Now turn with me to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 10. If I can get through the names of all these kings, I'd like to read the first 14 verses of Joshua chapter 10. Now it came to pass when Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, had heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done in Jericho, and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king. And how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them. that they feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city. It was one of the royal cities. And because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. Wherefore Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent unto Hoam, king of Hebron, and Piram, king of Jerusalem, Jarmuth, I'm sorry, and unto Jephiah the king of Lachish, and unto Debar king of Eglon, crying, come up with me and help me that we may smite Gibeon, for it had made peace with Joshua and the children of Israel. Therefore, the five kings of the Amorites, And the king of Jerusalem, and the king of Hebron, and the king of Jarmuth, and the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon gathered themselves together, and went up, and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp of Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants. up to us quickly and save us, and help us. For the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thy hand. There should not a man of them stand before thee. Joshua, therefore, came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. And the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah and Makeda. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azuka, and they died. They were more which died from hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. Then spake Joshua, to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites and the children of Israel, before the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? And before I get into my message, this was a book that was written by who knows who, but it honored men of valor who fought for the Lord. It wasn't an inspired portion of scripture or it would still be here. But this is what it was according to the historians. It was just a book written that honored men of valor, and of course Joshua was one of those men. So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, For the Lord fought for Israel. And that's the title of the lesson this morning, When God Fights for Israel. Our lesson this morning is in these first 14 verses, the title which I've already given you, When God Fights for Israel. It's also the subject of these verses that I just read. Now, don't be deceived. The enemies of God will not give the promised heirs what God has given to them without a fight. There's going to be a fight. There's going to be a battle. What God gives, he gives to his elect, and already they're jealous. Who do you think you are talking about being God's elect? How do you know you're God's elect? I've had such things thrown in my face so many times I've lost count. His elect, you mean God just chosen certain people to bless? That's exactly what this book says. Exactly what it teaches. The scripture says, now listen to this, the kingdom of God. That's God's rule. Wherever he rules, that's his kingdom. His kingdom's in your heart. That's where God sets up his rule. The scripture says, the kingdom of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. And this verse has two applications. First of all, it's when it is that those to whom it was given, when they come to claim that portion given to them of God, they're going to face severe opposition from those who resist it. And secondly, it's a call to action for believers to press into the kingdom with determined spiritual effort and perseverance through faith and struggle against sin and opposition. That's where the struggle is. We struggle against sin because sin is still with us, and we struggle against opposition because it's all around us. And they're saying something contrary. It's anti-Christ. this struggle against sin in this place declared to be God's kingdom, there's a people dwelling not under the authority of God. Now this describes every human being. It describes every child of Adam. It's the natural state of all men, even the elect of God are so described before their calling as children of wrath, even as others. Their mind pulse is so clearly is enmity against God, hostile, not subject to the law of God, and in this place it means authority, neither indeed can be. Well, what do we see concerning these things as being typical of Israel and the Amorites? Well, I see Israel in the flesh being the underdog. They're a speck completely. compared to the inhabitants of the land. That's why the first spies that went over came back and refused to go in. They saw the walled cities. They're giants, they said. They're giants over there. Men towering above us. Huge men. Whole cities of them. Whole communities of them. And their cities are walled and fortified. They have armies. They went over there in the flesh and saw what they saw and said, it's impossible. It's impossible. I see Israel in the flesh being the underdog. They faced an overwhelming army of the residents who were defending what they thought belonged to them, and they were willing to fight for it. Nobody's going to say, OK. Here I am, do with me whatever you want. That's not going to happen. They're going to fight. But there is in the believer an active and fearful determination to have what God has promised to the heirs of it. If God's promised me eternal life, don't you want it? Aren't you willing to fight for it? Here it is, but somebody else says it's theirs and you can't have it. Christ said it's yours. What are you going to do? Are you going to be passive in the matter? No. Those who know God know that those who resist Him and his are our enemies. Don't ever think that somebody in one of these churches that preaches Antichrist religion is your friend. He's not your friend. He's your enemy. He'll pretend to be your friend, but he's not your friend. And they must be called as such and treated as such. Paul said, let them be accursed. He didn't have the power to curse them, but he said, let them be like the accursed. That's what he's talking about. In your mind and heart, you understand they're accursed of God. Now let me give you just a few examples that our Lord gave as He, like Joshua, established His kingdom. Now watch this. Look with me here at Matthew chapter 10. These things are rough. This is some hard meat, hard things to swallow. And people want to explain them away, but there is no explanation except what I just told you. Matthew 10, verse 34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I am come not to send peace, but a sword. This is our Lord speaking. Now watch this. Where I come to set a man at variance against his father. We're not talking about just a disagreement. We're talking about a personal affront. That's what we're talking about. And a daughter against her mother. And a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes, his enemies. shall be they of his own household. And I'm going to tell you something as a believer. The most violent resistance I ever faced from the time the Lord called me until this minute was my own dad. To him I had joined a cult and was preaching things totally contrary to the Word of God. And everything I said to him was like arrows being shot into his heart. Everything. In fact, my whole family resisted the gospel and in their own way formed a division. It's not just a disagreement. Well, we'll just agree to disagree. Now that's not what it is. It's a personal affront. Joshua didn't go up. to the Amorites and say, well, can't we just agree to disagree? No, he said, here's how it is. God gave us this land, and we're going to take it. The Amorites lived there for years. And they were not about to just hand it over to an invisible god and those who claimed to be his children. You remember our Lord called a man into the ministry, and they all had different things. They bought a piece of land, had to go check it out, and so on. And one said, my father died. That's pretty serious. Your mother just died. That's pretty serious business. He said, my father died, and I need to go take care of it. You know what our Lord said to him? Let the dead. Who's that? Father, mother, sister, brother, whoever they are who don't believe. You let the dead bury the dead. Take up your cross and follow me. Boy, that's serious business, ain't it? I ain't hearing that priest anywhere. Seems to me that God had more than manifested his presence with Israel. He stacked up the waters of Jordan. Just let them pile up straight in a stack. while Israel got together, gathered stones, crossed that river, put a monument out there in it, so on across that river. No telling how long all that took. And meanwhile, the Jordan River just piling up. Don't you imagine they could see the pile from their little cities? And hearing that crowd coming across that river, They passed over Jordan on dry ground. He destroyed Jericho with a bunch of trumpets and a great shout. That was the most powerful city in the land. God laid it to waste with shouts and a few trumpets. Think about it. Trumpets the gospel, isn't it? Ai was utterly destroyed and its king hanged on a tree. What kind of wisdom would still set themselves in array against God? And you think of how God's manifested Himself to us. He sent His Son into this world. And His Son accomplished the will of God. That's what it says on Hebrews chapter 10. I come to do Thy will, O God, by the witch's will. He has sanctified us through His death. once for all. Think about that. Think about what God has manifested before men on this earth to show His presence with His people. Called them out of darkness, cleansed them from leprosy, raised them from the dead. I mean, we've got no excuse, just as they did. Well, why? What kind of wisdom would still set themselves in array against God? Well, there's three things I see. First of all, an ignorant mindset. Man thinks he's in charge. He thinks he can, like God, determine his own destiny. He thinks he can arrange things and God has neither the right nor the power to stop him. Is that not true? That's what they're being told in every church up and down the land. God's done all he can do, now it's all up to you. That's not what he told Joshua. He said, I've given them into your hand. And then secondly, men think that numbers and alliances equate to power and victory. And both history and the Bible prove this a false concept. These 12 men listened to this. If they believed half of what they said, they'd have knelt down before God. These 12 men have turned the world upside down. Huh? Well, boy, if they did and you saw it, why don't you believe it? You see, the mindset is an ignorant mindset. They think power and alliances. The more numbers, the greater the work. That's why the old Southern Baptists, their slogan back years ago was a million more. I think it was 1964, a million more than 64 or something like that. Anyway, you know, this is a fact of history. 300 Spartans, armed to the hip, went out to face the Persians that were tens of thousands, I mean multitudes of Persians. The whole Persian army was coming down. And these 300 Spartans whipped them so bad that they went home broken and hard as well as body. All of them. Put them to run. This thing about, it's just a false doctrine. It's a false idea. Well, if we got a huge church, now we can do some work. No, it don't matter. You can just have two. If God works, whoever he fights against is history. And then the third thing, men are ignorant of the power of God. God defeated armies in the Old Testament, giving his enemies hemorrhoids, emeralds. You going to come up against me? Huh? A pain in the you-know-what. He chased their armies on one occasion, chased them away with hornets. They weren't expecting that. They weren't armed for that. He broke Pharaoh's resistance making him eat and sleep with frogs. I'm talking about God. You're going to resist God? You know what's in His power? Everything that is. That day he ordered the sun to stand still and it stood still. Even the rotation of the earth. There's nothing outside his power. You gonna resist him? You gonna go to war against him? My soul, you gotta be ignorant. You have to be ignorant. And that's what he's showing us here. There's an ignorant mindset in the sinner. He thinks that land was his. He never questioned who gave it to him or who created it. You going to fight against God, your creator? He said, don't fear me and all they can do is kill your body. I kill your soul. It's a fearful thing, the scripture said, to fall into the hands of the living God. Look over one chapter with me over in Joshua chapter 11. I know I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but I want to show you something. Joshua chapter 11, verses 19 and 20. Verse 19, Joshua chapter 11. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All others they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might destroy them utterly, that they might have no favor, but that He might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses. God arranged this on purpose. You read about it in Romans chapter 9. You can read all through the Scripture. And then the third reason that they would not submit is that God had providentially arranged the whole of history for the salvation of his people. All of it. It's all been set in place for the salvation of his people. And all the rest he hardens against his people and against his truth to show his power and make his glory known, the glory of his justice. Well, how does he do that? How does he harden men's hearts? He turns them over to, or just leaves them to themselves. That's all he has to do. He don't have to make you an unbeliever. All he has to do is just leave you alone. When the Bible talks about God hardening men's hearts, he just leaves them alone. He withdraws the means of grace. He withdraws his spirit of grace. He just leaves you to yourself because that's what you wanted anyway. My friend got over through Jericho without drawing a sword. He took AI by allowing them to think that they could resist God. And the rest of the cities with their multitudes learned that even the elements are governed by God. Even the natural laws are subject to him. He can make iron float, and did. He can back up rivers. He can make a day into a double day, and that's what he did on that day. Listen to this, Joshua 11 again, verse 23. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to the divisions by their tribes, and the land rescued from war. Now then, let me connect these things to ourselves and to the gospel in Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. The battles and the men that fought them are all typical. And that's what the book of Hebrews was written for. It was to show these Jews that these things were typical. It's to plainly declare what these shadows and types symbolize. Hebrews 4 verse 8. For if Jesus... Now look over in the margin of your Bible if you have one. That word Jesus is the New Testament name for Joshua. For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward spoken of another day. You see the correlation here? Joshua came in and the land was at rest and he did what God told him to do. But it wasn't that rest, that real rest was not a rest for the land, it was a rest for the people. There remaineth therefore a rest to the children of God. And that rest is in Christ. God means for his people to have a heart of peace with God and rejoice that God rules and they actually rest in his rule. Isn't that where you go when you're really hurting? You know God controls all things. You go to Him for help. Why you go to Him? Because you know He has power to ease the pain. We rest in His rule. It's a righteous rule. And we go to Him because all of His enemies are defeated in Christ. Christ came down in the Scripture like unto a man with a great chain. And he comes over and puts that chain right over Satan's neck. Satan is his devil. He puts a chain on him. This whole thing is about God taking possession of his elect, establishing his rule in their hearts and making them willing in the day of his power. Israel took part in the battles the same as we take part, but it's the power of God that does the work, isn't it? It's God that worketh in you, both the will and the do of His good pleasure. But their confidence was in their God and in Joshua, whom God set apart to lead them. Now listen to me. God has chosen to save His people From the beginning, from the very start, from the day of their election, God has chosen to save his people from the beginning by, now listen to me, sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Well, what is this sanctification of the spirit? It's first of all a new birth. Being born of the Spirit, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The water here is the water of the Word. In the womb of the church, he's carried. Carried for a certain time. How is he carried? In the Word of God. Where God speaks over and over and over of His elect. Where are they at? In the water of the Word. That's where they're at. They're being carried in the womb of the church in the water of the world. They live in this water. They feed from this water. And then when Zion prevails, what happens? Sons and daughters are born. God's elect are born of water and of the Spirit. Secondly, the sanctification of the Spirit is a revelation of a great and glorious mystery. I have not seen or heard, I never dreamed that God chose a people in His Son and made full provision for them in Christ. Did you, Larry, if you're going out here to this church and that church, I never, not in my wildest dream did I ever even imagine such a thing. Eye hath not seen or ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, mankind, anybody, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them to us by Spirit. He reveals to us these great and glorious mysteries. Paul defines this work in 1 Corinthians 2, saying, And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. How did he do that? Well, he demonstrated in the tithes, for one thing. In his preaching, he demonstrated the power of the Spirit, same as I'm doing to you this morning. That's what all these battles and things were all about, the power of God coming in, taking control. And he said, I do this that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now watch this. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of the world, nor the princes of this world, that come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden mystery, which God ordained before the world under your glory. Think about it. This great mystery, this wisdom of God. And you can read about that in 1 Corinthians 1 where he talks about the gospel. Let me see if I can find it real quick. For after that in the wisdom of God, God's wisdom, the world by wisdom knew not God. Huh? He ordained this before the world under our glory. So it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. He reserves this great mystery for his elect, and he shows it to them in his time. And then he goes on to say, if the Jews or Romans had known this mystery, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Out of the blackness, darkness, and ignorance of depravity, God sends a preacher and opens the hearts of chosen sinners to receive it and benefit from it. glory at it, rejoicing. Suddenly their eyes are opened and they see for the first time the world as it really is. They see history as it really is. They see God's purpose and will as it really is. And they rejoice. Sanctification of the spirit, thirdly, is an inward work of grace, convincing his people of sin. of righteousness and of judgment, of sin. What do you mean? He's talking about the nature of it, the reign of it, the practice of it, the results of it, but especially the expiation of it. In Christ we have redemption, he said, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Sin is expiated, it's paid for, it's taken away. Are you convinced of sin? A person convinced of sin has nothing in his past, present, or future that he's willing to offer God, hoping for favor in exchange. If you really know what you are by nature, by practice, you're not going to try to offer something of yourself to God. You're just not going to do it. The man convinced of sin is a man shut up to the mercy and grace of God. He's got no other hope. Lord save me else I'll perish. A man convinced of sin is a man void of pride. What do you mean? Here's what I mean. It'd be like a leper joining a beauty contest. Can you imagine, here's a woman, her face half rotted off, got this thing on there and she's going to pray this out for four people. That's a believer having pride. Oh, so ridiculous. Where is boasting, Paul said? It's excluded. It's excluded. Why? Because there's a law of faith, and that law of faith declares that man is not what he was. God's given him faith. He's given him the mind of Christ. He's given him the knowledge of God, which is eternal life. And here's the last thing. Sinners are convinced of sin because they believe not on Christ. Why wouldn't I want to believe on Christ? Here's the expiation for sin. Here's my righteousness. Here's my hope of glory. Everything God has for sinners in this man, but I won't believe in Him. Why? Why won't I believe in Him? Sin. That's why. Only one reason not to believe on Christ, and that's sin. And then, secondly, this sanctification of the Spirit convinces men of righteousness, imputed righteousness, perfectly accomplished righteousness, a righteousness already in place. The righteousness of the saints is the righteous obedience of the Son of God who become a servant and became obedient as a man become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And he's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Paul said to the Romans, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. How do you know when a man's ashamed of the gospel? He don't want to talk about it. He'll whisper in the presence of somebody who's not opposed to it, he'll whisper and talk about it a little bit, but he's not going to take a stand for the righteousness of God. He's not going to do it. Paul said, he counted all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things. and do count them but dumb, that I might win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And also included in the sanctification of the Spirit is the convincing of judgment. Does that mean he's going to convince us that there is a judgment? No. He's talking about judgment satisfied. That's what he's talking about. Judgment satisfied. In Romans 8.1 it says, Having the mind of Christ, Paul said, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the Spirit of Christ, through the Gospel of Christ, shows us judgment satisfied. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption of Him, Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation for our sins through faith in His blood. Is His blood sufficient? That's what He's talking about. It either is or it's not. And here's what the Scripture said, Who is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. And then fourthly and finally, Sanctification of the Spirit is shutting the sinner up to Christ, the all-sufficient Savior. That's what that sanctification does. It shuts him up to Christ. He's got nowhere else to go. You going to go too? The Lord said to his disciples, everybody else thinks I'm talking about cannibalism. What do you think? Will you go too? They said, where are we going to go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Where are we going to go? Why do they say that? Because they shut up to Christ. And I'm going to tell you something, He's either all or He's nothing. That's how it is. He's all or nothing. And that's what God's demonstrating here in these battles, here in the promised land. This belongs to God, belongs to His children. He covenanted this land to them. He made promise of this land to them. And He means for them to have it. But there's occupants there, and they're totally opposed to the whole thing. But he's going to fix that. He's going to fix that. He's going to slay the enemies. He's going to take them out of the way. And he will everything in the believer that's opposed to him, he'll destroy. He'll utterly destroy. He'll take it out of the way.