The NXR Podcast - August 20, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - Standing On The Necks Of Our Enemies


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 3 minutes

Words per minute

173.43523

Word count

10,984

Sentence count

618

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Toxicity

16

sentences flagged

Hate speech

99

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

This morning we continue our series through the book of Joshua. Our text for today picks up where we left off last week, focusing on the first half of the text (8:8-15). We then move on to the second half (15:8) and finish up with the third half (16:14-28).

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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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