The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Standing On The Necks Of Our Enemies

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00:00:27.500 This morning we are continuing once more our series through the book of Joshua.

00:00:32.260 Our text for today, because we didn't get to it quite last week,

00:00:36.040 we're going to pick up with the second half of last week's text

00:00:38.680 and do our best to deal with the text today.

00:00:41.320 So, it's going to be Joshua chapter 10 verses 8 all the way through 28.

00:00:47.080 Focusing, we'll probably stop around 25.

00:00:49.460 But this is Joshua chapter 10 verses 8 through 28 or 8 through 25 for our reading this morning.

00:00:55.760 we're going to read Joshua chapter 10 verses 8 through 15. Would you join me now in standing for

00:01:00.600 the reading of God's Word? I'll read our text for us in its entirety. When I finish reading the text

00:01:05.040 I'm going to say this is the Word of the Lord at which point I would appreciate very much if you

00:01:09.100 would respond by saying thanks be to God. One final time our text for today is Joshua chapter 10

00:01:14.580 verses 8 all the way through 28 focusing right now on verses 8 through 15. The Bible says this

00:01:21.360 And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. 0.57

00:01:26.660 Not a man of them shall stand before you.

00:01:29.060 So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. 0.59

00:01:34.540 And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow

00:01:40.120 at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horan, and struck them as far

00:01:46.300 as Ezekiah and Makeda.

00:01:48.440 And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth Horon,

00:01:54.340 the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Ezekiah, and they died.

00:02:00.580 There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with a sword.

00:02:07.080 At the time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons

00:02:13.260 of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, sun stands still at Gibeon and moon in the valley

00:02:20.820 of Ajalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their 0.60

00:02:27.540 enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did

00:02:33.680 not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since when the Lord

00:02:41.540 heeded the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel. So Joshua returned and all Israel with him

00:02:48.300 to the camp at Gilgal. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead

00:02:54.000 and jump in. In your notes, I've written the following. Notice that in every victory of Israel,

00:02:58.680 it is the Lord who supernaturally secures Israel's success. In the case of Jericho, the Lord caused 0.96

00:03:06.080 the outer walls to crumble. In the case of Ai, Joshua holds out his javelin, and as he does,

00:03:12.380 Israel is given supernatural strength to overcome their adversaries. And now, in the case of the 0.77

00:03:19.200 five kings of the Amorites, the Lord does three supernatural feats. Number one, the Lord sends

00:03:26.180 the enemies of Israel into a supernatural sense of dread. The Bible says he puts them into a panic.

00:03:33.520 Number two, the Lord rains down large stones from heaven, so much so that the Bible says that more

00:03:41.260 of the enemies of Israel died from the hailstones that fell from the sky than actually dying from

00:03:47.560 the sword of Israel. And then number three, Joshua speaks and calls out to the Lord and speaks in

00:03:55.100 such a way that the sun and the moon would stand still. And the Lord, in fact, answers this petition

00:04:00.940 that supernaturally the Lord lengthens the time, the literal time of the day, so that Israel can 0.92

00:04:07.800 gain vengeance on all their enemies. And we'll look into that a little bit more. What we see 0.82

00:04:13.380 is the overarching premise is that whether it's Jericho or Ai or now this collective battle,

00:04:18.980 the five different Amorite kings coming together to take on Gibeon that made a covenant with Israel

00:04:25.040 in all of these battles, it is the Lord who wins the battle. It is the Lord who grants victory

00:04:31.660 and success. In every one of these battles, Israel only gains victory because God supernaturally 0.77

00:04:38.760 provides for them strength. In the one case where Israel tried to gain victory in their own strength 0.79

00:04:45.140 after defeating Jericho, taking about 3,000 of the fighting men of Israel up against Ai,

00:04:51.760 which was a smaller tribe of only 12,000 people total, well, Israel got defeated. They were sent

00:04:58.700 running. They were retreating. And then they had to pray and go to the Lord and repent of sin being

00:05:05.200 in the camp. In the case of Achan, who had taken some of the devoted things from Jericho that he 0.96

00:05:10.060 was not supposed to take. And so they had to cleanse the camp. They had to seek the Lord. 0.96

00:05:15.500 They had to devote themselves back to the Lord

00:05:20.320 and then follow the Lord's specific instruction

00:05:23.020 in that battle with Ai.

00:05:25.060 Take all the fighting men.

00:05:26.320 It was about 30,000 men.

00:05:28.100 They set an ambush

00:05:29.040 and there's still this supernatural element.

00:05:31.340 They don't just beat Ai

00:05:32.460 because now they're taking all of their soldiers with them,

00:05:36.440 but they also, there's this element of Joshua

00:05:38.580 holding out his javelin.

00:05:40.460 And as he holds out his javelin,

00:05:42.160 pointed towards the city of Ai,

00:05:44.020 Israel is granted from the Lord a supernatural sense of strength, and they are given victory.

00:05:50.280 So Jericho, Ai, and now Israel coming to the defense of Gibeon, who made a covenant under

00:05:56.980 pretense, under deception, but a covenant nonetheless with Israel. They're coming to

00:06:01.360 Gibeon's aid, fighting off five collective kings, five tribes now joining together,

00:06:07.500 Amorite tribes trying to take on Gibeon and ultimately defeat Israel. So this is three 0.60

00:06:12.760 major battles. In all three of these battles, we see that Israel is ultimately victorious, 0.98

00:06:17.800 but Israel is only victorious because the Lord grants a supernatural strength and power. And so

00:06:25.120 in the battle that we're looking at today with the five Amorite kings, we see three supernatural

00:06:30.980 elements. We see that God, number one, he sends them into a panic. The enemies of Israel, these 0.51

00:06:37.080 five kings and the five tribes you represent, this is not just the typical expected sense of

00:06:44.940 nervousness or worry and going into battle, knowing that if you're going into any battle,

00:06:50.460 it is quite possible that you might lose your very life. No, it's deeper than that. The Lord

00:06:56.120 sends them into utter panic, utter dread. So that's the first supernatural exploit that the

00:07:02.860 Lord provides, is that the enemies are already in disarray, already beginning to scatter because

00:07:09.120 they are filled with a sense of supernatural dread. Secondly, as Israel begins to drive them

00:07:14.980 out and pursuing them in order for them not to get away from Israel, as they're on the retreat,

00:07:21.700 God sends down large hailstones from heaven, that is from the skies, and the hailstones, 0.94

00:07:27.700 the text says, actually take out more of the Amorites than Israel is able to take out by the 0.91

00:07:32.960 sword. That's the second element. The third element, in addition to all this, if that wasn't 1.00

00:07:38.060 supernatural and miraculous enough, is that the sun and the moon stand still in the sky in order 0.74

00:07:44.420 to lengthen the time, the literal time of the day, so that Israel can do, inflict even greater, or we 0.98

00:07:51.200 might say, more thorough damage on their enemies so that they can't get away, regroup, and ultimately 0.74

00:07:58.820 come back against Israel again. The Lord, in his mercy, he lengthens the day so that more of his 0.77

00:08:05.920 enemies, Israel's enemies, can be defeated. This is because if they don't defeat them now, they're 0.98

00:08:13.000 going to have to battle them again. If many of the fighting men from these five Amorite tribes are 1.00

00:08:18.960 able to make it all the way back to the safety and the refuge of their cities, they'd be able 1.00

00:08:24.300 to regroup and then mount another attack or at least be on the defensive. And it would be much

00:08:31.160 more difficult for Israel to counter with a siege. It's much easier to siege a city that's 0.70

00:08:37.260 mostly empty than it is to siege a city that's reinforced because you missed most of the men in

00:08:44.060 the battle, they got away and they regrouped in their cities where they now have new supplies,

00:08:49.180 new artillery. They're able to rest and then are able to ultimately hold out with their outer

00:08:54.820 walls and mount a counterattack to where Israel would take days or weeks in order to defeat them. 0.82

00:09:00.160 So that's the picture. That's what we have going on. God supernaturally providing the victory for 0.77

00:09:06.340 Israel in every battle that they faced thus far since crossing the Jordan River. Now there's a 0.91

00:09:12.720 couple things I want to point out that I think are interesting. First, it does remind me of Psalm

00:09:18.040 chapter 20, verse 7 through 8, that says, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in

00:09:23.760 the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. This is the

00:09:31.660 secret to Israel's success. It is not their might. It is not their own physical strength. It is not 1.00

00:09:37.080 their numbers. It is not their strategies. The secret to their success, the only reason they

00:09:42.560 emerge victorious again and again is because their hope is in the Lord. Some trust in walls. Some

00:09:50.080 trust in defensive measures. They trust in chariots. They trust in giants. They trust in this

00:09:55.900 and trust in that. But ultimately, our hope, like Israel, is in the Lord. The Lord is the one who

00:10:02.780 secures for us the victory. Now, two other things that I want to draw out. One, six-day creation.

00:10:09.940 It's not necessarily blatantly in the text, but I don't think that it's far-fetched to get this

00:10:15.000 from the text. I think that it's worth looking at. Notice this in verse, let's see, verse 14,

00:10:21.760 I believe it is. Yep. There has been no day like it before or after since when the Lord heeded the

00:10:32.160 voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel. So Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the

00:10:37.800 camp at Gilgal. Now, what is it? What voice of a man did the Lord heed as it were? Well, backing up 0.96

00:10:44.880 one verse prior, verse 13, and the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance

00:10:52.040 on their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar, the sun stopped in the midst of heaven

00:10:57.580 and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

00:11:01.340 It did not hurry to set.

00:11:02.580 So whatever time had already elapsed in that day,

00:11:06.280 and it seems as though that day was already not midday,

00:11:09.060 not noon, the sun overhead,

00:11:10.640 but it was already, the day was already at a close.

00:11:13.360 So it was probably sometime in the evening near dusk.

00:11:17.040 And so you've already had the majority of a day

00:11:19.480 and now you have a whole nother day

00:11:22.040 in that same time period without the sun setting.

00:11:25.900 And so going back to verse 14 now, there has been no day like it before or since.

00:11:33.440 Well, one thing that I think we can glean from this particular verse is that there has never

00:11:37.940 been a day after that that was longer than 24 hours. There is also likewise, according to the

00:11:45.060 text, there has been no day like it before. There has never been a day before this day

00:11:50.620 that was more or less than 24 hours.

00:11:54.860 And so when the Bible says that God created

00:11:57.080 the heavens and the earth in six days,

00:12:00.400 these are not thousand year long days.

00:12:04.320 There has never been a day before or since

00:12:06.800 before Joshua commanded the sun and the moon to stand still

00:12:10.680 and lengthen the literal time of this day.

00:12:13.580 There has never been another day like that since.

00:12:15.980 And there never has been a day before that.

00:12:18.020 every day before this day and after that day has been a normal day. So to read the Bible and say,

00:12:25.520 hey, that's a day, that's 24 hours, 24 hours, 24 hours, 24 hours, Genesis 1 and 2, a thousand years 0.94

00:12:31.360 is ridiculous. That's not how we read the Bible. It's a day. It has always been a day. God created

00:12:39.280 the earth not only in six days, but six literal 24-hour days. I believe that that is the proper

00:12:45.440 position. And if we get the beginning of the story, that is the biblical narrative, if we get

00:12:50.060 the beginning wrong, we'll get everything else wrong as well. The beginning matters. One of the

00:12:55.340 reasons that it matters, just for the record, one of the problems with theistic evolution,

00:12:59.800 which I do believe is not just off, but I believe is a heresy. I believe that it ultimately is an

00:13:06.260 enemy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the reasons why theistic evolution is a problem is

00:13:12.480 because, and it's both most basic fundamental assertion, what it insists is that ultimately

00:13:19.320 sin is not the cause of death, but the death is actually ordained and orchestrated by God himself

00:13:28.600 long before sin entered the world, long before people were even created, Adam and Eve. Death is

00:13:34.440 actually, it originates not with the sin of man rebelling against God and the good creation that

00:13:40.560 he had made, but actually death is orchestrated and originates with God himself. And death is

00:13:46.820 God's tool by which he makes man. The basic thing that you need to understand about evolution is

00:13:52.640 this. You have two happy, healthy people standing tall and proud on top of a pile of millions and

00:14:00.200 millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of skulls. Dead. Right? How did

00:14:06.440 people come about? Death, death, death, death, death, death, death. Homo erectus. He didn't make

00:14:11.420 it. Lots, lots of them dead, right? Homo this and Homo that and Homo, they're all dead. And so God

00:14:18.240 created Adam and Eve, but he created them over millions and millions and millions of years. And

00:14:23.140 it's not just time. That's not the only issue, but he didn't just do it over millions and millions

00:14:27.580 of years. He did it over millions and millions and millions of death, dead bodies again and again

00:14:33.800 and again and again. So what brought death into the world? The sin of man? Is God's word true?

00:14:40.860 That the day you eat of it, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the day you eat

00:14:44.920 of it, you shall surely die? Well, according to theistic evolution, God is a liar. Sin is not 0.99

00:14:50.900 what introduced death, but God actually introduced death. Death, to use a turn of phrase, death was

00:14:58.240 alive and well long before sin ever happened. Long before Adam and Eve ever were made in the

00:15:04.620 first place. And that's one thing in Genesis 1 and 2. It's already problematic enough, but when we

00:15:09.640 cross-reference later on with the apostolic writings in the New Testament picking up on

00:15:14.760 the created order and the Genesis narrative, namely I think of Romans chapter 5 and the

00:15:19.620 Apostle Paul. Paul says, underneath the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God's infallible word,

00:15:25.180 He says that through one man's sin, all died.

00:15:29.900 So too, through one man's righteousness,

00:15:32.400 that is Jesus Christ, we live.

00:15:35.940 Well, ultimately, all that is flipped on its head.

00:15:39.360 We didn't die because of Adam as a federal head

00:15:42.580 representing all his posterity, all of humanity

00:15:45.280 and his choice to commit cosmic treason

00:15:48.040 and rebel against God.

00:15:49.640 And through his sin, that introduced death

00:15:51.900 and the whole human race is now plagued 0.60

00:15:54.360 under the curse with death, and Jesus as the second and final Adam reverses the curse so that

00:15:59.460 we might have new life and eternal life through faith in him. No, that's not it. If death didn't

00:16:06.560 enter the world by one man's sin, namely Adam, then you're not just dealing with the creation

00:16:12.940 narrative and how God made the world. You're dealing with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:16:17.800 to embrace theistic evolution is ultimately to deny the gospel. It is to deny the gospel. So

00:16:26.060 six literal days, death entered the world by one man and his sin, and not millions and millions and

00:16:34.100 millions and millions of years before that. It's worth noting. All right, one more thing. This is

00:16:39.840 kind of a fun one, but let me just say on that note, I am completely comfortable with being

00:16:47.120 mocked and ridiculed for having just a fundamentalist attitude when it comes to just

00:16:54.120 plain beliefs in the word of God. So this idea of a day being elongated and the sun and moon

00:17:02.620 standing still, right? Some of us in our modern minds, we might be thinking, how does that happen?

00:17:09.540 Well, to be fair, you know, to the flat earthers out there, it's real easy if you believe in a

00:17:15.900 flat earth. I mean, honestly, it's just, you know, you stop the sun and stop the moon. You don't have

00:17:20.420 to deal with the rotation of the earth. It's just the earth is flat. These things are moving in the

00:17:24.660 sky and God stops them. And let me just say another piece here. For anybody who does embrace flat

00:17:33.380 earth theory or whatever, I disagree with you. So I just want to make that clear. I'm not a flat

00:17:39.480 earth. However, you are in fantastic company. You are not a heretic. I would much rather the

00:17:45.980 members of our church believe that the earth is flat than believe in theistic evolution.

00:17:52.380 There's a lot of guys who believe the earth was flat and who are currently in the presence of God

00:17:56.460 in heaven. There are no guys, in my opinion, who believe in theistic evolution who are in the

00:18:03.020 presence of God in heaven. So I'd rather believe the earth is flat than believe that God created

00:18:09.020 everything out of the primordial soup and then, you know, fish became people and all that happened

00:18:14.160 with billions and billions of skulls. That dog don't hunt, right? So flat earth, we can work

00:18:19.760 with it. I think you're wrong. I think you're wrong, but we can work with it. All that being

00:18:25.160 said, how does it work with a modern understanding of the earth being a sphere rotating on its axis?

00:18:30.680 Well, I mean, it wouldn't be the sun and moon stopping. It would be the earth actually stopping

00:18:35.440 its rotation? If the earth stopped in its rotation, that's going to really mess things up. Are we going

00:18:39.500 to fly off the surface of the earth? Well, I think the simplest answer, and we'll have to move on for

00:18:44.200 the sake of time, is this. If God can create the earth in the first place, I think he can stop its

00:18:49.140 rotation and make sure that we all stay on this ball that's floating in the sky. So the simple

00:18:54.860 answer, when in doubt, just like you teach your kids, you know, what's the answer? Jesus, right?

00:18:59.480 So when in doubt, the answer to this question, how did the sun and the moon stop if the earth really

00:19:04.460 is a sphere and the sun and the moon aren't moving in the first place, but we're actually

00:19:07.920 rotating around that. Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the answer. Jesus can do it. He did it somehow.

00:19:13.900 He's done crazier stuff than that. It shouldn't plague us. It shouldn't bother us. We serve a

00:19:19.540 miraculous God. He made everything out of nothing. If he can make everything, if you can believe that,

00:19:24.660 that he made everything out of nothing, ex nihilo, then stopping the rotation of the earth and

00:19:30.920 keeping everything alive at the same time is kind of pretty small potatoes compared to

00:19:37.260 everything out of nothing. If everything out of nothing is the starting place,

00:19:41.000 then everything else seems pretty simple. All right, now we're ready to move on.

00:19:45.740 So the first thing that we've just covered is that the Lord is mighty in battle. The battle

00:19:50.080 belongs to the Lord, and he's the one who gives the victory. It's not merely numbers. It's not

00:19:54.840 merely pragmatism. It's not merely human strategy. These things are good and permissible, but

00:20:00.080 ultimately, it's the Lord's battle. He is the one who is mighty in battle. If we don't have the Lord

00:20:05.520 on our side, we cannot expect to win. In fact, if we are against the Lord, then in his judgment,

00:20:13.020 the Lord actually might strengthen. We see this multiple times throughout scripture. The Lord

00:20:18.220 is perfectly willing to strengthen our adversaries, even when we outnumber them, so that they can have

00:20:25.220 victory over us as an instrument being used by God in his providence as a rod of his discipline

00:20:31.320 for our unbelief and rebellion. The Lord has done this countless times. Well, he'll raise up pagan

00:20:37.140 nations and he'll bless them, not because they're living in obedience to him, but he will strengthen 0.93

00:20:43.920 them temporarily. And when I say temporarily, I mean, perhaps in some instances, as we see

00:20:49.680 biblically 400 years. And for 400 years, he might strengthen a pagan nation simply so that that

00:20:55.900 pagan nation might be used in God's providence, his sovereignty, as his rod to discipline Israel. 0.74

00:21:02.620 And that principle has not changed. You and I, if you have faith in Jesus, you are Israel in the

00:21:08.900 truest, eternal, ultimate sense. Not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, according

00:21:14.980 to the promise. And God still to this day in his sovereignty will raise up empires. He will raise up

00:21:22.140 enemies. He will raise up adversaries to his church, especially when his church is in rebellion,

00:21:28.420 when his church is in the moment of apostatizing, when his people, Israel, spiritual Israel,

00:21:34.120 is not walking in step with obedience to the truth of the gospel. God will raise up adversaries

00:21:41.180 and in raising them up, he is blessing them, increasing them, but not because of their

00:21:45.960 obedience. He's doing it despite their disobedience so that they might be used in his sovereignty

00:21:52.000 to discipline his church. And we see that, we see that in the case of the nation state of Israel

00:21:58.740 under the old covenant in the old Testament. And I believe that we see that even to this day

00:22:03.540 with nations. I think we're seeing that right now in the West. I think that we've seen as the West

00:22:09.480 is apostatizing, turning its back on arguably 1500 years of Christendom. If we go all the way

00:22:15.940 back to Constantine, at least a thousand years, if we go back to King Alfred and common law,

00:22:21.900 the West is turning its back on its Christian heritage. And that doesn't mean that Christian 0.98

00:22:26.400 heritage was always flawless. Of course there was sin. There's plenty of sin, but we have thrown 1.00

00:22:31.820 out the baby with the bathwater. We've adopted this enlightenment postmodern mentality where

00:22:37.760 you just problematize everything into the dust, right?

00:22:41.460 Where any kind of authority, any kind of tradition,

00:22:45.500 and you just, it's bad, it's bad, it's bad.

00:22:47.820 The biggest concern, Wes turned me on to this.

00:22:52.140 Yesterday, he called me out publicly.

00:22:53.600 He knew he could get me to do something if he said it,

00:22:55.620 you know, not just in a text message, but on Twitter.

00:22:57.800 And so he was like, hey, you need to do the reading, Joel.

00:23:00.280 And I was like, all right, I'll do the reading.

00:23:02.320 And he's right.

00:23:02.860 So there's a book called Return of the Strong Gods.

00:23:05.700 And what it's emphasizing, the strong gods versus weak gods, comparing and contrasting,

00:23:11.200 it's saying not necessarily gods as actual deities, but it's saying in terms of tradition.

00:23:16.280 So the strong gods would be things like faith, church, religion, patriarchy, fathers, family,

00:23:24.540 those kinds of things.

00:23:25.820 Weak gods would be the Enlightenment.

00:23:29.880 It would be Freud.

00:23:32.200 It would be Marx.

00:23:33.100 It would be Darwin.

00:23:34.220 And ultimately, the comparing and contrast is between strong and weak, but another way to word

00:23:40.000 it is between closed and open societies and traditions. And basically, the post-war sentiment

00:23:47.320 is what the author is getting at. He's saying that we have a very novel and very recent phenomenon

00:23:52.280 the way that people think. The way that Westerners think is not the way we always have. It's a very

00:23:57.720 recent phenomenon, and it's all in light of the First and particularly the Second World War,

00:24:03.020 that one of our biggest concerns

00:24:05.940 and one of the biggest steering mechanisms

00:24:09.480 for every decision we make,

00:24:10.960 how we craft education,

00:24:12.580 how we craft our traditions,

00:24:13.800 how we craft our politics,

00:24:15.420 how we craft economies and markets,

00:24:17.640 all of it is geared towards this. 0.89

00:24:19.600 Don't ever let there be an Adolf Hitler again.

00:24:23.880 We are terrified of the potential

00:24:26.360 of a strong authoritarian leader.

00:24:30.260 And just for the record,

00:24:31.720 I'm not a flat earther.

00:24:33.020 I'm also not pro-Hitler.

00:24:34.680 Just to make that clear, I think you guys know that,

00:24:37.200 but somebody will make it go viral on YouTube 0.67

00:24:39.920 and they'll say, see, he's pro-Hitler.

00:24:42.400 I'm not pro-Hitler.

00:24:45.220 But what we're recognizing, I think,

00:24:47.660 is that the pendulum has overswung,

00:24:49.540 we've overcompensated,

00:24:50.620 and in the name of inclusivity,

00:24:53.280 in the name of what we've rejected

00:24:55.620 is any kind of transcendent absolute truths.

00:24:59.020 Because a guy who makes strong, absolute,

00:25:01.920 universal authoritarian truth claims well that guy might destroy the world but what we found is that

00:25:10.440 weak empathetic inclusive men they're quite capable of destroying the world as well

00:25:16.100 and so there is going to be the argument from this book and i think he's right on

00:25:20.900 is is it um not that we have even so much a choice he's saying it's an inevitability

00:25:26.740 if you look at human history far enough, it's the same pattern. There will be a return to the strong

00:25:32.760 gods. Meaning again, faith, tradition, religion, patriarchy, strong men, strong military, strong

00:25:41.260 families, a classical education, right? Where you're not replacing Plato with some, you know,

00:25:47.460 gender studies or whatever. Like there's going to be a return back to that. There already is.

00:25:51.840 It's already shifting.

00:25:53.260 Here's the only question,

00:25:54.980 is will there be a strong biblical Christianity

00:25:58.840 as the pendulum starts swinging back

00:26:00.780 from the weak gods to the strong gods?

00:26:03.000 Let's say it like this. 0.82

00:26:04.660 Here's trans and kids. 1.00

00:26:06.580 Here's Adolf Hitler, okay? 0.77

00:26:08.520 Well, just making it real simple. 0.73

00:26:10.040 As it's shifting back,

00:26:12.120 we'd like to not go all the way back to Adolf Hitler. 0.96

00:26:14.580 I think that's a, you know,

00:26:15.500 I think we could all agree on that.

00:26:17.320 That's, you know, that would be a good goal.

00:26:19.220 But we also don't like this.

00:26:20.700 We got to go back.

00:26:21.420 it will go back so the question is as it's going back what is the stopping point that'll keep it

00:26:26.900 here and and to where we don't overreact and go there this the stopping point you know what it is

00:26:31.820 it's biblical historic christianity that's the stopping point and yet what you hear and and this

00:26:39.600 is the crazy you hear this from christians what you hear is a christian nationalism that's that's

00:26:44.580 ethnocentric nationalism that's that's the third reich all over no no no that's what keeps us from

00:26:49.540 going there. The very thing that you're trying to deconstruct, the thing that you're attacking

00:26:56.020 is saying it's an overreaction, it's extreme, you know, this is just a fed op, you know, like

00:27:00.560 anybody who believes in Christian nationalism is just an FBI, you know, plant. No, no, no. That's

00:27:05.980 to stop it from going too far. That's the barrier. Biblical patriarchy, a biblical political theology

00:27:14.260 that views nations and kings that they actually have,

00:27:18.000 there's a God above them, that the law is king,

00:27:21.700 Lex Rex and not the king is law,

00:27:23.900 that kiss the son, Psalm 2, lest he be angry

00:27:27.120 and his wrath quickly kindled while you are in the way.

00:27:29.600 Like all these kinds of things at every single level,

00:27:32.860 these things, a classical education,

00:27:35.020 reading the patriarchs and all these,

00:27:38.080 this is the healthy middle, middle's not a good word,

00:27:43.440 the healthy, well-rounded biblical option that God provides for us. Tradition matters. Fathers

00:27:50.160 matter. Mothers matter. Children matter. Education matters. And it's not all about inclusivity. It's 1.00

00:27:56.400 not the Montessori, you know, well, what does your kid want to be? They're a blank slate.

00:28:00.780 We're children led. Children lead here. Children lead here. The Bible talks about that. We're

00:28:05.260 children lead. That's a sign of God's judgment. Children leading. That's not the brag you think

00:28:10.060 it is like the children lead in our society well then you failed congratulations no no parents lead

00:28:17.620 children jonas says i think i'm a unicorn and you say that's great to pretend but you're not

00:28:22.460 you know like you're not child led you're parent led so strong parents strong fathers strong

00:28:28.580 mothers having seen children as a blessing and not a burden seeking to have many children not

00:28:34.520 being overly legalistic and putting an exact number you have to have 8.6 or but but in general

00:28:39.360 seeing that children are a blessing from the Lord, returning to a classical education, and not these

00:28:44.880 modern social constructs that you just want. Right now, our education system is, you would go into,

00:28:52.600 especially higher education, you would go into school, and maybe you really like Homer,

00:29:00.520 right? Maybe you really like Socrates, and you realize, okay, this guy's not a Christian, 0.99

00:29:04.200 but there's some really good things there. Well, the goal of higher education is that you would

00:29:07.920 come in and then you would take particular specific courses on uh these time periods and

00:29:13.460 this civilization and these people that were influential and shaped history that you really

00:29:17.960 enjoy and by the time you're done with four years you'll hate them that's the goal the goal is not

00:29:23.680 to learn them or to to grow in appreciation the the goal is to see how well socrates was you know 0.54

00:29:30.040 he was misogynistic you know and plato he's probably a racist you know and like and by the

00:29:36.520 time you're done um you you hate every foundation of western civilization there's ever been there's 0.84

00:29:41.860 going to be a return to the strong gods the weak gods being um things like critical theory things

00:29:49.520 like um anti-religion inclusivity um you know all this kind of stuff that's the weak gods and and

00:29:57.460 because we are so afraid of nationalistic you know going too far right with germany went a little bit

00:30:03.220 too far. And so we were so afraid of those kinds of things and the terror of war, people coming

00:30:08.060 back from the battlefield, seeing the atrocities that had taken place. I'm sympathetic. There were

00:30:14.100 real problems. But in that, there was an over cowardly reaction, never again. But in this

00:30:20.840 determination, this dedication, commitment to never again, what we ultimately decided as an

00:30:26.900 entire western civilization germany definitely decided this but but even america um what we

00:30:32.980 decided especially everywhere in europe is we will never allow a strong especially male leader to

00:30:39.480 rise ever again if that guy if he's got charisma and and he's not just smiley and nice but he

00:30:48.700 actually believes that there are things that are true and false black and white right if if he if

00:30:55.200 there's a guy like that and he starts cropping up on the scene, we will, everyone will unite

00:31:01.420 to take that guy down. I mean, four different indictments, whatever, right? We'll take that guy

00:31:07.940 down. Now, give me, you know, don't misunderstand me. Donald Trump would not be qualified to be

00:31:12.900 an elder in our church. And I'd have to sit down and talk to him. I have a sneaking suspicion. I'm

00:31:17.760 not going to make any definitive claim. I don't know the guy, but I do have, my suspicion is that

00:31:21.760 he wouldn't be qualified to be a member either, that he might not even be regenerate. But my point

00:31:27.260 is this. I'm grateful for how God used him. Incredibly grateful for how God used him. Not

00:31:32.620 particularly 2020, but the three years leading up to that. Fantastic, in my opinion. And all that

00:31:37.900 being said, here's my point. He is that kind of man. Whether he's a wonderful Christian man or

00:31:43.560 not, it doesn't matter. The point is, he is masculine. He makes truth claims. He just tells 0.97

00:31:50.660 it like it is. And there's a reason that it's because of that, the whole world gathered together

00:31:56.540 and said, we've got to take him out. In fact, I'm personally surprised that he's still alive.

00:32:01.600 I'm surprised there hasn't been some kind of successful assassination or something like that.

00:32:06.560 And that is the post-war sentiment. So when I talk about the post-war sentiment, it's this idea that

00:32:12.560 strong men destroy the world and that a strong nationalistic sense of heritage and pride,

00:32:18.700 that destroys the world and truth claims that are universal and definitive destroys the world

00:32:24.920 instead what we need is an open society we need open borders we need open uh open minds open

00:32:31.960 hearts open education open this open that and and and we've done that for approximately you know 80

00:32:40.100 80 years or so and uh and it has not been good and and again the solution is not to go all the

00:32:46.920 way back to 1940s, you know, Third Reich, Germany. That's not the solution. The solution is the Bible.

00:32:56.920 Absolute truth claims, strong fathers, a sense of understanding nations that their borders have

00:33:03.860 been set by God and their times, having a pride in your nation, having natural affections that we

00:33:09.420 love our neighbors all over the world, but we do have a sense of particular obligation to our

00:33:15.160 family, our country. These are good things. And if you don't have them, here's the deal. If every

00:33:22.220 expression, so for instance, to change another example, if every expression of the church,

00:33:27.240 the evangelical church, when it comes to men and women is egalitarianism, it's just basically 0.74

00:33:32.580 feminism. Like, yeah, the man, you know, he's the head of his wife. What does that mean? Well, 0.89

00:33:36.680 in practice, what that means is nothing. What does it mean for him to have authority? No authority.

00:33:41.880 Like, if that's what evangelicalism offers, and it does, 100%,

00:33:47.020 then what you're going to have is Andrew Tate.

00:33:53.080 That's how it's going to work, because men aren't crazy, right?

00:33:57.980 Men know if I marry a woman, there's about a 60% chance she'll ruin my life. 1.00

00:34:03.920 And all the courts, our entire legal system is geared towards her. 1.00

00:34:07.160 She'll take the kids, she will win. 0.99

00:34:09.580 Whether she's in the wrong or not, it doesn't matter.

00:34:11.460 She'll win. 0.96

00:34:12.260 She'll take all my money, all my children, this, that.

00:34:16.340 I mean, the advice that you see from these guys, 1.00

00:34:19.040 and they're not Christians, 1.00

00:34:20.460 so I'm not praising these guys,

00:34:22.240 but the advice they see, you see from them

00:34:24.880 that they're giving to young men

00:34:26.000 and millions of young men are listening to them, by the way.

00:34:29.180 And Christians should be aware of this.

00:34:31.080 They're saying, hey, you know, when you turn 18, 0.98

00:34:34.040 you should get a vasectomy.

00:34:35.860 Never get married, never be tied down. 1.00

00:34:38.920 Do this, do that.

00:34:41.320 And people are listening to it because men feel hopeless.

00:34:45.980 And your choices right now, these are the choices. 0.57

00:34:48.580 You've got Andrew Tate, who is godless, or Russell Moore as the Christian option. 0.63

00:34:56.620 There's got to be another option. 0.85

00:34:59.620 And I would suggest that the option is biblical patriarchy. 0.58

00:35:03.100 The option is scripture.

00:35:04.560 The option is strong men, but who model Christ-likeness.

00:35:10.440 that actually do have authority,

00:35:12.520 but at the same time also like Jesus

00:35:14.560 are willing to lay down their lives

00:35:16.380 for their wives in love for them

00:35:18.920 and for their children.

00:35:21.200 That's the other option.

00:35:22.400 But if that option is utterly absent

00:35:25.220 because all of evangelicalism,

00:35:27.820 anytime a Christian man says,

00:35:29.800 hey, I think biblical patriarchy

00:35:31.060 might be biblical or this or that.

00:35:32.380 And the rest of evangelicalism says misogynist,

00:35:35.420 and then those guys go dark, they go silent,

00:35:38.080 and that option's no longer there.

00:35:39.580 these you know functional egalitarian but technically i'm a complementarian evangelicals

00:35:46.680 they're not going to win they can maybe beat the guys in the middle the biblical patriarchy guys

00:35:51.660 they could they could cancel us they could silence us but if they do we're the only barrier between

00:35:57.360 them and andrew tape because they're not going to win they don't have a viable worldview it's not

00:36:03.800 viable. You know why Islam is so successful? It's demonic. It's wrong. It's false, but it's viable. 1.00

00:36:13.580 It believes in marriage. It believes in strong men. It believes that children are a blessing.

00:36:22.660 It believes in female submission. I think it goes over more. Again, I'm saying a lot of things. 0.97

00:36:28.040 Not a fan of Hitler. Not a fan of Islam. Not a fan of Andrew Tate. All right, just again, 1.00

00:36:32.240 the disclaimers here. But Islam is taking over the world. I watched a video just the other day 1.00

00:36:37.760 with some Islamic imams, and they were, you know, and they were laughing and saying, Christians,

00:36:42.360 please, you know, showing in London all these glorious Christian cathedrals, and then taking

00:36:47.880 the camera inside, and it's a mosque. And they said, Christians, we love what you're doing.

00:36:55.260 Keep building cathedrals, because they're all just future mosques, because you're weak. 1.00

00:37:00.880 and they're right. Christianity is weak. It's weak. Now, real biblical Christianity 1.00

00:37:09.100 is a world-dominating force. It can't be stopped. It's invulnerable.

00:37:16.620 But the Christianity that we have today, LARPing around as biblical Christianity, it's weak. 1.00

00:37:21.640 Islam will take it out. Now, it won't be taken out because within our ranks, there is a true 0.97

00:37:27.220 remnant that trust in Jesus Christ, and he's the head of the church, and he won't let his church

00:37:31.640 fall away. So I have the utmost hope. But there are certain worldviews. My point is there are

00:37:38.820 certain worldviews, the small gods includes, it's not viable. And then there are strong gods that

00:37:44.740 are far more viable, actually. Islam would be an example of that. Far more viable. They're false.

00:37:50.120 They're wrong. But they actually have a plan. They actually have viability.

00:37:54.840 right secularism is a weak god it's it's an example of a weak god it it's not viable for

00:38:01.860 no other reason because because it doesn't even have a plan for procreation the secularism has

00:38:08.880 has a time stamp it has a shelf life it's not going to hang around secularism will beat itself

00:38:14.700 you don't even need christianity to take out secularism you need christianity just to so

00:38:19.420 so that the human race continues to exist

00:38:21.280 once secularism takes itself out.

00:38:24.000 Islam is not like that, though, however. 1.00

00:38:26.440 It is wrong. 1.00

00:38:29.560 If you're a Muslim, you need Jesus. 1.00

00:38:33.180 And apart from Jesus Christ, 1.00

00:38:34.360 you will die and spend an eternity in hell. 0.96

00:38:36.600 It is a false gospel with a false God. 0.99

00:38:39.800 But it is viable.

00:38:42.060 And what I mean by that is

00:38:43.020 it doesn't reject God's created order.

00:38:45.960 any worldview that accepts nature and God's created order those are the strong gods and

00:38:54.240 they will persist what we would like though within the strong god array within the pantheon

00:38:59.600 or before the pantheon is Jesus Christ as the bulwark stopping the madness and saying here you

00:39:07.380 are this is your destination look no further he is the strongest god there is follow him his

00:39:13.940 precepts, his word, it lends towards life, life everlasting and abundant life, and this life as

00:39:20.480 well. So, I can't even remember how I got on that. The point is, the Lord is mighty in battle,

00:39:29.400 also finishing the fight. All right, so running down the enemy. We don't finish fights anymore.

00:39:36.800 We don't, but Israel did, and that's why God stops the sun and the moon and the sky, 0.96

00:39:41.700 And he also sends through Joshua and his command, sends Israel to pursue all their adversaries 0.99

00:39:48.280 unto the bitter end so that they could not make it back into their cities and mount up a new attack 0.97

00:39:54.460 on a future day. This is verse 16. These five kings fled and hid themselves in the cave of

00:40:01.500 Makeda. And it was told to Joshua, the five kings had been found hidden in the cave of Makeda.

00:40:06.940 And Joshua said,

00:40:07.960 roll large stones against the mouth of the cave

00:40:10.420 and set men by it to guard them.

00:40:12.720 But do not stay there yourselves.

00:40:15.660 Pursue your enemies.

00:40:16.840 So put these big stones there.

00:40:18.340 That way now the kings are locked in.

00:40:20.460 Now you can go and help your brothers

00:40:21.920 and pursue your enemies.

00:40:23.260 Pursue your enemies, attack their rear guard.

00:40:25.440 That means run them down

00:40:26.520 as they're on the run, retreating. 1.00

00:40:28.520 Do not let them enter their cities

00:40:30.400 for the Lord your God has given them into your hand.

00:40:33.240 When Joshua and the sons of Israel

00:40:35.100 had finished striking them with a great blow until they were wiped out. And when the remnant that 0.94

00:40:40.600 remained of them had entered into their fortified cities, then all the people returned safe to Joshua

00:40:46.300 in the camp of Makeda. Not a man moved his tongue against any of the people of Israel. So the picture

00:40:52.720 is what we saw in verses 8 through 15. The Lord is mighty in battle. He's the one who supernaturally

00:40:58.320 gives success and he puts the enemies of Israel in a panic. He causes great hailstones to rain 0.53

00:41:04.340 rain down so that more die by the hillstones than by the sword of Israel. And then lastly, 0.77

00:41:09.180 he lengthens the day so that they wouldn't just deal a great blow to their adversaries, 0.59

00:41:14.560 but so that Israel could actually finish the fight. And now we see practically Joshua saying,

00:41:19.880 all right, we've got the kings, the five kings of these five Amorite tribes. They ran and hid 0.90

00:41:24.940 like cowards in a cave. Instead of guarding them, let's get every man that we can, every fighting 0.99

00:41:29.740 man to go and pursue the the the enemy uh tribes that are on the retreat right now so they don't

00:41:36.280 make it back to their cities so we'll close this in with uh with large stones this cave where the

00:41:41.380 five kings are hidden and then we can come back to this later now join your brothers and they pursue

00:41:46.460 them and it seems as though from the text they kill most of the amorite soldiers a few it says

00:41:51.440 a remnant make it back to their cities but what we're meant to understand is that the few that

00:41:55.780 make it back to their Amorite cities are so few that they won't be able to mount a counter-attack 0.77

00:42:00.820 and they'll fold like a cheap suit under, you know, under siege from Israel. So it's like, all right, 0.99

00:42:06.640 so now we can take out the cities. We'll do that on another day. Let's regroup back in Makeda

00:42:10.640 where the cave is, where the stones are, where the five kings are locked inside.

00:42:14.760 Now, remember, as we're preaching through this, Joshua is a type of Christ. There's multiple

00:42:19.320 different levels of symbolism, typology. And one of them is this. Joshua is a type of Christ,

00:42:27.120 meaning he signifies in many ways Jesus. And what we have here is with Christ, we know the gospel

00:42:34.440 narrative that Christ, he was crucified on a Roman cross and that he was put into a tomb, a cave,

00:42:41.640 and a stone was rolled in front of the mouth of the cave, right? And here we have Joshua,

00:42:47.960 a type of Christ, he's not going into the tomb, he's not going into the cave, but he is subjecting

00:42:53.080 his enemies, five other kings, and the stones are being rolled in front of the mouth of the cave so

00:42:57.980 they can't get out. The difference is this, you have five kings going into a tomb with stones

00:43:03.660 rolled in front of it, and those five kings, they come out to be put to death under Joshua, who is a

00:43:10.040 type of Christ who is stronger than they are. And yet in the gospel narrative, the antitype, who is

00:43:15.880 Christ himself. He went into a tomb. A stone was rolled in front of that tomb, but he's not brought 0.80

00:43:21.060 out of that tomb in order to be put to death. He goes in already dead and comes back out alive.

00:43:27.360 The stone cannot hold him, and he doesn't come out to be put to death, but he comes out to live and

00:43:32.740 to live forevermore. That Jesus is the greater king. He is the king of all kings. And so it's

00:43:39.540 beautiful, I think, seeing some of the parallels of the tomb, the cave, the stones, and five kings

00:43:44.700 brought out to be put to death one king the king of kings brought in already dead but coming out

00:43:50.880 alive and living forevermore all right continuing here the last thing that i want us to focus on

00:43:57.320 is that god placed dragons and giants in this world precisely so that we can slay them

00:44:05.840 that's why they're here like sometimes i i forget who said it it was i think it was at a grace

00:44:13.660 Agenda Conference at Christ Church, when somebody was talking about education and classical education

00:44:20.120 and training children, and they said, you know, it's nerve-wracking as a parent, thinking that

00:44:26.900 the world that we grew up in is not the world that our children are growing up in. That things

00:44:33.320 were, you know, there was always sin, but things are far less safe today than they were 50 years

00:44:39.720 ago than they were even just 20 years ago. I mean, even with your children playing outside,

00:44:45.560 there's certain precautions you have to take that when you were a kid, your parents didn't take.

00:44:49.800 And it's not because your parents were negligent. It's not because they didn't love you. It's

00:44:52.660 because the world was safer. So you just go out and run around and do this and do that and be home

00:44:58.200 by, you know, the mom comes out with a dinner bell or whatever. You're home by five and nobody's

00:45:03.220 worried. Nobody's worried about kidnapping or this or, you know, God forbid, you know, whatever.

00:45:08.120 but the world is different the world has become dangerous and in this conference and talking about

00:45:14.560 you know training children and classical education it was really encouraging because it's easy to

00:45:19.000 just be hopeless right it's well the first option that you have kind of like red pill blue pill and

00:45:25.100 i'm talking about like the matrix analogy neo you know you can take the blue pill and you'll go back

00:45:29.180 to sleep get plugged back up into the matrix and you know and just ignore all the problems in the

00:45:34.020 world right that's if you take the blue pill the red pill is you're going to get unplugged from

00:45:38.240 the matrix and you're going to know all the problems and that's been happening these last

00:45:42.160 few years in a proverbial sense a lot of people are taking that red pill and waking up and they're

00:45:46.620 like oh my goodness like we were we were asleep at the wheel for a long time but there's some

00:45:51.720 nefarious um players in this game and this is happening that's happening we were lied to about

00:45:56.440 this the difference between a conspiracy and the truth is approximately three to six months like

00:46:01.180 people are waking up people are waking up here's the problem though people are taking this red pill

00:46:06.540 and waking up it's quickly followed by a black pill a lot of people are waking up you you talk

00:46:13.060 to them or you read them on social media or whatever and all they talk about is just how

00:46:17.000 things are hopeless and if they have any hope at all it's it's it's in a rapture Jesus is going to

00:46:23.180 come back and rapture us and it's probably going to be in the next you know 20 to 30 minutes

00:46:27.220 and that's it. That's the only hope. Everything that they say, this is happening. It's going to

00:46:32.800 happen. There's nothing you can do to stop it. It's going to get really bad. In fact, it's going

00:46:36.620 to get worse. And it's like, but we just, but we pat ourselves on our back and we pride ourselves

00:46:41.500 not because we're strong, not because we have a plan, not because we could win, but just because

00:46:46.600 we know. Like, I'm, hey, follow me. Why? You have a plan for victory? No, because I know how bad

00:46:54.480 things are, and I know the most bad things. Like the entire ministries, entire organizations,

00:47:02.340 entire social media pages, all websites and institutions, all geared around that. That's

00:47:07.520 just the conservative play. But what do the conservatives do? Conservatives boast in being

00:47:12.920 fully aware about how we're going to lose. We're losing now. We're also going to lose a little bit

00:47:18.940 later, and we're going to lose precisely in this way, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we don't

00:47:23.100 builds, we beg. We beg for donations. We sound the alarm for boycotts. So the playbook for

00:47:33.500 conservatives is this. Number one, and you can't skip this step. It's imperative to the conservative

00:47:37.980 playbook. Get beat. Lose. And conservatives are fantastic at that. So first you lose. You get beat.

00:47:44.060 Then you bemoan. You complain about how bad the world is. Then you beg, right? You beg for

00:47:51.140 donations you boycott right and and then and then you get beat again and you just and it's a cycle

00:47:58.080 and starts back over that's that's it but for those of us who have a hopeful eschatology those

00:48:05.080 of us who believe that christ wins and not winning despite a weak shriveling church but that he wins

00:48:10.860 actually progressively throughout human history through his church that i will build not just

00:48:16.460 sustain my church as it's on the ropes, but I'll actually build, advance, increase my church.

00:48:21.500 And the gates of Hades, meaning hell is on the defensive. Gates are not weaponry. They're

00:48:25.840 defensive measures. The church is on the offense. It's building and growing. And hell on the

00:48:31.400 defense, its gates will not be able to sustain the battering ram of the church of Jesus Christ 0.72

00:48:37.580 as he builds it. Those of us who believe that way, that the church, Christ is victorious

00:48:42.680 through the church. We all, if you're a Christian, you believe Christ wins. The question is this,

00:48:46.900 do you believe Christ wins despite a losing church or Christ wins progressively throughout

00:48:51.720 human history through a building church? I believe the latter. So for us, we've taken the

00:48:58.480 red pill. We don't believe this because we're naive. We don't think, hey, we're winning because

00:49:02.200 we're ostriches with our head in the sand and we don't know about, you know, the world economic

00:49:07.460 forum and we don't know about this and we don't know no we know we're aware things are bad we get

00:49:14.100 it but at a certain point you got to move the conversation from things are bad to how do we win

00:49:19.420 how do we win the red pill is necessary don't take a blue pill and go to sleep again get plugged back

00:49:27.540 you got to take the red pill but here's here's the vital piece of information that a lot of

00:49:32.000 evangelicals are missing you follow up the red pill not with the black pill of despair but

00:49:37.380 but with a white pill of hope that Christ wins through his church. 0.53

00:49:43.060 And that's what we see with Israel. 0.91

00:49:44.940 Israel doesn't just attack, but they run them down. 0.90

00:49:48.140 They finish the fight.

00:49:49.800 They don't just leave in the name of empathy and the name of love

00:49:53.020 and the name of inclusion and the name of this and the name of that.

00:49:55.780 They don't leave their enemies to regroup and regather

00:49:59.000 and re-multiply and strengthen and then take them out at a future time.

00:50:03.200 No, they finish the fight.

00:50:05.060 and God, the whole reason why the sun,

00:50:07.380 I don't want us to miss this,

00:50:08.760 the reason why God actually answers a man,

00:50:11.400 it's a big deal.

00:50:12.700 Joshua, the Lord, it says,

00:50:14.980 never since that day has the Lord

00:50:15.960 heeded the word of a man.

00:50:17.240 Think about why.

00:50:18.240 The whole reason God, the God of the universe,

00:50:21.240 heeded the word of a man

00:50:22.480 to stop the sun and the moon and the sky,

00:50:24.900 to lengthen the day,

00:50:26.420 there's one reason,

00:50:27.920 so that his enemies could be further slaughtered.

00:50:32.280 So we're talking about a miraculous,

00:50:34.240 unique event in all of biblical history with the sole purpose of more killing of bad guys.

00:50:43.600 That's the purpose. Why? Because God is glorious and he loves his people. That's why. God is

00:50:50.240 glorious and he loves his people. And he does not want his people to be slaughtered in the future

00:50:55.300 because they wounded the snake, but didn't cut off its head. Because they gave certain blows,

00:51:02.660 but not the death blow.

00:51:05.340 And I'm not advocating to take this in a literal sense.

00:51:08.120 I'm not talking about taking up arms.

00:51:09.780 Again, disclaimer, disclaimer.

00:51:11.140 What I'm saying though, is that as Christians,

00:51:14.020 when it comes to legislation, when it comes to culture,

00:51:17.620 when it comes to education, when it comes to family,

00:51:20.080 when it comes to doctrine,

00:51:21.360 when it comes to sin in our own individual lives,

00:51:23.740 as we seek to mortify sin in sanctification at every level,

00:51:28.820 let's give the death blow.

00:51:30.600 don't be satisfied to sequester and subdue and quarantine sin kill it don't be satisfied to say 0.94

00:51:40.920 well we've got a heartbeat law no no no abolish abortion don't be satisfied to say well our public

00:51:48.040 school is not too bad i mean they teach some evolution and there's no mention of jesus and

00:51:52.280 the last teacher that mentioned jesus she got fired but it no no no christian education there 0.84

00:51:58.440 is no neutral at every level run them down that's what the israelites did that's why god stopped the 0.62

00:52:06.500 day simply so there would be more time for his children to run down their adversaries to thoroughly 0.88

00:52:13.700 defeat them so that his people might flourish in the land and that's what we're called to do

00:52:20.280 in a political sense a cultural sense a spiritual sense a moral sense in our own lives and 1.00

00:52:25.940 sanctification at every level. That is a lesson for us not to miss. Lastly, the very last thing.

00:52:34.420 Now the kings are coming out, okay? The kings are coming out of the cave. They moved the stones.

00:52:39.840 They've run everybody down. There's only a few people left in the city. They'll take care of

00:52:43.540 that later. They're too few to be able to regroup and mount any serious attack. Everything is

00:52:48.440 completed. Every I is dotted. Every T is crossed. There's only one thing left, the five Amorite

00:52:54.120 kings that they locked into this tomb, this cave. So now they move the stones. Joshua says to his 0.99

00:53:00.740 men, bring out the king, bring them before me. And Joshua has them lay down on the ground.

00:53:07.180 Let's look at the verse. This is verse 24. And when they brought those kings out to Joshua,

00:53:12.660 Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to his chiefs, so not every single man in Israel,

00:53:17.960 he says to all of them, but then particularly to his chiefs, the chief of the men of war,

00:53:23.040 kind of his captains, Joshua being the general, who had gone with them, come near and put your

00:53:29.320 feet on the necks of these kings. Literally. Then they came near and put their feet on their necks

00:53:37.280 and Joshua said to them, do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous for thus the

00:53:45.300 Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight. John Gill, in commentating on this

00:53:53.040 particular portion of our text, he says this, Joshua and his war chiefs, he had his war chiefs

00:53:59.520 place their feet on the necks of the five Amorite kings, not in a contemptuous or insulting manner,

00:54:06.080 nor through vanity or pride or haughtiness, but for the mortification of the kings, that is to 0.93

00:54:12.120 kill them, and as a token to their extreme subjection, that the kings would know you're not 0.99

00:54:19.260 in power, you're under us, and as a proper punishment to their crimes of idolatry, tyranny, 1.00

00:54:26.580 and cruelty, don't forget these are wicked kings, and by way of terror to others of the kings of

00:54:33.880 Canaan, so other kings would hear this and know you're next, our feet are on their necks, and our

00:54:40.680 feet tomorrow will be on your next too, so as to frighten, strike fear into the future kings, 0.59

00:54:46.360 other kings in Canaan that would be put to death, that should fight against Israel, and as a pledge, 0.77

00:54:52.240 this is the last piece, as a pledge and confirmation of the subjection of the rest, that these tribes

00:54:58.780 had fallen, and these kings were made subject by God in his supernatural power to his children,

00:55:04.260 Israel, and all the other kings, the same thing would happen with them, that the subjection of

00:55:09.480 These kings was indicative of the subjection

00:55:12.200 of every king in Canaan.

00:55:14.200 The land had been promised by God to his people

00:55:16.600 and he would give them strength

00:55:18.360 to overcome every adversary they would ever face.

00:55:23.500 Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 29.

00:55:25.720 It's a fulfillment.

00:55:28.100 Joshua 10 is a fulfillment.

00:55:29.760 This moment of their feet

00:55:30.940 on the necks of these Amorite kings

00:55:32.700 is a fulfillment of what the Lord spoke through Moses

00:55:35.240 while they were still in the wilderness.

00:55:37.800 Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord,

00:55:41.840 the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph.

00:55:45.260 Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs.

00:55:52.120 This is what the Lord promised to Israel, and this is what the Lord accomplished through Joshua.

00:55:57.560 And this is what the Lord has promised to his true Israel, the church,

00:56:02.140 and what he has and will continue progressively throughout human history, 0.55

00:56:06.320 accomplished through the antitype of Joshua,

00:56:09.940 the true Yeshua, the true deliverer,

00:56:12.340 Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

00:56:14.600 And it's important, especially for fathers now,

00:56:18.180 as we land the plane and finish the sermon today,

00:56:20.940 for fathers, it's important that you teach your children

00:56:24.440 that things are hard and that we,

00:56:27.320 in the midst of adversity, in the midst of difficulty,

00:56:30.360 we persevere, but it's also important to remind them

00:56:33.660 that when they overcome, to take note of that, to not pass over too quickly over our victories.

00:56:40.300 Yes, we want to remember our weakness. We need to be repentant people. The Christian life does

00:56:45.600 have a cross, and we're called to take it up daily and follow Christ. But it's not only a cross. It

00:56:51.160 also has an empty tomb. It also has resurrection. We don't die just to die. We die with Christ so

00:56:56.940 that we might be raised with him to walk in newness of life. And yes, we still sin. And yes,

00:57:01.980 we still experience defeat. And yes, it keeps us humble like the Apostle Paul, who was given

00:57:06.940 sovereignly by God a thorn in his side to teach him affliction and humility. But we also, by God's

00:57:13.460 grace and his grace and strength alone, we do experience victories in this life. And when we

00:57:18.620 do, we should write them down. Remember them. When your child, especially your sons, for fathers,

00:57:25.080 when he has his first moment of triumph, there's something difficult that he's been frustrated by,

00:57:30.780 he's been struggling with and he's able to overcome that. Write it down. Take a picture.

00:57:35.960 Tell a story. Celebrate. Get a cake that evening. You know, do something special at the dinner table

00:57:41.080 with the family. Have him in the proverbial sense, not just when, but have a moment with your son

00:57:47.240 where you say, son, go ahead and put your foot on the neck. On the neck of that thing that you've

00:57:52.160 just conquered. And remember that these other things will be conquered too. Many of them by

00:57:58.800 Christ's power, not your own, but Christ's power through you will be conquered in your life. And

00:58:03.080 anything that's not, it will eventually be conquered by Christ and the last of his enemies

00:58:07.560 that he will conquer is death itself. We are victorious in Christ. We are more than conquerors

00:58:14.660 through Christ Jesus. And we are called to trample serpents and scorpions. Yeah, that verse has been

00:58:21.280 misapplied. I understand. Pentecostals, not all of them, but, you know, a sliver, one percent, you

00:58:26.360 you know, have some snakes passing them around and a serpent. I understand, but that's still

00:58:30.540 a Bible verse and you got to do something with it. We're going to trample on the adder, trample

00:58:35.820 on scorpions and serpents. We're called to be victorious. There are valleys, but there are also

00:58:40.860 mountains. We're weak, but he is strong. There is a cross, but there's also an empty tomb and

00:58:46.940 resurrection. We're the children of God. Yes, we are like sheep among wolves, but we're also called

00:58:53.020 to be soldiers. The church is triumphant and will rest in heaven, but the church on earth is militant

00:58:59.440 and it fights. And it fights not just so that it can lose. We fight because sometimes by the grace

00:59:07.040 of God we win. And we have won. That's the only reason we have so many blessings in the West today

00:59:14.640 is because other Christians fought. The Puritans fought. The Reformers fought. The Pilgrims fought. 0.99

00:59:21.160 The Covenanters fought. 0.72

00:59:22.960 The Founders fought.

00:59:25.260 Right?

00:59:25.540 This notion that everything is just on a straight line down,

00:59:29.740 a trajectory of constant degradation,

00:59:32.400 getting worse and worse and worse from the time of Christ

00:59:34.640 for the last 2,000 years, 0.81

00:59:35.680 that can't explain the West.

00:59:39.500 That just doesn't work.

00:59:41.780 You cannot hold that view and hold it logically,

00:59:44.580 much less biblically.

00:59:45.900 You cannot say everything has gotten worse

00:59:48.140 since the time of Christ.

00:59:49.680 It hasn't.

00:59:51.060 it hasn't God's sovereign we don't we don't make things happen I understand that but who's to say

00:59:58.520 he's done it before he could do it again our job is to be faithful God can send revival

01:00:05.860 it is a viable possibility God can send reformation America could repent millions of people

01:00:14.640 could be born again.

01:00:17.380 He's done it.

01:00:18.480 He hasn't just done it in some distant land,

01:00:21.600 you know, 8,000 years ago.

01:00:23.520 He's done it here and he did it recently.

01:00:26.980 This very land just a few hundred years ago

01:00:29.680 had some of the most famous revivals of all of history.

01:00:34.180 George Whitefield, John Wesley,

01:00:36.500 guys going up the coast and preaching

01:00:38.300 and people and masses coming to Christ

01:00:40.800 in genuine salvation.

01:00:42.720 entire governments

01:00:45.180 and policies and laws

01:00:47.120 being orchestrated where

01:00:48.840 the number one piece of literature

01:00:50.840 cited is the book of

01:00:52.900 Deuteronomy

01:00:53.540 it's not just God could

01:00:57.060 hypothetically do it, he has done

01:00:59.120 it, he did it here

01:01:00.740 and he did it recently

01:01:02.060 and by his grace he could do it again

01:01:04.600 and if he doesn't

01:01:06.000 if he doesn't

01:01:08.620 then let it not be because of our failure

01:01:10.820 our compromise and our apathy.

01:01:14.080 Let's pray.

01:01:15.080 Father, thank you for your word. 0.98

01:01:16.980 Help us to be like Israel in this instance, 0.94

01:01:19.960 not many others, but in this particular instance

01:01:22.280 and running down the enemy,

01:01:24.900 thoroughly defeating sin,

01:01:27.040 thoroughly defeating your enemies,

01:01:28.920 everything that stands in opposition

01:01:30.560 to the truth of your word

01:01:32.120 and gaining courage 0.96

01:01:35.740 by putting our fate on the necks of pagan kings

01:01:40.540 that might represent in our day ideologies,

01:01:43.440 godless, pagan ideologies

01:01:44.940 that directly contradict your word,

01:01:47.880 the Christian worldview,

01:01:49.440 the gospel of Jesus Christ.

01:01:52.280 To say that giants actually can be killed.

01:01:56.560 Dragons actually can be slain.

01:01:58.800 That you put giants and dragons in this world

01:02:01.260 precisely for the point of dragon slayers

01:02:04.820 and giant killers.

01:02:08.160 Help us, Lord, to have courage

01:02:09.960 and help us, yes, to be wary and careful for our children,

01:02:13.920 but also not to be overcome with dread,

01:02:19.400 not to be overcome with fear.

01:02:22.220 That, yeah, the giants are looking as though

01:02:24.660 they may be bigger for our children

01:02:26.480 and their generation than they were for our generation.

01:02:30.740 But that just means that our children

01:02:32.720 may be given the immense privilege

01:02:34.480 of slaying bigger giants.

01:02:37.220 you raise up titans simply for the purpose of showing your immense power through your people

01:02:47.360 when you defeat them your word says for this reason i set up and sustained and built pharaoh

01:02:53.320 and all of egypt why just so you could show off when you caused egypt to come to its knees

01:03:01.420 so lord help us to have that kind of faith as we seek to be faithful in our world knowing that you

01:03:09.240 you are the one who grants victory some trust in horses some in chariots but we will trust

01:03:15.760 in the lord our god we pray these things in jesus name amen

The NXR Podcast - August 20, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Standing On The Necks Of Our Enemies

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