To have a message. From our Lord. Like Darwin said, free sheep.
For his people. And I pray he would open our
hearts this morning. And open our darkened understandings
and we could see him. And worshiping I want to worship. I want to be real. I can't make
it real. He can. When you see him and he opens
your eyes, it's spontaneous. It's just, your heart just overflows. You would open your Bible to
the book of Deuteronomy, chapter seven. Here Moses is instructing the
children of Israel. The generation that God had raised
up through the wilderness. The generation that had seen
a whole generation die in the wilderness. Of all those that
came out of Egypt from 20 years old and upward, all perished
in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb. And this is
the generation that's getting ready to go in. God's going to
take them in to the promised land, that land that flows with
milk and honey, the land that was promised to Abraham hundreds
of years before. And God's keeping his promise.
And he's instructing these people what they're going to face, what
it's going to be like. But he's telling them, I'm going
to take you in. The salvation of a sinner. from
beginning to end is God's work. Religion talks about an experience
that people had years ago. As I stand before you this day,
I stand before you as a sinner, and I need Christ to save me
from myself right now. Right now. Deuteronomy chapter
seven, verse one. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land, whether thou goest to possess it, and has
cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perissites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. Seven nations? greater and mightier
than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly
destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son,
nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. And why not do
this? 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
thee suddenly. But thus shall you deal with
them. You shall destroy their altars,
break down their images, cut down their groves, and burn their
graven images with fire. This is exactly what you're supposed
to do to those seven nations that dwell in that land. Why? For thou art a holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because
the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which
he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out
with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage
from the hand of 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. And he repayeth them that hate
him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to
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 command 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 mercies which ye swear unto thy father. And
he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee. He will
also bless the fruit of thy womb, the fruit of thy land, thy corn,
thy wine, thy oil, thy increase of thy kind, and the flocks of
thy sheep, and to the land which ye swear unto thy father to give
thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people. Thou shalt not be
male nor female, barren among you or among your cattle. And
the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put
none of these evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest upon
thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. And
thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall
deliver thee. Thine eye shall have no pity upon them, because
we would. Don't have any pity upon them.
Neither shall thou serve their gods, for that will be a snare
unto thee. Thou shalt say in thine heart,
these nations are more than I. How can I do possess them? Unbelief. How can I overcome these? These
are greater and mightier than I am. Thou shalt not be afraid
of them, but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did to
Pharaoh and to all Egypt. If you ever doubt, you just remember
what I did to Pharaoh. They never forgot. Nobody ever
forgot. Those in Canaan never forgot. They heard what God did
to Pharaoh. He said, I raised you up for
this same purpose, to display my power in thee. The great temptations
which thine eye saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the
mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy
God brought thee out, so shall the Lord thy God do it to all
the people of whom thou art afraid. Moreover, the Lord thy God will
send the hornets among them until they that are left and hide themselves
from thee be destroyed. You know what he's saying? When
it comes down to it, they're more afraid of you than you are
of them. And when they get afraid, they're
going to run and hide. The enemy's going to run and hide. And God
says, I'm going to send some hornets. And I'm going to sting
them, and I'm going to drive them out. You see the picture
here? Thou shalt not be affrightened
at them, for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and
terrible. Now watch verse 22. And the Lord
thy God will put out those nations from before thee by little and
little. That's the title of the message,
little And little, how's God going to do this? There's seven
nations, greater than, mightier than all Israel, and they've
dwelt in that land a long time. And God's going to drive them
out. That's what he's telling them. And how's he going to do
it? Little and little. God can do anything he wants
to, any way he wants to. He could have annihilated them
at one time in one day. Then he sent one angel one time
and destroyed a whole army. Yes, he can. Look how he destroyed
Pharaoh. His heart was hardened. He brought
him into the Red Sea, and God destroyed him. But God said,
you remember this. Those enemies, I'm going to destroy
them little by little. What am I saying? When God saved
you, he did not eradicate your sinful nature. It's still there. We talk about the world being
our enemy. Yeah, it is. Satan being our enemy. Yes, it
is. But you're looking at my worst enemy. You're looking at my worst enemy.
And how will God deal with me? Little and little. That's what he's saying. And
that's what I want us to look at. Thou mayest not consume them
at once. lest the beast of the field increase
upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver
them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction
until they be destroyed. He shall deliver their kings
into thy hand, and thou shalt destroy their names from under
heaven. Thou shalt no man be able to stand before thee until
they have destroyed them. The graven images of their God
shall be burned with fire. Thou shalt not desire the silver
or the gold that is on them that are make unto thee, or 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 there be an accursed thing like it.
But thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor
it, for it is an accursed thing. They're getting ready to go in
and take what God has promised them. All the promises of God
are in Christ, and they are yea and amen. That's where all the
promises are found. They're in Christ. God promised
it to Israel. He promised it, and he keeps
his covenant. And he says in Acts chapter 13, verse 9, he
divided their land unto them by lot. Who divided it? He did. He said, which one gets
certain spots? God decided it. I love that story
of Caleb. You was talking about it the
other day. When they come in the Canaan, he's probably at
least 80 years old. And which lands he going to take?
He's going to take Horeb. And what is that? What dwells
in Horeb? That's where the Anakins dwell.
That's where the giants dwell. And he said, if God enables me,
I'm going to take that land. And you wonder if he took it.
You know why? It was his. It was already his. He just had to take it. And God
gave it to him. God gave it to him. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Israel did not
conquer the land of Canaan. God conquered their enemies before
them. He conquered them. What is he teaching us? What
did he teach Israel? God don't try to teach you anything.
He teaches you something. He teaches you that the battle's
not yours, it's his. You're no match for your flesh. No match. I wish that when God
made himself known to me that he had totally eradicated and
done away with my old sinful nature. I'm still part of me,
that old Mike Walker, the Mike Walker that was born into this
world 50 some years ago, and I'll carry it with me till I
die. And I can't improve it. I can't
improve it. I've tried that. I've tried it. God's elect don't conquer their
enemies, the world, the flesh, or the devil. God did it for
us. Christ did it. We didn't win salvation, he won
it. He's the victory. We simply take
possessions of these things by faith in God's commands. Why didn't that first generation
go in? It tells us in Hebrews, they would not go in because
of unbelief, would not believe God. So this is not the first time
he said that little by little. In Exodus 23, 29, he says, I
won't drive them out from before them one year, lest the land
become desolate. What if he'd have just drove
them all out? Israel couldn't have taken it all over at one
time. The wild beast would have come in and taken it over. Robert
Hawker said, you know what would have happened? There's enough
wild beast in here to have just taken it over. Taken it over. By little and little, I will
drive them out from before thee until thou be increased and inherit
the land. What is the purpose in bringing
this message? To encourage God's people as
we struggle with the sin that still remains within us. Struggle with sin. It's a constant battle. Do I
have a word for unbelievers? I hope so. If you don't know
something about this struggle, something's wrong. You know when
the struggle began? It was when Christ was formed
in me and that new man took over. Everything was okay in Abraham's
house, as long as Ishmael was the only boy in the house. And
Ishmael was 13 years old before Isaac came along. But let me
tell you this, when Isaac was born, that promised child, which
is a picture of the Spirit of God coming into a person, that's
when the battle started. The flesh lusts against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh, and they're always at war with
each other. Why did the Canaanites hate Israel?
I'll tell you why. They were the descendants of
Ham. They're Canaanites, products of the flesh. And what they say,
we was here first. The promise was first. The promise
was first. Seven nations greater and mightier
than thou. What God has promised, he's able
to perform. The work God has promised and
begun. He'll finish it. He will finish
it. If God has begun a work in you,
He will finish it. It is His work. It's His handiwork. As you said, it's His masterpiece. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. He said, I will not drive them
out in one day, but little by little, not all at one time. God give us grace not to be discouraged
into thinking that these enemies will never be driven out. They'll
be driven out. They don't want to be driven
out, but they've got to go. Spurgeon said, he said, I won't
give you a penny for your religion if it has no inward conflict. You know, most of the time, I
think most of the time, believers think, how in the world Can I
be a believer and think the things I think and feel the way I do? Tis upon I long to know. Often
it brings me anxious, though am I the Lord's or no? Tell me,
is it thus with you? Do you ever feel that way?" So
today, I want us to just speak for a few minutes on those seven
tribes that he mentioned there in verse one. And these are tribes. As I thought
about that, as me and Sandy had the opportunity to go down to
the coast a while back in the first English settlement. Most
of you have heard of Pocahontas. Her father was an Indian chief. He was over not only just one
tribe. He was over a lot of tribes.
And each tribe maybe had 500 or 600 Indians in it. And what
do you say? These were tribes. These people
were tribes. They ruled. They thought they
ruled over this. And God's going to, he says,
and he lists seven of them. He lists them by name. And he
said, they're stronger and mightier than you, and I'm going to drive
them out. Well, the first one he mentioned is the Hittites.
These Hittites, someone said, represent terrifying spirits
of fear and discouragement. Are you ever afraid? Are you
ever discouraged and cast down? That's those Hittites. You know
what David said? What time I am afraid, I will
trust in the Lord. God's not giving us the spirit
of fear. God's not giving us the spirit of fear, but power
and love and a sound mind. Fear hath torment. Perfect love
cast out fear. Lord, I just, Darvin, I can see
them saying, Dad, do you think we'll be able to take over that
tribe? Look at the noise they're making.
Look what they're doing. I love to read that story about
when they took over Jericho. All they did was march around
it and carry the ark and blow the trumpet, preach the gospel,
and went back to the camp. Did that every day for one day,
for every day for seven days, and in the seventh day, they
marched around it seven times, and God said, just shout. And it's all in the walls there.
How did they conquer it? That's how we conquer it, by
preaching the gospel and believing God. God brought them to the
wilderness to teach them what? To trust Him. That's my biggest
problem, is trusting Him. Oh, for grace to trust Him more. God forgive me of my unbelief,
my unbelief. The enemy tries to use fear.
The fear of man brings a snare. But whoso putteth his trust in
the Lord shall be safe. But our Lord said, fear not,
little flock. It's your father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. I can see Joshua. He gathers them around. Joshua,
our Lord, our Christ, our captain of our sabbath. He says, it'll
be all right. It'll be all right. Don't be afraid. My word to you this morning is
don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. It's His good
pleasure to give you, listen, to give you what? The kingdom. Remember I mentioned Jericho.
Inside that city was a woman named Rahab the harlot. And it
says in Joshua chapter 2 verse 9, and she, Rahab the harlot,
said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land,
and that your terror is falling upon us, and that all the inhabitants
of the land, they faint because of you, and because of your God.
Then there was the Girgashites. They said these were the earthly
clay dwellers. Well, that describes us. We dwell
in a house of clay. They tempt us to try to draw
us back to the things of the world and the vanities of this
world. This world has an allurement.
It tries to draw us away from our Lord. Then you have the Ammonites. These are fierce talking, judging
spirits. Listen. He says the name was
chapter 2 verse 9. Yet destroyed I the Amorites
before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars,
and he was strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit from
above and his roots from beneath. I destroyed him. Listen, they
had high esteem, and this pride led to them finding fault with
others, this is what they did. Always judging everybody else.
You know why? They thought they were superior. The disciples
were not even exempt from this. They said, Lord, which one of
us is going to be the greatest in the kingdom? And he just spoke
to them about he's going to Jerusalem and give his life a ransom for
many. And they're saying, well, which
one of us is going to be the greatest? He said, he that's going to be
chief of all must be servant of all. They had high thoughts of themselves
and they liked it that men had high opinions of them. You are
not exempt from this. One of the worst things we have
to deal with is damnable pride. Listen, in James chapter 3 verse
5, this is speaking to believers. Even so, the tongue is a little
member and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a
little fire kindleth. And the tongue is the fire of
a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members
that it defileth the whole body and is set on fire of hell, set
on fire of the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.
Can you control your tongue? You see what I'm saying? This
is, it's one of the, it's just one of the, you say it's just
a small, it's just a small tribe. This small member, this tongue
can destroy friendships that have stood for years. I've seen this happen recently,
and it breaks my heart. People are friends for years.
Churches have stood for years. And now they're bickering and
fighting. What? Something happened? It can destroy a home or a church. It can destroy a person's character
and reputation. It plants suspicion and doubt
and turns away men from the truth to error. Also in James chapter 4 verse
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 judgeth the law. And if thou be judge of the law,
thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's one lawgiver
who's able to save and destroy. Who art thou that judges another? Can you imagine, before I preached
this to you, I had to sit and preach this to me. And I see
those members that war against the flesh. Then we have the Canaanites. This name means merchants and
traffickers. They were motivated by greed
and the lust of the accumulation of earthly and material wealth.
They were the lowlanders. You know, James, the references
that I found, it's amazing how many you find in the book of
James. He said, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Now who's
he speaking to? He's not speaking to an unbeliever.
He's speaking to you and me. When we are friends with this
world, now everybody listen to me, we commit spiritual adultery
against our husband. You know what I read in Deuteronomy
7? He said, don't go after, don't intermarry with them. That's
what he's talking about. That's a spiritual adultery.
You know what it does? It pulls away your heart from
Christ to the things of this world. And you're a fool if you
think you can handle it. Ask David. Ask Solomon. Ask any man. Turn with me, I want to show
you this. It's a lengthy scripture, but I want to show you this to
illustrate this point. In Nehemiah chapter 13, Nehemiah had to deal
with this. Remember Nehemiah when God sent
Nehemiah back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They'd been
torn down for years and the enemy could care less as long as the
walls were torn down. They could care less. But when
God sent Nehemiah and stirred the people up and they rebuilt
the walls, are they going to come to attack now? It said in Nehemiah chapter 13
verse 15, in those days saw I in Judah some treading the wine
presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves and laden asses as
also wines, grapes, figs, and all banners of burdens which
they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. You know what
they're doing? They're trying to disturb their
rest. That's what it is. I rest in
Christ. There dwelt men of Tyre also
therein which brought fish and all manner of wares and sowed
on the Sabbath into the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then
I contended with the nobles of Judah and I said unto them, what
evil thing is this that you do and you profane the Sabbath day?
Do you not understand what you're doing? Did not your fathers do
this? And did not our God bring all
this evil upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon
Israel by profaning the Sabbath. They're trying to disturb our
rest is what they're doing. That's why we're gonna bring
all, they're gonna traffic. We're gonna bring our wares in
and we want you to buy it. That's what's going on. And it
came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark
before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut.
Why did they shut the gates? To keep that stuff out. That's
what he's saying. They even come to Judah and they
said, Judah, it'll be okay. Just let me sit outside the gate.
Well, the first thing you know, it's not just outside the gate,
it's inside the gate. And they charged that they should
not be open until the Sabbath and some of my servants set out
the gates that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath
day. We're resting in Christ. You
know how the enemy wants to do? He wants to get you to try to
work to earn your salvation or your justification or your sanctification. That's what it is. That's what
this is saying here. It's all complete in Christ,
who is my Sabbath. As Darwin said, he sat down and
he rested, it's complete. That's what's going on here.
Read on. So that there should be no burden
be brought in on Sabbath. So the merchants and the sellers
of all kinds of wares lodged without Jerusalem not only once,
but twice. If we sit here long enough, maybe
he'll show us a little pity and he'll open the gate and let us
in. You ain't coming in the gate. All it takes is letting down
the guard just for a little, and you see what happens. Then I testified against them
and said to them, why lodge you without the wall? If you do so
again, I'll lay hands on you. Did Nehemiah think that was serious? He told him, he said, this is
why God took us into captivity to start with. We profaned his
Sabbath. That's what we did. We profaned his Sabbath. We disgraced
it. From that time came they no more
on the Sabbath day. We're not exempt from this. What
is it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his
soul? Having food and raiment, let us be content. Content. Then you have the parasites. They were the careless, and they
opened the door of false liberty. Boy, you see that in the book
of Galatians. It talks about them coming to spy out our liberty.
Stand fast in the liberty where Christ has made us free. Be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. God's given us liberty,
and our liberty's in Christ, but don't use it as a cloak to
sin. That's what he's saying. That's what these people were
doing. And that's part of us. As a believer, I stand before
you as a free man. They said they had no discipline
and no restrictions. Proverbs 25, 28, he that hath
no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down
and without walls. Here's what Mr. Gill said. He
that hath no rule over his own spirit, his affections, and his
passions, puts no restraint unto them, as the word signifies,
no guard against them, no fence about them, to curb his curiosity,
to check his pride and his vanity, to restrain his wrath and anger
and revenge, and to keep within due bounds his ambition. It is like a city that is broken
down without walls. A man that has no command of
himself and his passions but gives the reins to those passions
is exposed to the enemy of his soul. When we did a study in
the life of David, David that great man, a man after God's
own heart, He goes up on his rooftop. And I think the rooftop
was a place where they would go up and get a place they could
go get along with the Lord, a place to read the scriptures and get
away from everything else and get their mind looking to Christ.
And while he's up there in that place, up on his rooftop, he
just happens to look across the court. And who does he see? Bathsheba. Lust, when it is conceived,
bringeth forth sin, and when sin is finished, it brings forth
death. He let down the wall. I'm king. I don't need to go back into
battle anymore. I can handle this. The Hobbits. I'll be through
in just a moment. You know who these were? You
remember the Hobbites? You remember how they came in and deceived Joshua?
They put on old clothes, and they got old skins, and they
act like they'd come a long way. They hadn't come a long ways.
So you know who they were? They were pretenders. Let's just be honest this morning.
Let's all be honest. At times, we're all pretenders.
I listened to a message a while back, and it really blessed my
heart. You know why? Because the man was just so honest.
He said many times, he said, I've even come to the Bible conferences.
And people said, well, wasn't that a good message? And he said,
I just lied. He said, if it was a good message, he said, I didn't
get anything from it. And he said, I was even one of the preachers
doing some of the preaching, and I didn't get anything. We're pretenders. We do, we pray, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. God be merciful to me, the Pharisee. Then the Jebusites. These Jebusites descended from
Jebus, the third son of Canaan. The name signifies to trample
upon and despise. Now where did they dwell? Now you think about this. God's bringing the children of
Israel into Canaan, and these tribes dwell in these cities.
Do you know where Jebus dwelled? Jerusalem. You mean that city? The city
of peace is where these people dwelt. Listen, in Joshua chapter
15, verse 63, for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the children of Judah, could not drive them out, but the Jebusites
dwelt with the children of Judah at Jerusalem until this day. These Jebusites and who, Judah,
dwelt together in Jerusalem? How long did they dwell there?
A long time. All the way through Joshua, all
the way through the book of the Judges, till David becomes king. Even through the reign of Saul,
these Jebusites still live in Jerusalem. What lives in your
Jerusalem? We're not leaving. We've been
here for so long. We're not giving it up. Hold
on now. David comes to the throne. This
is in 2 Samuel. David's been reigned, but David's
gonna conquer all. He's gonna conquer everything.
Our Lord's gonna conquer everything. Listen, it may dwell in your
heart for a long time, but when God says, it's time, it's going. You know what salvation is? It's
when Christ comes in and he takes over. You know what he said about Canaan? He said, the iniquity of the
Amorites is full. They grew up there long enough.
You've had your rule and your play days long enough. It's time. I'm coming in, and I'm taking
over, and I'm not asking permission. 2 Samuel 5 verse six, and the
king and his men went to Jerusalem and to the Jebusites. And the
inhabitants of the land which spake unto David, here's what
they said to David, except thou take away the blind and lame,
thou shalt not come in here. Some believe that on the top
of the wall around Jerusalem, they had the blind and the lame
that stood guard. You know what they're saying?
You ain't coming in here. You can't even overcome the blind
and the lame. Superstition. Except thou take away the blind
and lame. Thou shalt not come in here thinking, thinking, that
David can't come in thither. And then what's the world think?
He's not coming in here. Think again. Believer, think again. Unbeliever, think again. Nevertheless,
David took the stronghold of Zion, and this became the city
of David. There's a new king in town. I love that story. I can just
see him standing there just, he ain't coming in here. Those
little Jesuses that people's made, their little false gods,
they ain't coming in. They put up with them for years.
They said, we can keep them out because they've made them gods.
But you ain't never met Christ. He says, I'm coming in. What am I saying? Glory be to God, if you're His,
He won't leave you alone. He won't leave you alone. There's
sayings that we deal with a long time, and He lets you deal with it.
Did you hear that? He lets you deal with it, until
He takes it over. He's sovereign. over all things. So you see these tribes. Within
there are going to be, there's visible things, there's things
that just want to hide. We like to hide things, don't
we? You know, as I thought about this, you remember when they
came into Jericho, God says, don't take anything, it's all
mine. And Achan took a wedge of gold and a Babylonian garment
and he took it and hid it in his tent. Well, the children
of Israel are going to go face AI, and it's just a little place.
They said, we don't need to send everybody up. Just a few people.
They can take care of that. And they went up and got defeated.
Why? God said, you've got sin in the camp. Some sins may be seen more open.
But when the enemy begins to be delivered into the hands of
the children of Israel, then the enemy would run and hide. There's a saying. It just runs
and hides. It says, I'm not going to be
exposed. I'm not going to die. And God
says, yes, it is. I can see them running into a cave. And here
God sends a hornet and starts stinging them. They start running
out just to scream. And God says, now we can kill
it. God says, I will send the hornets
among them until they are left, and they hide themselves from
thee, and they'll be destroyed. Listen in Psalms chapter 19 verses
12 through 14. Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright, and
I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the
words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeeming." Our God, our
great King, will drive out all those enemies from our soul.
And boy, I'm glad he will. I'm glad he will. And he's going
to do it little and little and little. Every inch that is to
be ours will be conquered. No matter how much our sin may
try to hide, God will expose it and we will destroy it. I've said before, I used to have
a real bad temper. I'm not proud of it. And people
talk about losing your temper. I wish I could have lost it and
got rid of it. I'm just, in illustration, I'll think with me for a minute.
And you know, you think you have those things, you think you've
got it controlled. You let God let something happen.
And it just rubbed you the wrong way. And then that comes out
and you go, where did that come from? Before you know it, the
first thing you do, we lash out. You see what I'm saying? But
let me remind you of this. God knows you better than you
know yourself. It may be hid from us, but it's not hid from
him. And he will expose it. And I'm
glad he does. I don't want him to leave me
alone. No matter how painful it is, I want him to drive it
out and destroy it. We're more than conquerors to
him that loved us. Little by little, he will drive
out every sin. What is the last enemy that we
will face? Death. For he must reign till
he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. He's conquered it. He's defeated
it. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that's a
help. I want it to be. I don't want
it to be discouraging and downhearted. I pray that God would then cause
us to look to our Lord. We're no match for ourself. We talked about this over the
last few days. We still have that old, our minds are so mixed
up. We still think when we sin, you
know what's the first thing we do? We think we can make it up.
We think we can atone for our sin? Well, where does that come
from? And why do we think that? Why does God expose it to show
it to us? And when you see it, you hate
it and despise it and say, oh, wretched man that I am. And he
does that so you will see the exceeding sinfulness of sin. We said, well, it's just a little
tribe. Let it just sit outside the gate for a few days. And
you see what happens. We're no match. But thank God
he is. If it wasn't for my Lord, there's
enough right here to scare me to death. If God showed us our
sin this morning, it terrifies. We'd want to crawl in some hole
and never show our face again. And he put it away. He said,
I'm taking you in and I'm conquering it. I can see the Israelites
saying, will God ever conquer Jerusalem? Oh, He will. He's the King of Salem. He rules
and He reigns over all Israel. And I'm glad He does. If you
don't know Him, I pray God comes to you and He conquers you and
He sets up His reign in your heart and He delivers you from
yourself. Amen.