If you would be turning in your
Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. So delighted to be back here
again. We have some good memories. I
was talking to Shelby before the service, and my youngest
daughter, Caitlin, she will turn 30 next month, June the 10th,
and her and Don shared a birthday. Now, they were several years
apart, and Don wouldn't have just been 30, you know better
than that, but, I mean, when he would, when we first met,
we probably met back in the early 90s, and Caitlin was just a little
thing, and he would tease with her, and she'd pat on his chest,
and she'd say, my Don, my Don, So just, you know, good memories.
I'm thankful God has given us the ability to remember. Now, sometimes that's a good
thing, and there's a lot of other things that I shouldn't remember
that I do. But it seems like as we get older, we remember
more of the old things. I told someone when I was growing
up, I didn't appreciate history that much. I wished I had, but
I didn't. American history, world history
or whatever. But now I do appreciate it a
little bit more, I guess because I'm part of it, part of history. But delighted to be here. If
you've turned in your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter seven, we'll be reading this whole chapter.
So you'll have a background. The nation that came out of Egypt
That whole nation, except for Caleb and Joshua, are the only
ones in those 20 years old and under that got to go into Canaan.
Now that whole generation has died off. 40 years, you imagine all those
people, you imagine the graves they dug, the people they buried.
And now this generation is being raised up and they are gonna
be instructed about what to do when they go in that land. Well,
what land? The land of promise, the land
of Canaan. All the promises of God are in
Christ and they are yea and amen. Though he said that Israel was
his inheritance and he gave them that land by promise, everything
they had he gave by promise. But they must go in by faith.
and conquer what God gave them. He's gonna conquer every enemy,
every enemy. They'll be subdued. In the title
of the lesson, you'll find it in just a few minutes as we read
this passage, little and little. How will he conquer those enemies? Little and little. He won't do it in one day. It
may take years, but little and little. Deuteronomy chapter 7,
verse 1. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land, whether thou goest to possess it, and has
cast out many Daneshins before thee. Now watch this. And he
lists these seven nations, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Parasites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites. seven nations greater and mightier
than thou. You're no match for those nations.
You're no match for that sin, but he's going to conquer them.
He's going to deliver those seven nations. They've dwelt there
a long time. They've been established for
a long time. Verse two, and when the Lord thy God shall deliver
them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy
them. Thou shalt not make any covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither
shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughters thou shalt
not give unto thy son, nor his daughters shalt thou take unto
thy son. And the reason is, for they will turn away thy son from
following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger
of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy you suddenly. And thus shall you deal with
them. You shall destroy them, destroy
their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves,
and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art a holy
people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto him, above all the people that
are upon the face of the earth. What a verse. God chose you. We are so privileged, so blessed
to be able to gather and meet. And that's why he's telling them,
he's reminding them you're his people. Then he says, verse seven,
the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because
you were more in number than any people. You were the fewest
of all people. But why did he do this? Because
the Lord loved you. because he would keep the oath
which he swore unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out
with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage
and from thy hand to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore
that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God which keepeth
covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments
to a thousand generations, excuse me, and repayeth them that hate
him to their face. to destroy them, he will not
be slacked of him that hateth him, he will repay him to his
face. Thou shalt therefore keep the
commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I commanded
thee this day to do them. Wherefore, it shall come to pass
if ye hearken to these judgments and keep and do them, that the
Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy
which he sware unto thy fathers. And he will love thee, and bless
thee, and multiply thee. He will also bless the fruit
of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, thy wine,
thine oil, thine increase, thine kind, thy flocks, thy sheep,
and the land which he swear unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou
shalt be blessed above all people. There shall not be male or female
barren among you or among your cattle. And the Lord will take
away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil
diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will
lay it upon all them that hate thee. And thou shalt consume
all the people which the Lord God shall deliver thee. Thine
eye shall have no pity upon them, neither shalt thou serve their
gods, for they will be a snare unto thee. If thou shalt say
in thine heart, these nations are more than I, how can I dispose
of them? Thou shalt not be afraid of them,
but shalt remember, here it is, you remember, what the Lord thy
God did unto Pharaoh and to all Egypt. He said, I want you to
remember, don't forget. They might have been young, they
might have been 20 years old and under, but he's reminding
them, don't forget what I did to them. Don't ever forget it. Don't ever forget how God set
you free by his marvelous grace. What verse was that? Somebody
help me. Verse 19, thank you. The great temptations which thine
eye saw, and the signs and the wonders in the mighty hand and
the stretched out arm were by the Lord thy God brought thee
out, so shall the Lord thy God do to all the people of whom
thou art afraid. Moreover, verse 20, the Lord
thy God will send a hornet among them until they are left, until
they that are left and hide themselves from thee are gonna be destroyed.
Thou shalt not be a frighten to them, for the Lord thy God
is among you, a mighty God, and a terrible. Here it is, verse
22. And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before
thee by little and little. Thou mayest not consume them
at once, lest the beast of the field increase upon the land. But the Lord thy God shall deliver
them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction
until they be destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings
into thy hands, and thou shalt destroy their name from under
heaven. And shall no man be able to stand
before thee until thou hast destroyed them. The graven images of their
gods shall be burned with fire. Thou shalt not desire the silver
or the gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee. lest thou
be snared therein, for it is an abomination to the Lord thy
God. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination
into thine house, lest thou be accursed thing like it, but thou
shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it,
for it is a accursed thing." He said that was a long chapter.
A lot in that chapter, there was a lot of instructions. He's
instructing this generation, this is what you need to do.
when you go into that land and you're going in, I'm gonna give
you that land. And these are the things that
you're to remember. Don't mingle with those nations. Don't give your son to marry
their daughter or their daughters to be married to your son. He
divided all this land by lot. What does this mean? He did it
without man's choice or will. This is Judas, this is Issachar,
this is Levi, this is Gad, this is Joseph. This was their lot
that was given unto them. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Israel didn't
conquer the land of Canaan. God did. If you don't get anything
else today, you remember that. The Lord did. The Lord delivered
you. He has delivered us from so great
a death. He is delivering us, and he shall
deliver us. Lord, help us to remember that. But he said there, I will not
drive them out. I mean, in Exodus 23, 29, I will
not drive them out from before thee in one year. lest the land
become desolate and the beats of the beasts of the field multiply
against it. You imagine if he killed all
those nations in one day. Israel's not large enough to
inhabit it. And if he did, you imagine all
the beasts of the field that would come in and devour on those
dead bodies. And you imagine now you're having
to face all these animals and try to conquer all these animals.
God has a reason for doing things the way he does them. And he
said, It's not gonna happen in one day, but you trust me, I'm
gonna drive them out little and little. But he says, but by little
and little, I will drive them out from before thee since thou,
until thou be increased and inherit the land. Seven nations greater
and mightier than now. These seven nations can picture
our old man in our sin, which still dwells there, always having
to fight him. Every time you turn around, there
he is. When Abraham was buried, Isaac
and Ishmael both came to his funeral. Ishmael's always going
to be standing there looking around the corner, mocking you.
You know what he's saying? That's my inheritance. No, it's
not. It's Isaac's. And we have an
old man, he's not improving, he's not getting better, I don't
know, I don't care what religion says, he's an old man. Who's gonna deliver me, who's
gonna deliver you from this body of death? And that's what it
is. The work that he has begun, he
will finish it. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's going to put out those nations.
He's going to drive them out. He will drive out sin, little
and little. Lord, give us grace to not be
discouraged into thinking That we get discouraged because we
don't think they'll ever be conquered. Yeah, they will. One day. One day, we'll be delivered. Someone said if you don't struggle
with sin, it's because you're under its dominion. And every
child of God knows by his experience that there's still an old man
that's not improving, not getting any better, but greater is he
that is in us than he that is in the world. So what I want
us to look at this morning is these seven nations that are
listed here. Our Lord uses them as a metaphor
to set forth those sins that dwell within a believer that
they all must be driven out. They're mightier, they're greater
than we are, but he will deliver them into our hands. First of
all is the Hittites. The Hittites represent a terrifying
or a spirit of fear and discouragement. These Hittites were the descendants
of Heth, the second son of Canaan. They were giants who brought
fear and confusion and discouragement. As I think about when David,
Jesse sent David to go check on his brothers. And when he
comes that day, David comes up and everybody's standing there. I can see them shaking, kindly
afraid. And this one guy down here in
the valley, big old tall guy, he's mocking the God of Israel.
And nobody's doing nothing. David said, did I hear him right?
He's mocking and defying our God. Is nobody not going to do
anything? You know why they wouldn't? They're
terrified. They said, well, I'm so small in his sight. David
said, is there not a cause? David said, is there not a cause?
David said, I'll go fight him. It made David's brother mad because
he was afraid to go fight. He said, who's watching them
few sheep? Who's watching them few sheep? Well, somebody was,
but David came because the father sent him. Remember how they tried
to put the armor of Saul on David? He said, I ain't proved this.
And he goes down with a stone and a sling and hits him right
in the forehead and knocks him down. And he takes his own sword
and cuts his head off and comes back out of that valley carrying
that bloody head. But he used, and this is what
we all face, it's fear. There's fear that sometimes it's
almost consuming before I preach. Sometimes, and you know, where
does that come from? God's not given us the spirit
of fear, but power and of love and a sound mind. When you are
afraid, I don't even think clear. You know what our biggest fear
is? That I'm going to make a big mistake in front of you. Eventually,
I'm going to. You watch me. You don't have
to watch too long and you don't have to listen too long to find
out I'm still flesh and blood. But I'm glad we're family. But
you see what I'm saying? You deal with those things. It's
fear. It's discouragement. Why, I can't do anything. I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me, what Paul
said. But it's fear. You know what the enemy said?
Can you imagine this? God brought Israel through the
Red Sea. He destroyed the nation of Egypt.
And they've wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and the first city
they conquer is Jericho. And they send out spies to Rahab's
house. You know what Rahab said? We're
terrified of you. We're afraid, and they had every
right to be afraid. Instead of being afraid of them,
they were afraid of us. Can I tell you a little secret
this morning? There's more of us than there are of them. What do you have to be afraid
of? Well, all we hear on the news is doom and gloom and what
all's gonna happen. God's on the throne. But hear
this spirit, these Hittites. Hittites. You know what the Lord
told Joshua before he goes in? Joshua, picture of Christ who's
gonna lead them into Canaan. He said, you be strong and have
good courage. You know, I don't have a right
to be afraid of nothing. He said, don't fear men who's
able to kill the body and then they can't do anything to the
soul. You fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body
and nail. We reverence him, we respect
him, but not a slavish fear. Not a slavish fear. That's what
these Hittites, these Hittites fear. These Girgashites, They
descended from Canaan, the fourth son of Ham. They are earthly. They are referred to as clay
dwellers. Don't we dwell in clay? These
bodies get tired. They get discouraged. The older
you get, it seems like all you want to do is when you sit down
is go to sleep. Or you sit down in the chair and the first thing
you know, you've watched too much TV and you've ate too much. What is that? That's that clay
dweller. And he's real. It's real. We dwell in a house made with
clay. These, they want to tempt us
to draw back into the world and its vanities and draw us away. James 1, verse 14, every man
is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. He's drawn away of his own lust
and enticed. Matthew 8, 23, and when he has
come to the other side of the country of the Girgashins, there
met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, exceeding
fears so that no man might pass by that way. Some believe that
them Girgisites and his Gadarenes were the descendants of the same
people. Okay, now the Amorites. They were known as bitter, fierce
talkers and people that judged others. Amos 2 verse 9 says,
Yet destroyed I the Amorites before thee, whose height was
like the height of cedars, and he was strong as the oaks. That's
who he was. Yet I destroyed his fruit from
above and his root from beneath. You know what, they had a high opinion
of themselves. And that high opinion led them
to find fault with others. They had a beam in their own
eye, and they wanted to pull the moat out of somebody else's
eye. They said one time there was
a young preacher. He was supposed to have to preach,
and he had made his outline. He had made his points and his
sub-points and his illustrations. You know, he'd done it just right,
you know. And he walks up, all right, you
know, I got this, you know. I've got this. He made, the Lord
just said, okay, you've got it. I'll just let you have it. And
he made just a big mess out of it. And he come down, you know,
humbled and all to be. And a man said, if you'd went
up, the way you come down, you'd come down the way you went up. What the Lord teaches us. Because
they had high opinions of their selves, they like it that men
have high opinions of them. They love getting revenge. They
despise mercy and forgiveness. Blessed are the merciful. for
they shall obtain mercy. James 1 verse 26, if any man
among you seem to be religious, imbriveleth not his tongue, he
deceiveth his own heart, and this man's religion is vain. You know what gets us in so much
trouble? Our mouths. It's an unruly evil full of deadly
poison. And you know who he's writing
to? He's writing to believers. He said, James 3, verse 5, even
so the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. Behold,
how great a matter a little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a
fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members
that did defileth the whole body, and it set on fire the course
of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. One match. One word, when me and Sandy were
driving over here, we drove by what I call an old home place,
where people, used to be an old house stood there, and you could
just, what mainly stood out was all was left with a chimney.
The only thing that survived the fire, and it got started
with one little spark. This small member of the tongue
can destroy friendships that have stood for years. It can destroy homes, and it
can destroy churches that have been happy and content. It can
destroy a character and a reputation, plant suspicion and doubt, and
turn men from truth to error. Let your words be always seasoned
with grace. God give us grace to do that.
You know, it's easy when I told Sandys I was trying to prepare
the message. I said, you know, when we read
that, we want to think about somebody else. I said, you know,
that speaks to them. No, that speaks to us. That speaks
to me. To me. See that enemy? He's still there. Somebody says
something hurt your feelings, first thing we want to do is
retaliate. Well, I'll get them. I'll show them. James 4, 11, speak not evil one
of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his
brother and judges his brother, speaketh evil of the law and
judges the law. But if thou judge the law, thou
art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's one lawgiver
who's able to save and to destroy. Who in the world are you to judge
another? You know what, we misjudge things.
We can't see a person's heart. We can't see. So the Canaanites,
number four. They are a wicked, adulterous
people who descended from Noah's grandson, Canaan. It means, their
name means merchants and traffickers. They like to traffic in our minds,
in our thoughts, In our imaginations, in our affections, they wrap
us up in the cares of this life. I have set exactly where you're
sitting. Let me just show you how this
works. Traffic in your mind. Well, what am I going to do after
church? We're going to go get something to eat. What are we
going to do after then? Go home, watch the race. What are you
going to do tomorrow? We may not live to tomorrow.
What about the next day?" And you go, why am I thinking about
those things? Why does my mind just seem to
wander? This is what I'm talking about.
These things, they're still there. When we came in this building
this morning, we didn't leave self out there in the car. He's
right, and it's our fault, it's me. You know why I'm thinking
about that? Because that old man wants to. Wasting. Just think about him. They were motivated, the Canaanites
were motivated by greed and the lust of the accumulation of earthly
material wealth. You know, James spoke a lot about
these things. He spoke about the tongue in
James 4, verse 4. You go, now is he writing this
to us? He's writing this to us, believers. You adulterers and adulteresses,
know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. The world wants you to
think just like they do. Don't you be like these Gentiles.
We're going through the book of Ephesians in our Bible class
on Sunday morning. And next Sunday, we'll be looking
in chapter four. Don't walk as the other Gentiles
walk. Walk in love. Don't grieve the
spirit of God. You know what those are? Last
time I checked, they're precepts. Precept upon precept, line upon
line, line upon line. And they said, you adulterers
and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God? Whosoever will be the friend
of the world is the enemy with God. Turn with me, I want you
to see this one, Nehemiah chapter 13. You know, Nehemiah was written,
he was the king's cupbearer, and he was checking on the condition
of Israel. Ezra had went and had started
building the temple and then they quit. And those walls around
that city were just laying flat. Burned, charred. I can see trees
growing up in the middle of them and nobody cares. And Nehemiah
got permission from the king to go build those walls. And
as soon as he got there, the enemy stuck up his old ugly head,
trying to hinder it, and even used the tribe of Judah to say,
Judah says, there's too much rubbish. We just can't do it. Well, he gets the walls built.
They built all those walls around Jerusalem in 52 days. That's
less than two months. You go, how did they do that?
They had a mind to work. Why did they build those walls?
Well, it was to keep them safe. And it was to keep out things
they didn't want in there. That's why they had those walls
and they had gates. So this is Nehemiah talking to
this group of people that have come outside the wall and they
found a gate where they can come in inside the gate and bring
their trafficking, their wares, all their goods. They're not
outside the gate. They're inside. It's here in
Nehemiah 13, verse 15. And in those days, I and Judah,
and then in those days saw I and Judah. You mean Judah. The line of the tribe of Judah,
that tribe Judah, yeah? I saw in Judah some treading
wine presses on the Sabbath. Didn't the Lord say, remember,
they're under a covenant of works. Didn't he tell them to remember
the Sabbath day and to keep it holy? Yes, he did. And bringing
in sheaves and lading asses, as also wine, grapes, and figs,
and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem.
You know, when they did it, they did it deliberately. We're going
to do it on the Sabbath day. And I testified against them
in the day wherein they sold their vittles. What are y'all
doing in here? Y'all don't have any right to
be in here, especially today. There dwelt men of Tyre also
therein which brought fish and all manner of wares and sold
on the Sabbath day unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then
I contended with the nobles of Judah and said unto them, What
evil thing is this that you do? And profane the Sabbath days.
Now what's this? Did not your fathers does? And
did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city?
This is why we were in a mess. We didn't honor Christ. We didn't
honor the Sabbath day. We were not looking to him. We
were defying the Sabbath day. Yet you bring more wrath upon
Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass that when
the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath,
I commanded that the gate should be shut. You ain't coming back
in here. And what I did? I shut the gate.
I'm going to keep them out. The gates of Jerusalem to be
dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gate should be shut
and charged that they should not be open till after the Sabbath.
And some of my servants said I to Gate, that there should
be no burden be brought in on a Sabbath day. And watch this,
so the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of wares lodged
without Jerusalem will just stay here. He won't let us in, but
if we stay here long enough, eventually they'll let us back
in. Does that not sound familiar? So we're gonna keep that out. And he knew what they would do,
and they knew what they would do. So what did he do? Verse 20 said,
the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of wares lodged
without Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified unto them and
said unto them, why lodge you about the walls? Why are you
out here? What are you doing? You have no right to be here.
If so, if you do so again, I'm going to lay hands on you. If
I catch you out here one more time, I'm going to throw you
out of here. Why does he seem like he's so
upset? He sees the seriousness of the issue. God help us to
see the seriousness of the issue. This world wants to draw your
attention, your affections away from God and away to this world.
And don't think it can't happen. Did it happen to Israel? Did
it happen to Judah? And Nehemiah saw it. He saw the
effects of it. This is why we built the wall.
You ain't coming in here. You're not coming in here. From
that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath day. I believe he was serious, don't
you? I don't think we ought to go back down there and go setting
up. You know, you think, and that makes me think about when
our Lord went to the temple, remember? He went into the temple. You know, it's nothing but religion.
They're just going through the motions, and he goes in there.
But this is still the temple. He went to the temple. He was
the glory in the temple. And when he goes in there, you
know what they're doing? They're exchanging money. They're selling
sheep and everything, and here's how they justify it. Well, we're
going to travel pretty good ways for the Passover, and everybody's
got to go to Jerusalem for the Passover. We just buy us a lamb
when we get down there. And, you know, it really doesn't
matter if it's got a lame leg, you know. We can get it for about
half price, you know, and it won't really matter. Jesus goes
there and said, what are y'all doing in here? He said, you've
turned my father's house into a den of thieves. And he made
him a whip, and I don't think he was laughing about it. When
he drove them out of the temple, he turned over their money changers.
Can you imagine everybody's mouth just drop open? He's seen the
seriousness of it. God help us, by grace, to see
the seriousness of what's going on, not only outside of us, but
inside of us. We're not exempt, 1 Timothy chapter
six, verse six. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. We brought nothing into this
world and it's very certain we're not carrying anything out. Having
food and rain, but therefore let us be content. If you got
a roof over your head and you got something to eat, be content. But they that will be rich, fall
into temptation and a snare into many foolish and hurtful lusts,
which drown them in destruction and perdition, where the love
of money is the root of all evil. Not money, the love of it. Which while some have coveted
after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows, but thou, O man of God, flee these
things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
weak meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal
life. Now number five, the parasites. These mean villagers. They sent
forth those who lived out in the country rather than in the
large walled up cities. They said they were careless.
They opened the door of false liberty. They were people who
lived in unprotected, unwalled villages, and they had no discipline
and no restrictions. Here's what the Apostle Paul
said. He was a man that knew what it was like to deal with
sin, the old wretched man that I am. He said, I keep under my
body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when
I have preached to others, I myself should prove to be a castaway
or prove to be nothing more than a reprobate. I bring my body
under subjection. In Proverbs it says, he that
hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken
down and without walls. Let me read to you what Mr. John Gill said. He hath no rule
over his own spirit. He hath no rule over his affections,
his passions, no restraint. no guard against them, no fence
about them, no curb in his curiosity to check his pride and vanity,
to restrain his wrath and anger and revenge his revengeful ambitions. It is like a city that is broken
down without walls, a man that has no command of himself and
passions, but gives the reign to them, is exposed to the enemy
of souls, and is liable to ever sin. snare, and temptations. Let me give you an example. The
Lord gives us many. Everybody remembers David. David's men are out fighting
battles. David should have been there
with them. He's not. I could see David say, I'm gonna
go up here on the except on the balcony. I'd say it would be
a cool place where the wind would blow. Most of the time, he may
go up there and sit and read the scriptures and he may go
meditate. And he could have been up there that morning doing that.
I don't know. But he should have been out with
his army. He goes up there and he, you know, I'm safe here.
I'm okay right here. And just so happened, he looks
out across the court and sees a woman named Bathsheba. And then you know the rest of
the story. He gave in. Like a city without walls. He
just, you say, well, did David do that? Yeah, David did it.
He'd only committed adultery. He plotted and had her husband
killed to cover it up. And that same spirit That rebel
spirit dwells in every one of us. That's the parasites. The Hivites, they are play actors, pretenders. You remember when a group of
people, when Joshua began to conquer Israel, I mean Canaan,
The tribes begin to get afraid. So we're going to, how can we
get on Joshua's good side? The people were called the Hivites. They made a plan. We're going
to get some old bread. We're going to put on some old
clothes. And when we're going to ride in there, we're going
to pretend that we've come from a long ways off. Because Joshua
was going to ask them, where y'all from? Oh, we're a long
ways away. You see this bread, it was new
when we left. It was just baked from the oven.
Look at it, it's all molded now. What tribe you from? We just
come from a far country. We just want you, would you help
us? Would you show mercy upon us? And he never inquired of
the Lord. And in two or three days, they found out who they
were. They pretended. And they deceived. Joshua. It says in Joshua 9 verse 7,
And the men of Israel said unto the Hibots, Peradventure, you
dwell among us. How shall we make a league with
you? How can we make a league, a covenant with you? And they
said to Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who
are you? And from whence come you? They said to him, From a
very far country thy servants has come. Don't try to pretend to be something
or someone you're not. We're all individuals. You know
what the easiest thing to be, is be yourself. That was David. You know, when
I think about that, I think about, some of you may not even remember
Rock Barnard, I never met him, but he was, they said he was
a unique guy. A unique guy. They said one time,
just one instance, I heard there's a lot of them. They said that
they'd ask somebody to come up and pray, and the man prayed. And when Barnard got up there,
he said, that was the worst prayer I ever heard anybody pray. But you know what? God used that
man. Mightily. He had a sermon, if you can ever
get a hold of it, it'll bless your heart. The name of the message
is watching men die. He was preaching all these funerals,
but I'm just using that as an example. He was one man. He was
an evangelist. Like we call him hit and run. He hit and run. When he came, it was either a
revival or a riot. But that's who he was. He wasn't
a hypocrite. And the Lord used him. God raises people up, and he
makes them in such a way, and this is how he's made you, you
be yourself. David says, I can't wear this
armor, but I'm a little used to this sling right here. I used
this sling and killed a lion and a bear with it, and I think
I can take his head off with it, too. And that's who he was. You know what Caleb said? Caleb,
you know what his name means, that faithful dog? He said, you see that mountain
over there? Moses gave me that mountain. And this man's 80 years
old. He went in when they first searched out the land, and they
died in the wilderness. And he's one of the only ones
going to go back in. He said, you see that mountain? Moses
gave it to me, and I'm going to take it. And he did. He said, I'm as strong now as
I was 40 years ago. No, he's not physically strong.
His body's 80 years old, but spiritually he is. Not a pretender. You know, it's
all about Peter. Peter comes to Antioch and he's
over here. He's over here eating with these Gentiles, you know.
Oh, here come these Jews from Jerusalem. So you know what he
does? He gets up from eating with them Gentiles. He goes over
here and eat with these Jews. You know what he's saying? We'll
say by works, not by grace. Them dogs, I don't want anybody
seeing me eating with them Gentile dogs. But what I want you to
see is, he didn't just do it alone. Barnabas watched Peter. And when Peter gets up, Barnabas
follows him and does the same thing he does. And you know what
Paul says? Peter, I want to say something
to you. What you just did was wrong. You're pretending. You're pretending. Has God showed
them people mercy? Well, sure he has. Them Jews
had a problem with that. They were pretenders trying to
pretend to be something. They wouldn't. Now the Jebusites. They descend from Jebus, the
third son of Canaan. The name means to trample upon
and despise. Let me give you a little history.
When the children of Israel came into Canaan, these Jebusites
are dwelling in Jerusalem. That's right, in Jerusalem. They've
been there a long time. Nobody can't drive them out,
and everybody just leaves them alone. And Judah leaves them
alone. And Benjamin leaves them alone.
And they dwell together for all these years. You imagine how
cocky they probably are. Oh, there ain't nobody coming
in our city. Somebody said they even put gargoyles all over the
top of the building to try to scare people off. And they said
also, what they did on top of the wall, put watchmen on top
of the wall, they put the lame and the blind, I'll give you
in a minute, on the wall. They can protect us. And David comes up there. And
they said to David, you can't come in here. They've been there a long time.
You know what David said? You know what the scripture said?
He took it. That's all he just said. It didn't
say how he took it. He took it. No real long battle. He just
took it. Can you imagine? We've been in here all these
years, nobody can take, he's David, he's our Lord. And you
know where he set up his throne? Jerusalem. The city of peace,
but it had lived there all those years. Jebus, Jebus, those tribes,
it lives there all that time. And that's found in 1 Samuel
5, 6. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold, called the stronghold
of Zion. The same is now called the city
of David. And the last thing, there's those
seven tribes. But he also said something. You
imagine these tribes, they're being conquered, they're being
defeated. When they see that judgment's coming, you know what
they do? Run and hide. There's a picture of men when
God begins to deal, when God begins to work, we're gonna run
and hide somewhere. We're gonna find us a refuge
of life. We're gonna find a place to hide, hid. Well, they must
be gone though, they're just hid. It said in verse 20, I want
you to see this. Moreover, the Lord thy God will
send hornets among them until they that are left and hide themselves
from thee shall be destroyed. He sent flies to afflict the
Egyptians. He sent hornets. Most of y'all
would probably be afraid of a hornet. I would. I got stung one time
by what's called, what we called, a Japanese hornet. Those things
are about that long. And it popped me right there
between the eyes, and my face swelled up. It was just unreal
how it swelled. God has hornets that he uses. to find these things out. And
when they begin to sting them, you can imagine running out from
behind the rocks and the caves. And you know, when he brought
them out, he brought them out so they could be destroyed. That
can represent pride, jealousy, anything you want to imagine.
The Lord will send a hornet and he'll drive it out. You know
why he drives it out? So he can destroy it. Say, Lord,
I thought that pride was gone. I thought that jealousy was gone.
I thought that slander was gone. I thought worldliness was gone.
No, it wasn't. Little bro's out and you see
it. You see it. And he says, I got this. The
same one that sent the hornet is the same one that will destroy
it. You know what? We ought to be thankful for the
hornet. I hope that's gonna help. I hope God would help us to look
to him and rest in him, for he must reign till he has put all
enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Amen. May the Lord bless you.