 with him for a while before I could get to you. One of the things that we need to understand,

00:16:23.280 and this gets to the issue of patriarchy, we need to understand that God works through fathers.

00:16:32.120 God is the ultimate father. The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes down from the

00:16:37.400 father of lights. We live in the father's world. And the father, the ultimate father, the heavenly

00:16:43.620 father has appointed other lower lowercase f fathers in his world to serve as representative

00:16:52.760 heads. Federal heads. We have civil fathers in the sphere of the state. We have ecclesiastical 0.66

00:17:01.060 spiritual fathers in the sphere of the church. And we have familial fathers in the sphere of

00:17:07.800 the home. Now the first federal head of the earthly created cosmos that God appointed as steward

00:17:16.800 was Adam. And Adam forfeited his authority, his headship over earth to Satan. So God is the

00:17:27.220 father. He owns it all. He's the ultimate father, the ultimate federal head. But he appoints Adam

00:17:33.680 as a viceroy of sorts, as a human representative, representing not only his wife and all their

00:17:41.500 future posterity, but even the creation itself. Not just human beings, but trees and rocks and

00:17:49.780 mountains and rivers. That's why when Adam sins, God doesn't just say Adam is cursed or the woman

00:17:56.360 is cursed, but he even goes so far as to say cursed is the ground because of you. This is why

00:18:03.780 furthermore in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul underneath the inspiration of the Spirit

00:18:08.940 writes that even creation, all of creation groans with eager expectations for the sons of God to be

00:18:16.940 revealed. There are rocks and trees who are gloriously and eagerly, joyfully anticipating

00:18:25.520 the final culmination of history, the revealing of the sons of God, and when they will be fully

00:18:31.700 restored as Jesus ushers in the culmination of his kingdom on earth, fully as it is in heaven.

00:18:40.180 Jesus even says that if you will not worship me, these very stones will cry out and worship.

00:18:47.700 This is not hyperbole. Jesus was speaking literally. If man will not worship him,

00:18:54.160 even creation will cry out. They cannot help but do so. All creation testifies to the glory of God.

00:19:03.660 Furthermore, Romans chapter 1 says that creation sings, that it demonstrates God's existence,

00:19:11.720 His eternal power and divine nature has been clearly displayed by what He has made. Furthermore,

00:19:18.320 psalm i believe it's chapter 8 it might be 16 but it speaks of the skies which pour forth

00:19:24.900 speech speaking to testifying to the glories of god his nature his character his power his

00:19:33.140 majestic wisdom so adam was appointed by god the ultimate father as a human father over the

00:19:43.460 physical cosmos the earth and Adam forfeited his headship federal headship to Satan through sin

00:19:52.300 the woman was deceived and then Adam joined her in her sin this is not to exonerate Adam saying

00:20:00.760 that the woman was deceived but the man wasn't therefore his sin was bad but not as bad as hers

00:20:06.220 no, it was worse because he sinned with his eyes wide open. He knew better. And her initial sin

00:20:14.020 and deception, the Bible's clear that he was with her and he did nothing to stop it. However, if Eve

00:20:21.600 had only sinned, and this gets back to federal headship and patriarchy, if Eve had only sinned

00:20:26.580 and Adam did not join her, the world would not have been thrust into subjugation. Because Eve

00:20:33.400 did not represent God's rule on earth. Adam did. Federal headship matters. So God gives it to Adam. 0.97

00:20:42.380 Adam gives it to Satan. And Satan gives this dominion, which is not just in the 17th dimension.

00:20:49.340 It is earthly. It is tangible. It's physical. It's real. The Bible refers to Satan during this time

00:20:56.860 period as the prince of the air, or the ruler of this age, or some translations even say the ruler

00:21:03.480 of the world. And Satan has certain followers, his henchmen, and he assigns to them principalities.

00:21:11.860 So think of the United States of America. We have states, or you might think of Canada,

00:21:16.340 provinces. A prince is a ruler. A principality is a region. And so what the archangel Michael,

00:21:24.780 going back to the book of Daniel that I referenced earlier what he's speaking of when he says I got

00:21:29.680 held up with the prince of Persia he's saying there's a particular principality this kingdom

00:21:37.400 this empire this region geographic region and there is a human ruler but behind that human ruler

00:21:45.100 there is a prince a spiritual prince who influences him to do terrible things and I couldn't get

00:21:54.460 through without having to fight him off. He actually has real dominion, real authority,

00:22:02.260 physical authority in this place. Why? Because God has all authority. God then designates authority

00:22:08.480 to Adam. Adam forfeits authority to Satan. And then Satan divvies it up. He delegates with different

00:22:15.660 princes in different principalities. Does that make sense so far? Okay. Now these princes and

00:22:23.320 Satan himself, these angels, many of them, maybe not Satan, but many of these angels are what we

00:22:29.600 would refer to as the watchers. The watchers, going back to what I referenced in the beginning in terms

00:22:35.780 of man-facing angels, ministering spirits, they're not idolatrous by default, inherently, but the

00:22:43.420 watchers who chose to rebel against God and fall, they did commit idolatry. They were idolatrous. So

00:22:49.680 Godward-facing angels, cherubim, seraphim, the four living creatures, 24 elders, but then other

00:22:55.620 ministering spirits, angelic beings who have been commissioned by God to serve those, you and I,

00:23:01.960 who are to inherit salvation. Some of these angels, these ministering spirits to man, watchers,

00:23:08.860 man-facing angels, chose to join Satan in a rebellion against God. And there was a great

00:23:15.940 spiritual battle that took place in the heavens, and they were defeated by the archangel Michael

00:23:21.840 and cast down to the world. But woe to you, O earth, for the devil has been cast down to you.

00:23:29.840 And then, we don't know, it seems as though probably a very short time in a literal timeline,

00:23:34.840 a short time after Satan's rebellion and him being cast down to earth, he then takes the form of a

00:23:41.740 serpent or possesses a serpent, very likely a dragon, because one of the curses is that it would

00:23:49.660 crawl on its belly, which seems to imply that previously it had some kinds of legs and feet.

00:23:56.160 So a dragon, if you will, tempts the woman, deceives her. She then leads her husband. Instead

00:24:02.800 of him choosing to lead her, he abdicates his rule and authority and hands over his dominion,

00:24:08.740 right? That's the dominion mandate, the cultural mandate given to Adam to be fruitful and multiply

00:24:14.700 and to fill the earth and subdue it. He gives his rule, his dominion over to Satan. Satan delegates

00:24:21.920 this rule to other watchers in different principalities, regions ruled by spiritual

00:24:27.740 princes. There's always a human leader that rises up, whether it's the ruler of the

00:24:33.920 Persians and the Medes or the Assyrians or the Babylonians. All these major human kingdoms that

00:24:39.300 you and I can study by looking at literal human history. Major superpowers that were not just

00:24:46.520 nations, but better thought of as empires that ruled the known world at the time and were

00:24:52.360 exceedingly wicked. Why? Because they were totally depraved, just as you and I are apart from

00:24:58.860 salvation. But in addition to total depravity, the human component of sin, they also had a spiritual

00:25:06.800 component of leaders who were demonically possessed or at least influenced, where watchers, fallen

00:25:14.640 angels, had far more reign at that time until something very significant later on took place

00:25:20.300 in history, which I'll get to in a moment, namely Jesus. And all this is going on, and not only do

00:25:27.280 you have principalities, spiritual principalities influencing totally depraved people. But you also

00:25:33.280 have within those people, in some cases, a hybrid person that is half fallen angel and half man.

00:25:42.220 And that's what we find in Genesis chapter 6 verse 4. It says that these watchers, these sons of God,

00:25:50.380 is the phrase that's used, that they take the daughters of men, they see that they are lovely

00:25:55.260 and come into them and produce offspring. Literally half demon, half, well, demon's not

00:26:02.440 really the proper word, half fallen angel, half man. And these Nephilim, as they were called, 0.98

00:26:09.960 men of renown, are of great stature in many cases. And then later generations coming down from the

00:26:16.700 Nephilim, you have what we would consider to be a giant who is not necessarily 50% man, 50% fallen 0.68

00:26:24.360 angel, the line becomes diluted and over time their height and stature begins to shrink. But you have

00:26:31.600 these major periods throughout the Old Testament of giants. Now what ultimately happens in the

00:26:37.480 coming of Christ is that Christ is the second, final, and better Adam. And Christ comes and 0.87

00:26:44.920 ultimately what Satan attempts to do is he attempts to tempt him and get him to forfeit his rightful

00:26:52.500 dominion in the same way that he did with Adam. Satan tempts him three times in the wilderness.

00:26:59.960 He says to Christ in one of the temptations, he takes him up to a high hill, shows him all the

00:27:05.540 kingdoms of the world, and says, if you would only bow down and worship me, I will give you these

00:27:10.680 kingdoms. Now one thing that's important for us to realize is first, Satan, this is a real offer.

00:27:16.640 he actually had these kingdoms. They were his. He took them from Adam. They're gods. God gave

00:27:23.260 them to Adam. Satan took them. Adam forfeited them. So he's offering real kingdoms that he actually

00:27:28.840 has dominion and power over. Now here's where evangelicals who are squishy and effeminate, 0.74

00:27:34.480 which would make up about 95% of them, this is where they would get it wrong. They would say,

00:27:38.380 see, Jesus says no. Satan gives a real offer to take the kingdoms of the world. A real political

00:27:46.140 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,

00:33:30.560 He's really just to do so.

00:33:33.120 That makes a whole lot of sense. 0.91

00:33:35.800 But again, Genesis 6-4 says that the Nephilim were on the earth before and after.

00:33:40.460 Now there are different theories with this.

00:33:43.000 Talking with the Turleys on Friday,

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.

00:34:13.780 so the Lord closes them up into Christ

00:34:17.380 and Christ gives them safe passage

00:34:19.640 through the waters of God's judgment.

00:34:21.960 So there's a gospel atonement message there.

00:34:25.000 But one possibility is that Noah, his wife, and three sons,

00:34:28.880 that they are blameless in their genealogies,

00:34:30.880 but that's only six people.

00:34:32.140 There are eight, five people.

00:34:34.400 There are eight in all that are taken up into the ark.

00:34:37.000 That is the three wives of Noah's three sons.

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

00:50:23.180 with slingshots and bows, but with nukes.

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.

00:54:20.300 the world is not just stuff. It's not just matter. There is a spiritual world

00:54:28.420 at work. It's real. It's significant. And it's powerful. We think we know everything.

00:54:37.780 We don't. We think we know everything. We think we've studied everything. Oh, we have satellites.

00:54:45.280 okay what's below the tree line over there in that forest where no one has gone

00:54:51.940 oh we have submarines you mean the one that exploded

00:54:55.740 five percent of the ocean floor we've explored five percent we don't know what's down there

00:55:07.020 we're so arrogant

00:55:08.700 we've given way to atheism we've given way to materialism all these things

00:55:15.340 by God's grace through revival and reformation I believe our great-grandchildren will look back

00:55:21.320 and they'll make fun of us and rightfully so let's say they thought they knew everything

00:55:26.760 remember when when people were so rebellious against God they thought that people came from

00:55:32.160 apes. Let's just laugh at those people for a little bit. How foolish they were.

00:55:44.140 If you want to be on the right side of history, believe this book. 1.00

00:55:50.600 All of it. Have no problem verses, Doug Wilson has been fond of saying. No problem verses.

00:55:57.240 believe this book you're going to believe this primitive neanderthal book

00:56:02.920 it says there were giants okay then there were giants

00:56:05.700 it says that there was god commanded genocide uh-huh let god be true and every man a liar there

00:56:14.180 was a reason it condones slavery in a particular way and for that reason according to the infinite

00:56:23.160 wisdom of God, it is permissible and even right. Do not be embarrassed by the Word of God.

00:56:33.340 There are plenty of things to be embarrassed by. The Word of God is not one of them.

00:56:39.880 So that's it. We'll just consider this to be a pretext for next week when I will get into

00:56:53.040 the text. Okay. But I wanted to set the background. I wanted to do more. I'll be honest. I wanted to

00:56:59.900 do more. I failed. But I wanted to at least set the background for what's going on in Canaan

00:57:04.560 and what's going on with Joshua and what's going on with Israel. All these kinds of things. So

00:57:11.100 we've seen them defeat Jericho and we will talk about how they defeated Ai. But here's the big

00:57:18.240 point. The big point is this. AI, the reason they got whooped is because, well, there was sin in the

00:57:23.840 camp. Achan took some of the devoted things from Jericho. It was all supposed to be given to the 0.76

00:57:28.880 Lord. All of it. But he took it. His children were put to death, I believe, because they were complicit

00:57:35.720 with their father in that sin. They knew about it and were hiding him and defending him. And then

00:57:42.260 they go up against AI before they know that there's sin in the camp, before God reveals it to Joshua 0.82

00:57:47.240 what Achan had done. And they get whooped. They take 3,000, about 3,000 men to go against Ai 0.81

00:57:52.600 because the whole city, it's different than Jericho. Jericho was superior to Israel. Ai is 0.97

00:57:58.760 only 12,000 people. The Bible says total. They go with 3,000 fighting men and they get whooped.

00:58:05.620 They have to retreat. They have to flee. Then God reveals to Joshua there's sin in the camp.

00:58:10.820 But it's not just get rid of the sin and then you'll be able to take Ai. That's the big thing

00:58:15.240 that we need to see in Joshua chapter 8. Joshua chapter 8, there's really only a couple big

00:58:20.660 overarching themes that you need to see. One is that it's not just Achan's sin, take care of Achan's 0.77

00:58:26.620 sin, and then you can defeat Ai. That's not the only principle. The other principle is a city of 0.85

00:58:32.600 12,000 is still going to require all the fighting men of Israel, which is over 30,000, to defeat. 0.74

00:58:39.280 why why does it take over 30 000 men to defeat a city with only 12 000 population including women

00:58:47.960 and children total there are giants in the sky big tall terrible giants in the sky they're giants

00:58:55.900 that's why what we see is god supernaturally joshua holds out god commands him to do this

00:59:03.200 holds out his javelin, and he keeps his arm outstretched until there's a total taking of

00:59:09.320 the city. The city is in flames, goes up in smoke, and everyone is wiped out.

00:59:16.640 Meaning this, Israel was dependent on the supernatural strength and power of God to defeat 0.57

00:59:22.440 superior opponents, Jericho, and seemingly inferior opponents, Ai. God will not share

00:59:31.580 his glory with another. God is determined, insisting that Israel will only attain success and victory 1.00

00:59:39.700 by his providence, by his power, by his supernatural strength. And he's saying that these enemies,

00:59:47.740 whether they be many or few, you're not just fighting against mere flesh and blood. There's a

00:59:54.000 bigger story going on. And you're going to need me every step of the way. So the big ideas of Joshua

01:00:01.480 eight is one. Whether we fight big enemies or small enemies, follow this script. Do what God

01:00:08.780 says. Don't think, hey, we needed God for Jericho. We don't need him for AI. Let's just take 3,000

01:00:14.180 men and get it done. Uh-uh. No, they need God to give them the strategy. Hold out a javelin. What's 0.99

01:00:21.700 that got to do with anything? It's supernatural. You won't do it without my supernatural help.

01:00:27.020 we stick to the script if anything joshua chapter 8 we could say it like this it condemns human

01:00:33.380 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

01:00:46.920 little by little to do this and do that nah same thing you needed for jericho you need that to

01:00:52.780 finish ai not pragmatism but the supernatural power of god the whole way and what's our job

01:00:59.580 what's our responsibility in ensuring that god is with us in his strength and power doing what he

01:01:05.520 says following the script not just coming up with our own pragmatic human strategies if god says

01:01:12.520 stick out a javelin and hold it until the war is over you do it that's the idea the last thing so

01:01:19.100 I am preaching it. We'll be done. The last thing that we see in the text is this. Jericho. They 0.79

01:01:25.240 conquered Jericho. They don't get any of the spoil. The very next city. They're called to kill

01:01:31.960 all the inhabitants, but all their resources and treasures and livestock, Israel's given 0.99

01:01:38.680 permission by God to take. If Achan had just waited a very short period of time, he could 0.98

01:01:45.360 have had everything he wanted. And what does this signify? Because we'll see other cities. These are 0.96

01:01:50.900 all capital cities, different tribes of Canaanites, all descending from Canaan, the grandson of Noah,

01:01:56.420 the son of Ham. And what we see is with most of these cities, God gives permission to Israel 0.79

01:02:03.740 to take of the spoil. It was only the first city that God says, put it all to destruction and the 0.88

01:02:11.380 devoted things bring into the treasury of the Lord. And the principle that you and I, even as New

01:02:16.980 Testament Christians, can take from this is twofold with Joshua chapter 8. Threefold, Nephilim are fun

01:02:24.160 to talk about. All right, two, the second part, pragmatism doesn't work. Stick to the script.

01:02:31.660 Whether our enemy is big or small, we won't win without God's supernatural favor. And then the

01:02:37.140 third thing, the first fruits belong to the Lord. Jericho is the first city that they conquer. Give

01:02:42.760 it to God. And God lets you have the rest. All right. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word.

01:02:49.580 Bless it to Your people. Bring glory to Yourself. Amen.

The NXR Podcast - July 23, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Biblical History Of The Watchers, Nephilim, & The Giants

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