I thank you. David Crowder-Band, right? I thought I was going to say right in here, but I think it was, I think it was. I've got to call this past week from a friend of mine, there's another state. He's not a young Christian, but he's a fairly new Christian in terms of being serious about this, and he's been going through some experiences that I think could only be described as unusual, and they are supernatural. And so as we talked, I was explaining him a little bit of the nature of spiritual warfare. This is a new concept to him. And it is to a lot of Christians, I know. And I said, do you know how to find Ephesians, chapter 6 in your Bible? He didn't. Most of my newer Christian friends can't spell Ephesians, they don't know how to find it. That's okay. So I said, let me just read a couple verses to you. When I read some from Ephesians, chapter 6, I misread you verses 12 and 13. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, may my name of Laf Anger has paraphrased that passage this way. He said, we in the world, my children, will always be at war. Retreat is impossible. Arm yourselves. When I first started studying this passage for this morning, Joshua 11, I thought, oh great, more battles, more military, more cities conquered, warfare all the time. As I got into it, I realized that there's a whole lot more going on than just earthly military conflict. The book of Joshua, and I've never studied Joshua in the kind of depth I'm doing now as I preach to you all. The whole book of Joshua functions as basically a basic training manual for the spiritual life. So we're going to look at Joshua, chapter 11, as I always do when I have a passage this long. We're going to break it down into smaller chunks so that you don't snore. And let's pray before we delve into it. Father, I thank you for the word of God. And I thank you that your word does apply to and instruct us in all matters of faith and practice. And I ask that you would use this message now to help equip us for the struggle, illuminate our minds and activate our hearts, motivate our wills to see you more clearly and love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly as a result of the preaching and the hearing of this message. I ask it in Jesus' name, amen. This is a manual. This is an instruction for us as we go through this struggle as we activate and act out our faith as Christians. With that in mind, let's look into Joshua, chapter 11, beginning in verse 1, you're going to see that opposition is inescapable. Opposition is inescapable. Verse 1, when Javin King of Hazor heard of this, he sent word to Jobab, King of Madan, to the kings of Shimran and Akshaf, to the northern and to the northern kings who were in the mountains in the Arabas, south of Kinarif, in the western foothills, and in Naafah door on the west, to the Canaanites in the east and west, to the Amarites, Hittites, Parasites and Jebusites in the hill country, and to the Hivites below Hermann in the region of Mizpah. They came out with all their troops and a large number of horses and chariots, a huge army as numerous as the sands on the seashore. All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the waters of Miram to fight against Israel. Stop there and just say thank God, none of you know if I pronounce those words right or not. We're not sure where all these cities were located. Hazor we have excavated, we know where Hazor was. It's about 10 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and Hazor was the chief of the cities of ancient Palestine. It was the biggest and the most formidable. It covered approximately 200 acres. That may not be big by our standards, but by comparison Jericho covered about five or six acres. Hazor was many times bigger and a lot more imposing and intimidating. Along with these other cities, it posed a final intimidating challenge or obstacle for Joshua and the people as they were to take over their promised land. Whenever I read about these wild and fortified cities in the Older Testament, guys, when I drive by all these high rises that are going up around here, look at what's happened there at Dadeland. These wild and fortified cities, these concrete canyons and corridors going up around us and negated communities of the suburbs around us. I think those are our wild and fortified cities. Those are our challenges for us to get into and infiltrate them with the gospel, not with weapons, not with military assault by activating our faith, words and acts of deeds of love and kindness and service. Well, these canyons and night kings and these cities and these tribes, you know, they were not all friends. They were not all part of the same bowling league. They didn't have a softball league where they got together and were big friends. They were not friends with one another, but you know the old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They came together basically because they had to fight a common enemy and that was Joshua and people of Israel. Opposition folks is inescapable. Expect opposition if you're serious about following Christ. You often hear me say our mission and we put the slide up for those of you who are actually here early on Sundays. We put a slide up that says that our mission is to glorify God, to build up the body of Christ and to advance his kingdom into the kingdoms of this world. If we're serious about doing any or all of that, then we are going to encounter conflict and tension from a world that is diametrically opposed to all of the above. Prison Fellowship, the prison ministry that Chuck Colson founded about 30 years ago after his own prison experience following his conviction as part of the Watergate scandal. Prison Fellowship goes into our prisons and ministers, our own Jim Monti and Jim's not here today. Jim goes in to every place correctional twice a month, the minister of the gospel to some very needy men. You need to know that in America the recidivism rate, people who go to prison, about 75-80% of them go back to prison after they've been in there once. Three-fourths to four-fifths so that people go into prison, end up back in prison. Prison Fellowship has a ministry called Inner Change and the people who go through Inner Change, and there's about a half a dozen prisons now in this country that have an Inner Change Ministry, people who go through Inner Change have an 8% rate of recidivism, 8% of the people who go through Inner Change, end up back in prison. So you got 75-80% who don't go through Inner Change, you end up back in prison. You got 8% of those who go through Inner Change, end up back in prison. That's a good deal, right? Well, not according to the Americans united for the separation of church and state. They have filed suit against prison fellowship and Inner Change and they've got them tied up in the courts right now and Inner Change may get banned from prisons. Why? Because they're serious about the gospel and they're serious about penetrating the darkest corners of our society with the light of the gospel of Christ, and they're encountering opposition for those who have no part of it. If you're serious about following Christ, expect opposition, let me give you a few more examples. I mentioned some of these to you a couple of Christmases ago, at the Coral Street Elementary School in State College, Pennsylvania, children were led in a chant that celebrate Kwanza while Christmas carols were stripped of all religious content. The Paterson Elementary School in Katie, Texas, Christmas songs were banned, but students were threatened with great reductions for refusing to sing songs, celebrating other religious faiths. A school district in California prohibits teachers from mentioning Christmas or wearing Christmas jewelry. A New Jersey teacher was forced by an ACLU suit to abandon plans to take children to see the Broadway version of a Christmas carol. In Panama City, Florida, school principal changed the name of a Bible study group from fellowship of Christian students to fellowship of concerned students, and for good measure he prohibited the club from advertising. School administrator Dallas Texas was recommended for using email to forward copies of President Bush's National Day of Prayer Proclamation, but the school district had no problem with employees using email to send jokes, chain emails, and secular messages of encouragement. If you're serious about following Christ, expect opposition. You will encounter conflict and tension. David Wells in his book No Place for Truth puts it this way. It isn't just that our culture thinks our beliefs are wrong, they find them offensive. They don't just disagree with us, they don't think we should even have a right to believe those things. I sometimes tell people, like my friend, who are new Christians or newly serious about being Christians, and also they're encountering all kinds of opposition, all kinds of struggles that they've never had before. I said, well look, up to now you've been going the way of the world, you've been floating downstream with everybody else. You've been floating right along with everybody else in our culture, of course you didn't encounter this kind of tension, but now you have turned around, you've done a 180. You're now that salmon swimming upstream. You've got a whole world full of tension and conflicts and obstacles, opposition in your face because you're trying to live out your Christian faith. Don't be surprised by it, expect it. There are times folks, I mean I get tired of this fight, there are times I just want to throw it in my hands and go post-modern and say, whatever, whatever, if you're just bound to determine go to hell, go, but I can't do that, I can't do that. St. Teresa of Avala, 15th century Spanish, Spanish mystic like to say, once you see truth, you cannot unsee it, and I've seen it, and I can't pretend that I haven't. When we engage the world, we need to expect opposition. Now listen, don't go tweak the world's nose unnecessarily. Don't go just looking for a fight, unless you just like being involved in that. Don't be abrasive about it, the gospel offends enough, we don't have to be offensive in the way we present it, so don't go tweaking the world's nose unnecessarily unless you have a direct anointing of God as this prophet and calling to do so, and if you pull the dragon's tail and he turns around and he scorches you, don't expect any sympathy, but we're about truth, spoken in love, but we're serious about following Christ, opposition is inescapable, we need to expect it. I feel like I should pull down a big microphone and say, let's get ready to rumble. I don't want us to become a bunch of fighters, we just need to know that we're going to encounter opposition. Don't expect the opposition to just lay down their arms either in surrender, and don't expect them to just put down the drawbridge and say, oh, you're here glad, we're so glad you finally come to Reska's, come on in and take over. People who are married to their pagan ways, they don't do that, they don't do that. The pagan, hostile Canaanites, didn't lay down for Joshua, and our modern, hostile, pagan Canaanites, they're not going to lay down for us, either, and I know it's lie down, don't correct me later, okay, but still that's our mission and that's our mandate, so how do we do it? How do we take our turf? One piece at a time, one piece at a time, being faithful to our husbands and our wives, raising our kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, refusing to cut moral and ethical corners in our work, speaking out on vital issues, as long as we speak the truth and love, and reaching out to others with acts of service and mercy and deeds of grace, and because opposition is inescapable, casualties are unavoidable, we're at war, we're going to experience casualties, especially they'll be Christian leaders, Christian leaders, somebody's going to have an affair, someone else is going to struggle with homosexuality, or pornography, or gluttony, or alcoholism, it's going to be one who's addicted to online gambling or to oxycontin, it's going to be one who's marriage and family are falling apart, the one who's just dry as dust spiritually and just out of gas, few are the enemy of the gospel, the enemy of the church, who would you target? So I would ask you very seriously to pray, pray for those of us who are in positions of leadership, pray for our wise families, pray for my right knee, not to do that to me again, and nothing really wrong with it, I just do that to make sure you guys pay attention. Pray for us, in this battle your prayers are our air support, and we desperately desperately need you, opposition is inescapable, obedience is non-negotiable, look at me verse 6, the Lord said to Joshua, do you not be afraid of them? Because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them over to Israel, slain, you are to hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots. So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the waters of Miram, and attacked them, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, they defeated them, pursued them all the way to greater Sidon, to Mizrophoth Maim, and to the valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. Joshua did to them, as the Lord had directed, he hamstringed their horses, and burned their chariots. As I read these texts I keep thinking, why did those poor horses, what those poor horses do? Why burn those chariots? Simply this because the horse and the chariot represented the most advanced forms of military weaponry at that point in time, this is Latter Bronze Age, and the horse and the chariot with a state of the art in terms of military tactical warfare, and God wanted to be sure that his people would continue to trust in him and not to their military prowess. He wanted his people to trust in him, not to their weapons, and I know what you are thinking. This is Older Testament Israel folks, this is the old covenant people of God, the United States of America, we are not the new covenant people of God. Our military, we can fight just wars, we are not fighting a holy war, we can fight unjust wars. Our question is whether war is just or unjust, it's not a holy war. The new covenant people of God, it's not the United States, it's the church, and we fight our battles with different weapons. We fight our battles with prayer and Bible study and evangelism and service and mercy. God wanted to be sure that they would continue to trust in him and not their military prowess. There is a fair amount of emphasis on this in the Older Testament. Let me read just a couple of verses to you, Isaiah chapter 31, verse 1. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots, and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the holy one of Israel or seek help from the Lord. Amongst the number of other passages I picked one that I have memorized for many, many years ago, I never really fully understood it until I studied this passage, Psalm 20, verse 7. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. But you know guys, Joshua had to be tempted. He had to be tempted, just a few of those horses, look at those shiny chariots, just a few of those, maybe just for trophies. God said, no, no. You do what I tell you. Is that sound familiar? Obedience is essential. It's non-negotiable. I occasionally have to tell some children I know and love who shall remain nameless. You know, my mom and I say, no, that's not the signal for the start of the argument. We say do it. That doesn't mean we're going to debate it. No means no, and do it means do it. Which part of that was unclear? I'm not naming names, of course. Obedience is non-negotiable. Let me tell you. They're not the only ones who have to be reminded of that. We are children of our Heavenly Father if we know Christ is Lord. Verse 10, at that time, Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put his king to the sword. Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms. Everyone in it, they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anything that breathed and he burned up Hazor itself. In warfare, you go after the enemy's headquarters. You go to the heart of the opposition. I've said this before, and I'm echoing Dr. Oz Guinness. We've got to have the nerve for the nerve sentence, we've got to have the heart for the heart of the culture. So I'm so pleased to have things like devoted dance come here. We bring people into this place who would never come here for service, but they'll come here because they're children are dancing and they'll get the gospel presented to them. So I'm glad they have Bernie Goldberg here on Tuesday night. Bernie's not one of us. Bernie's Jewish is not Christian and he's probably, considerably, to the left of most of us on cultural and political issues, but Bernie's a good mouthpiece to call our attention to these issues and to get a bunch of people in here who would not come here otherwise and we might be able to impact them for the gospel of Christ. It's why I was so pleased. The opportunity, I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to go up to Tallahassee where Bill Rowan and I went. We had the opportunity to address that Senate subcommittee on the issue of stem cell research. By the way, they voted down both bills. One that would authorize 20 million for embryonic stem cell research. One that would put that 20 million toward non-embronic stem cell research. And I'm okay with that. Let private industry take it over. That's fine. But we didn't want to see happen. What I didn't want to see happen was 20 million dollars of Florida taxpayer money moved into medical research that would create destroy embryos in the name of medical progress. Well, and when I told that Senate subcommittee that day, at least the best I would call it, and I said this to them, I said, either you believe in God or you don't. I believe there is a God. If there is a God, we are either created in His image or we are not. I believe that we are. If you believe those two things that there is a God, and He has created human beings in His image, that means that every single human being that has ever been created is a unique creation designed by God, and is meant to be treated with dignity and compassion and respect should not be created nor destroyed as part of an experiment. I want you to know that the people in that room, the senators and all their assistants, they were very attentive to me, they were very polite to me, and they were locked in on what I was saying. I don't think it was because they had never heard anything like this before. I don't think it was because they hadn't heard anything like that in that chamber in quite a long time, although I suspect that was true. I think the looks on their faces and the reason they were locked in is they were, I think they were saying, that has the ring of truth. We recognize that to be true. I don't crave to be in situations like that, I don't mind, I don't crave it, travel is not easy. Going up there and back was quite an adventure as Bill and I could tell you, I don't crave to be in situations like that, but I've told God that He gives me the opportunity to impact our culture by going to the nerve centers, by speaking to the heart of our culture that I'll do my best to be faithful. In warfare, you go to the headquarters, you go to the heart of the opposition, and know I'm not saying that the legislature is necessarily our enemies, but I'm not saying they're not either. Verse 11, everyone in it that is hosor, they put to the sword, they totally destroyed them, not sparing anything that breathed, and they burned up hosor itself. As I said to you last week, this was a literal burnt offering from Joshua and the people to the Lord. Verse 12, Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them as Moses, the servant of the Lord had commanded. Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds except hosor which Joshua burned. The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder in the livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them. Why did Israel not burn any of the cities except hosor? They burned it as a literal burnt offering. Why did they not burn the rest of them? Let me show you why. We're doing quite a bit of Old Testament survey this morning, but it's important. From Deuteronomy 6, verses 10-12, when the Lord, your God, brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you. A land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves, you did not plant. Then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. Again, I added the emphasis there, but I wanted us to get that. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord when things are good, who needs God? My needs are met, my house is in order. I've got all I need to eat and to drink, I've got TV to watch, I've got games to go to, who needs God, but let another 9-11 happen. You'll see our elected officials take time out from their petty bickering, and they'll stand on the steps of the capital and see God bless America again. Which attendance will rise again after the next attack? When things are good, who needs God? When things go bad, then we look up, we say, what happened, God, have you forgotten about us? Even though we've forgotten about Him so much of the time, verse 15, as the Lord commanded His servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. This is about obedience, folks. Obedience is non-essential. We see it throughout the Old Recovenant. When they were obedient, God blessed them, their disobedience, God punished them, God cursed them. A key statement there, whatever God told Moses, His anointed leader, Moses told Joshua, and Joshua followed, obedience, oppositions inescapable, obedience is non-negotiable, but victory is inevitable. Victory is inevitable. Look at, verses 16-23, they're kind of a summary now of all that's gone before in the book of Joshua. So Joshua took this entire land, the hill country, all the negative, the whole region of the region, the western foothills, the araba, and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, from Mount Halak, which rises towards Seir, to Baal, Gad, and the valley of Lebanon, below Mount Hermann. He captured all their kings, and struck them down, putting them to death. Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. You know, we read these narratives, and it looks like it's just one city a day, and he's just knocking them over like dominoes. It's a nature of ancient, near Eastern literature often, especially ancient Hebrew, ancient Hebrew literature. This took a long time. This was not like the desert storm, where we knocked them over in a hundred hours, but this one took a long time, except, verse 19, except for the hivites living in Ghibiom. Not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites who took them all in battle. Remember, a few weeks ago, the Ghibiites, they tricked them, and on the basis of faulty military intelligence, Israel entered into an ill-advised covenant with the city of Ghibiom, but they honored that treaty. They did, in verse 20, for it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses. It was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts. This is where we touch into the deep mystery of the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. How can God be sovereign and man be responsible at the same time? How can man be responsible and God be sovereign at the same time? He had the Bible teaches both. The Bible teaches both. How can that be? I once had the opportunity, I think I may have told you this before. Once had the opportunity to ask Dr. J. I. Packer, Dr. Packer is one of the best minds we have in Christendom today, and he's British, so he sounds even smarter than he really is. I had the opportunity to ask Dr. Packer one time that very question, I said, Dr. Packer, if God is sovereign and I believe he is, then what sense is man responsible and if man is responsible and I believe he is, what sense can God be sovereign? And we talk quite a bit about it, but the punch line, the take-home message he gave me was this, he said, as regards God's sovereignty and man's responsibility at the same time being true, is that I think that it is mystery, and there's not much getting behind it. When we first said that to me, I thought, that's it, mystery, I've come all this way, I've climbed to the top of the mountain to ask the guru the question, he tells me it's a mystery, I could have done that on my own, but then he said this, he said, the fact that I cannot truly understand God makes perfect sense to me. For if I could truly understand God, then he couldn't be any bigger than I am. If I could fully comprehend him, he couldn't be any bigger than I am, so the fact that their aspects of God and his nature that I don't truly understand makes perfect sense to me. The Bible teaches both folks, the sovereignty of God, and responsibility of man. I don't fully comprehend why God hardens some people's hearts, but I know this, anyone who truly wants to confess and repent and come to God and receive the payment Christ made on the cross for our salvation, anyone who wants to, can, if you want to come to God, he is not hard in your heart, you are welcome to come to him in faith. Verse 21, at that time, Joshua went and destroyed the Antichites from the hill country, from Hebron, Debeer and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel, Joshua totally destroyed them in their towns. No Antichites were left in the Israelite territory, only in Gaza, Gath and Ashtad, did any survive. The Antichites, by the way, they were the boogie men of Canaan. These were the same guys that, when the spies first went into Canaan, they'd come back and told Moses, it's a great place, it's flowing with milk and honey, you should see they got cable TV in every house, just making sure you're still with me. They said, it's a beautiful country, we'd love to have it, but the Antichim lived there, the Antichites, and they're big, and they're giants, and they're mean, we can't take them. Here they are, they're the last ones to bite the dust, it's kind of poetic in some ways. Not to them, of course, but to the people of God. Verse 23, So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and He gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions, then the land had rest for more. We should say, well, sort of, that's not the whole story, they had rest for more, for the most part, for a time, but there were parts of their country, their promise land, there were pockets of resistance, they still had to be subdued, there were areas where the people rose up again, they had to go to battle with them again. The Canaanites that lived in that region were not all completely subdued until David, the warrior king, took the throne. David, the greatest king of ancient Israel, the old covenant Israel, when David took the throne, the Canaanites were subdued. Our promise land folks, it waits, it's out there, and it will never be complete, our culture, our world, it will never be complete, the subdued, and I'm an optimist, it will never be complete, the subdued until the son of David returns to his throne, and declares that the struggle is over. There will be pockets of resistance, culture, and in our own lives, they'll rare up, we'll have to fight those battles again and again, and then the land will have rest for more. It's the nature of biblical revelation, there is the now and the not yet. There's that part of the kingdom of God we experience now, there's that part we won't truly experience until we go home to our heavenly home. We get a taste of that in worship, by the way. We leave this place, we go to our homes, and our schools, and our jobs, and our families, and we struggle, and we fight the fights, and we have these battles, and we come back together on Sundays, and we have a chance to rest and to worship. It's just a taste of the Sabbath rest that remains for God's people. Ultimately, Revelation 11, 15 puts it this way, the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. He said, well, shouldn't it feel like victory is inevitable to me, it doesn't feel like we're winning right now, I understand that. But if historical reality for you, January 8, 1815, Battle of New Orleans, British forces under Major General Sir Edward Packham attacked the vastly outnumbered American forces which were led by the Major General Andrew Jackson. British had them outnumbered 9,000 to 4,000, and Andrew Jackson's forces won at the size of victory, killing 2,000 of the 9,000 British troops while losing only 71 of the 4,000 American troops. The irony of all this is that the Treaty of Gant, which signaled an end of the war, the Treaty of Gant had been signed 15 days before the fight, 15 days before that battle, the Treaty of Gant had put an end to the war, but because of the slow pace at which news traveling those days, the two militaries didn't know it. The war was over before the battle was fought. Our victory is secure folks, our victory is inevitable, even though we feel like we have to keep on fighting. Oppositions are inescapable, obedience is non-negotiable, victory is inevitable, so when we experience the conflict and the tension, the frustration trying to live for Christ in a world that doesn't even acknowledge and remember the war is already won, and even as we fight those daily battles of falling Christ on the path to ultimate victory, let's pray together. Father, I thank you that as this country marks this memorial day and our hearts are grateful for the men and the women who have fought and died to make this country free, every Sunday is a memorial day for us to remember the salvation of God and the price that you paid in order to win it for us, the death of your son, where his body is broken, his blood was shed so that we might know freedom and victory. The prayer today is that we would remember, and we would be glad for the freedom we were given on the cross at Calvary, or give us glad hearts to stay at pray and ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Now, receive the benediction. Go now in the love of God, the Father, grace, mercy of God, the Son, fellowship and companionship of God, the Holy Spirit, live the life, amen.