This is by fear, Rahab. Joshua 2. If you've been here, you know the background of all this. Children of Israel's going into the promised land. The first walled city they're gonna face, probably the most impregnable of all, is Jericho. Jericho, located right above the Dead Sea. It was a paradise back then. Palm trees, city of palm trees. A big resort. And very valued property. Warm all year round, that type of thing. So it was a place of luxury. Place of, like I said, resort. So here Joshua's sending out spies. They're gonna go search out the land. So when they come into the gate of Jericho, they go to the house of Rahab. Her house is built on the wall. It's right there at it. They go no doubt in there by the leadership of God. They didn't know her from Adam. They didn't know her like the old saying from Job's turkey, had no clue who she was. She knew who they were as soon as she saw them. Her actions prove that. This is all in the providence of God. As I said before, these spies are not sent there to spy out Jericho. They think they are. They no more get into the town than they have to leave because they've been spotted. God sent them there to encourage the heart of this little woman and get her family in. I believe no doubt she's already been converted. She's in the flax, the linen making business now. The reason God calls her a harlot through the Bible is to magnify the grace of God, where He brought her from, to show you the stigma of sexual sin. But more than anything, she's in the lineage of Christ. She'd be the great-great-on-back grandmother of Christ, according to the flesh. Of course, He's the Son of God, but according to the flesh. And here's a Gentile, here's a pagan woman, a woman of probably the lowest degree, put right there in the genealogy of Christ, along with Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, glory to God, Rahab, Ruth of Boaz, Tamar of Judah, these women, Bathsheba, Mother of Solomon. These women of grace that God's magnified to show that he forgives sin. It doesn't minimize their sin. It doesn't minimize what they did, but it shows there's a new life that begins after conversion. Oh, Lord. So you've got here in Joshua too, these men, they come in her residence there, it's a boarding house, it's just like a bread and breakfast. Here comes the authorities from the king of Jericho wanting to know where are the men that came in to search and spy out the land. They see the children of Israel's out here on the east side of Jordan. They know they're about to come into the land, so they're watching for them. So these men come in, their disguise hadn't worked, they might be dressed as businessmen, but seemingly everybody knew who they were. And she hides them on top of her house, built on the wall among the flax. It was a time that they, it was a barley harvest, a flax harvest, so it wouldn't be unusual for those in that type of a business to be drying all this flax. She hides them up there. They search her house, search the roof, they don't find them. And then, not a word's been said yet. I'm sure they're wondering, what if they had been incarcerated? Can you imagine what would have happened in the camp of Israel if these men had been captured and tortured and hung from the top of the wall for all to see? That's what would have happened. But anyhow, God provided an escape. So, not a word said, nobody but Rahab knows what's going on. They're up there scratching their head under that flag, saying, why'd this woman, she just risked her life to save us. What's going on here? The other one said, I don't know, but it's gotta be God. God's hands in this thing. See, what you need to do in life, he said, always looking for the devil, look for God. Look for what God's a doing. You do recognize Satan's actions, but look at God's actions. So here, these men here, after that day, verse number eight, before they were laid down, she came unto them upon the roof. She said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, that your terror is upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land thank because of you. For we've heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. That's what I preached on last week. When you came out of Egypt, what you did under the two kings of Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now, I've been trying for a month to get to this scarlet thread and haven't got there yet. So I'm going to try to get there next Sunday if God will let me. But last Sunday morning, God absolutely thrust this in my soul. There's a story here I have never heard this preached on in my life. I've never preached on it much myself. I've made mention of it. And it's unbelievable how much it's in the Bible, how little this subject's ever dealt with. But it's a glorious subject by fear, Rahab. So here are these men, they're on top of her house on the roof. She comes up there and makes this great confession. She's explaining to them why she hid them. She's explaining to them that she fears God. She's explaining to them that she knows that their God is the real God. She's explaining to them how that she knows. She's heard, knows, has covered that entire part of the world. They needed to know that because Joshua needed to know that. They needed to know that God had gone before them and fulfilled what he promised, that the fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the land and upon all the nations before you ever get there. So the Lord is fulfilling these promises. He's letting them know from victory to victory to victory, from faith to faith to faith, from glory to glory to glory, that God can always be trusted. He's not only the God of my salvation. He's the God of my sanctification. He's the God of my daily life. and supply my daily needs. He's done great things in the past. He's doing great things right now. He shall do great things in the future for he is a great God. She's letting them know of that we know. what God did at the Red Sea. Pharaoh had you hemmed in and God divided the Red Sea so wide that two and a half, three and a half million people passed over the Red Sea on dry land in a night time. You're talking about a mile to two miles wide for that to even be possible. We heard how after you've gone through on dry ground, solid footing, Pharaoh and his army coming behind you. And God let the waters go back and drowned Pharaoh and all of his army. We've heard all of that. And the fear of you has come upon us. Now in 2 Chronicles 14, 14, for the fear of the Lord came upon them. This word fear and this word melt has the idea of being dissolved. It's got the idea of terror. fear and dread. She said when we heard what God did for you, how God vindicated you, how God exalted you as a people of God, that the fear of the Lord fell upon us. In the book of Psalm 111 verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To fear God is to respect God. It's to reverence God. It is to revere God. It is to take God serious, and Rahab took God serious. She knew this is your land. God has given you the land. In Proverbs 8, 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. arrogancy, the evil way, the froward mouth, do I hate? Proverbs 10, 27, the fear of the Lord prolongeth days. Proverbs 14, 26, in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. Proverbs 14, 27, the fear of the Lord of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Proverbs 16.6, by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Proverbs 19.23, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life. He that hath it shall abide satisfied. He shall not be vested with evil. Proverbs 22.4, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor. and live. What's that saying? She feared God. She took God serious. She agreed with God's holiness, God's righteousness, God's impending judgment. When you understand that, when you know I'm accountable to God, I'm gonna face God, there's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, and you fear God. And when you fear God, you prepare to meet God. You prepare to live for God. You prepare to be right with God. That's what that means. It's the beginning of wisdom. Who's gonna obey God if they don't respect him? Who's gonna obey God's word if they don't think it's advantageous? Who's gonna respect God's word if they don't know there's a consequence for breaking it? 40 years before God had dried up, opened up the Red Sea, and they went over on dry land. That night the pillar of fire lit up the Red Sea, the passage for the children of Israel. His locked daylight as they passed over, and the glory of God shined the light. behind them was total blackness and total darkness for Pharaoh and his army. It's like a fog of 40 midnights. The blackness of hell had fallen on Pharaoh's camp and they heard about that. Now, the Bible talks about the importance of speaking about and recording the mighty acts of God. For Psalm 145, for one generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. That's why it's important to know history. It's important to know Bible history. It's important to know the history of the world, the history of Noah, the history of Enoch, the history of Seth, the history of Abel, the history of Seth and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the line of redemption, the history of the nation of Israel, the history of America, the history of our forefathers, for it speaks of the mighty acts of God. That's why that it's so critical. That's why we need to know history and recognize the mighty acts of God. I don't know in this story how old Rahab is. Now here's the point. I want to really try to impress to you, she may not have even been alive when the Red Sea Crossing took place. She might have been a little girl. It might have been before her time. Here she is, evidently a woman. Now that's not that old, for later she married Solomon and had a son, Obed. or not Obed, but Boaz. And so evidently, we've got in this story, this woman's not that old. She's probably not 40 years old. So she's been told of the Red Sea crossing. Now there's a point I'm trying to make here. Has she heard it from others? But in verse 10, and what she did, here it is, to the two kings. of the Amorites, that's on the other side of Jordan, Sihon, Hamogh, whom you utterly destroyed. We know what you did 40 years ago. I've been told about that. But Sihon, An og, that happened just a few months ago. This isn't something that's been removed by four decades. This is modern day news. This is a modern day act of God. I've heard all my life. of the great acts of God in the past. I've read about them, but I'm still seeing God do them in this day and in this hour. He's not a past tense God or a future God. He's the great I am. He exists in the present. He's God right now. He's got power right now. He's got wisdom right now. It's beneficial to serve him right now and rehab knew about Sihon and Og, and these great kings of the Amorites, how they had possessed of the land. Have you ever heard of Sihon and Og? You won't believe. How many times that this miracle is mentioned in the Bible. They come up, here's the children of Israel. You're looking at a map of Israel. Over here is the Jordan River on the east side is modern day Jordan. Down to the bottom is Saudi Arabia. They come up from the east side. They cross the river Arnon and the territory of the Amorites. goes from Arnon, 115 miles, to Mount Hermon, the southern part. He is run by this great king by the name of Sihon, and then the northern part called Gilead, called Bashan. He is run by a king by the name of Og, but they're both Amorites. Now the Bible doesn't say this, but Jewish tradition and Jewish rabbis teach that Sihon and Og were brothers, that this story is so impressive, it's so amazing, it so made a distinction in her life, that they quaked and feared at the victory over a Sihon and Og, of all the nations of Canaan, of all the nations of Transjordan, that's the east side, where Reuben, Gad, half-tribe of Manasseh dwell, called Transjordan, of all these nations, there was none as powerful as Sihon and Og. and Og, and the Bible says that when they had took these two nations, they began the possession of Canaan land, for that will become the possession of these two and a half tribes. So Jericho is the first city in the boundaries of modern day Israel, That's Sihon and Og, and the territory of the Amorites was the first one that they took in that day. Now think about this. I wanna emphasize what God's saying here in this story. Sihon occurs 37 times in that day. in 34 verses of the Bible. Og occurs 22 times in 22 verses of the Bible. That is 56 times that Og and Sihon are mentioned. Nine times they're mentioned together, Sihon. Head on, you would think if God says it one time, it's worthy of investigation and study. But when God uses the names of two kings 56 times, I believe that we should look into it. God's got something to say about these two great kings. They were so powerful that 400 years later, Solomon called Gilead of the land of Sihon. Over 600 years later, Amos wrote about Sihon, Hanan, yet destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was the height of the cedars. He was strong as the oaks. I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. This became a national song. They sung about it in Psalm 135. They sung about it in Psalm 136. I'm talking about the two men that were so powerful that when they were defeated, God mentions them 56 times. They're mentioned 600 years later because they were giants. They were men of great stature. God said they were as tall as the cedar, and they were strong as oaks. I mean, these children of Israel looked like dwarfs and pygmies, but side of them, and that's what made the victory so great and the victory so powerful. In Psalm 135, 10, who smote great nations and slew mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, Ah, King Abishan, all the kingdoms of Canaan, gave their land for an heritage, a heritage to the children of Israel. Psalm 136, 17. To him who smoked great kings for his mercy, him dear us forever. And the choir leader, like lion singing, of a primitive Baptist, They, the leader, would say to him who spoke great kings, and the nation would sing in return for his mercy. Himdur forever, the song leader, would sing and slew famous kings, and the congregation sing back for his mercy. Himdur forever, Sihon, king of the Amorites. for his mercy endure forever. And on the king of Bashan for his mercy endure forever and gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endure forever. That's the song of the child of God. His mercy shall endure forever for the child of God. Boy, I'm glad today I'm connected to the blessing and the blessing is Christ for his mercy endure forever. Now I want you to think about the fame and the influence of Sihon and the Bog. Their defeat was so outstanding. so unbelievable, so inconceivable, so incredible, so unimaginable, so unthinkable, that it shook the entire nations of the promised land. Why? Because kings, generals, captains, this is a message for another day. But there's one part of the puzzle that the heathen man, the worldly-minded man, never takes into consideration. It is divine intervention. It is a supernatural intervention of God on the battlefield. Hitler lost because of divine intervention. Alexander the Great went down. Divine intervention. Nebuchadnezzar went down. Divine intervention. And we see this all through the Bible. And what happened in this story cannot be explained by military technique. They knew that. Rahab knew that. The inhabitants of the land knew that. They knew God. had fought against these giants who were types of demons in Satan's kingdom. Giants, superior men, stronger men, more intellectual men, men of fame and great renown. And it took God's divine intervention for these men to be defeated. That's why you put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil, the giants, our demons, unseen forces, unseen powers, I don't have strength against them, but Christ does, his blood does, his power does, his name does, his spirit does, and that's what you and I must tap in in this day when men see us victorious over the devil. the giants of temptation, the giants of lust, the giants of that that once ensnared us and see us delivered by the power of God, they'll know we didn't do it and glory will be wrought to God. Now, Sihon is proud and he's arrogant. Moses crosses the Arnon River. And when he does, Sihon, he sends ambassadors to talk to this king. And I sent out of the wilderness of Kedmoth unto Sihon, king of Heshbon. What's this? With words of peace saying. Now here's how Moses dealt with him. He dealt with him with words of peace. Let's be at peace. Let's not be at war. Verse 27 of Deuteronomy 2. Let me pass through thy land. I'll go about by the highway. I'll neither turn to the right hand nor the left. Thou shalt sell the meat for money that I may eat. Give me water for money that I may drink. Only I'll pass through on my feet. What he's saying is we're not gonna stop. We're just passing through. Any food we eat, we'll pay you for it. Any water we drink, we'll pay you for it. Any damage that's done, I'll recompense you for it. Verse 29, has the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites, which dwell in Ar, did unto me, until I shall pass over Jordan unto the land, which the Lord our God giveth us. Watch this now. Here's the king of the giants. Sihon, up here to the north is Og, the king of the giants. The Amorites, they're stopping, they're trying to hinder the progression of the children of Israel from gaining their inheritance. That's what this is all about. I've been brought out of Egypt. I've been saved by the blood of the Lamb. I've been delivered by the power of God. but God's got a will for my life. God's got a victory for my life, symbolized by Canaan. And the devil has every obstacle in my path to stop my progress, to stop me from gaining that that God has promised to give me. That's the typology of what's happening in this story. So Sihon and the Amorites are standing there to stop their progress to the promised land. For over 400 years, Israel's been without a land. God's about to give them one. God's about to give them their possession. Listen to this now in typology. Many of their forefathers have died and never entered in. They've died in the wilderness. They've died in defeat. that there's a remnant among those children of Israel that want what God's got for them. They want the best God's got. They want the inheritance. Now Moses offers terms of peace, peace on gracious terms. Sihon chose rather to fight against God, to fight against God's people, to fight against God's law, to fight against God's spirit, to fight against his own conscience. He knew what God did at the Red Sea. Why do men fight God? Don't they know what God did in Noah's flood? Don't they know what God did in Sodom and Gomorrah? Don't they know what God's done down the history of man? Why do we fight God? Why don't we lay our arms down? He's offering peace. He's offering mercy. Why do we want to rebel? Why do we want to resist? It'll be to our own damnation or it'll be to our own destruction. If there's anything I want is to be rightly related to God. I've got to have him. I can't make it without him. I don't want to die without him. I don't want to face tomorrow without him. I want to be in his will. I want to do what he says. But the devil, Sihon, Og, and the giants will fight me every step of the way to keep me from that inheritance. Now why does Sihon refuse? Because Deuteronomy 2.30 tells you. Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us pass by him. For the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand has appeared this day. You know what God did? He refused to soften his heart. When God hardens somebody's heart, he refuses to restrain them. He refuses to stop them. He lets them do what they want to do, and he don't hinder them. That's what that means. Hardened means to be fierce, to be hard-pressed, to be difficult, to be stubborn, to be burdensome, to show stubbornness. Obstinate means stout, bold, solid, hard, brave. strength, to make firm, to prove superior, to be hardened in pride. Old Sihon's pride, thinking he was invincible, thinking because they're giants and those Israelites are little people, that they're nothing to them. and they'll easily wipe the ground with them. Deuteronomy, hey, what he's not putting in the estimation is, he ain't fighting Israel, he's fighting God. Deuteronomy 2.31, and the Lord said unto me, hold up the gun to give Sihon and his land before thee, begin to possess that thou mayest inherit the land. Deuteronomy 2.32, then Sihon came out against us, he and his people, the five at Gehaz. Now Josephus says that Sihon, the great first century Jewish historian, says that Sihon gathered together every man, every teenage boy in the entire nation and marshaled them to bow our arms He's gonna level the ground with these people. He will destroy them, he thinks, but God will turn the tables upon him. His great walled cities are gonna come down. The question is, why didn't Sihon, and hogs stay behind their walled cities. There's a reason for that. Why would they go fight in the plain? Well, I'll answer that before this is over. Let me just say, that's one of the marks of pride. They thought they didn't need walls. They thought that the enemy of Israel was nothing to them. Man, that's like fighting children. And they fight them in the open plain. Deuteronomy 2.34. And we took all of his cities at that time. And we destroyed the men and the women. and the little ones in every city, we left none there to remain, only the cattle we took for a prey, and ourselves, and the spoil of the cities, which we took. You say, preacher, how's that fair? Listen to me now. All they're doing is raising children to go to hell. Paganism, heathenism, child sacrifice. The Canaanites, these nations, when they would dedicate a house, they would kill a child. kill one of their children and put their bones and they burn them to ashes and put their ashes or what was left in some vial or a vase and bury that in the foundation of that home. I'm talking about wicked, people full of venereal disease, sodomy, perversion, child abuse. pedophiles, all this wickedness of the land. God knew that if they were not destroyed, they'd destroy the children of Israel, for they'd infiltrate them with their heathen practices. Deuteronomy 2.36, for Aor, which is by the brink of the river Arnon, and from the city that's by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us. The Lord our God delivered them unto our hands. After the victory over Sihon at Gehaz, the Hebrews seized the city Heshvah. Say, where are you going with this? Would you just stay with me? I'm going somewhere with this. The city they captured next were the cities of Napha, Medeba, and Diabon, and all of Sihon's towns, all of his villages, all of those protected with walls and without walls. Now Israel possesses splendid pasture lands and all of the territory of Sihon. King of Amorites, next king, the conquering of this northern territory. This is the one. I'm gonna zero in a little bit more, Og, the remainder, the last one of the giants, the Bible says. Amos 2, 9 again gives insight. I destroyed them right before them, whose height was like the height of cedars, and was strong as the oaks, yet destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. God said they were high, they were tall like cedars. That's a metaphor, strong as an oak tree. But I took them, and the fruits of their greatness, I destroyed their roots, Their children, I uprooted that cedar. I uprooted that oak with my great and mighty power. But God is emphasizing the size of these people. Boy, the children of Israel seen them and were terrified. Does it not terrify you what you see today? Boy, without God I'd be. But the giants of this economic disaster coming, The job of this political trouble we're in. The whole world's a powder keg now. Nuclear weapons, all this technology that the government's got. Chips everywhere shutting everything down. They can stop America in its tracks overnight if they want to. They've got the power to do it. The giants we face. the problems we face. I'll tell you, they're so big and we look so small. But hey, the secret is that you don't do the fighting. You gotta have God doing the fighting for you. You gotta have God fight for you. Fight through you, fight with you. Deuteronomy 311, for only the Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Let me read that again. For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Deuteronomy 311, behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Listen to this now. His bed was made out of iron, a precious commodity of that day. his bedstead, that talks of these giant curtains that went around his bed. Is it not in Raboth and the children of Amon? It's like a museum piece. Nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits was the breadth of it. The bed of Og was almost 14 feet long and six feet wide. If the bed was even a cubic 18 inches longer than his height, he's still 11 foot tall. I'm talking about a giant. Talking about great men. Men like oaks, men like cedars. There they are, oh, standing in awe. His impressiveness against these. Why, if a Jew in that day was six foot tall, he is now considered a giant. Most of those men were five foot six to five foot nine. Deuteronomy 3.13, and the rest of Gilead. all Bashan, Bashan, me and the kingdom of God, gave over half tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of the giants. His land was called the land of the giants. That's why, watch this now, when Moses sent 40 spies into the land, 40 years or 38 years before this, they come back and said we are grasshoppers in their sight. The children of Anak are there. The giants are there. Men 11, 12 feet tall was in that land. and we took all of his cities at that time. There was not a city we took not from them. Three score cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Ogbeishan. Now watch this, this king, Ogbeishan. had 60 fortified cities. I'm not talking about just normal cities. His kingdom extended from the River Jabbok to Mount Hermon, known as Gilead, or Bashan. Many of you have heard of that great land. It was legendary in the Bible. In that day, Bashan was a byword for wealth. for lushness, for green pastures. The Bible talks about the balls of Bashan, the oaks of Bashan, the most fertile land in all of the world. the cattle of Bashan, the goats, the sheep, the bull, the cow, if they're from Bashan, it's choice of all choice meat. It's choice of all property. That's where Og is dwelling, this abundant crop. Og king of Bashan is found 15 times in the Bible where it connects him with Bashan. Think about it. Here Sihon and Og, the most feared kings of all of that land. Og's kingdom of 60 cities is known as Argob, 60 cities of the giants. The walls were 18 inches thick, made of stone. These giant men, to show their strength, the roofs were made out of huge stone slabs. Arrested on these massive walls. Houses were built out of huge, massive stones. One door was measured nine foot high, four and a half foot wide that was found. It was 10 inches thick of one solid slab of stone. That was the door. It reveals the strength of these men. Og also had subterranean towns, cities in caves and cities under the ground. The children of Israel, the battle took place at Adria, a few miles southeast of Ashtoreth. Here's the difficulty of fighting the Giants. How do you get to them? How did you get behind the walls? They built cities in mountains. They're in massive protection. They're impenetrable. They're impregnable. Here's a bunch of little Jews out here and Hebrews. Oh, they've got some bows and arrows. And they're up against these giants. Folks, that's what I'm saying. They said, look how big them giants are. No, Joshua said, look how big God is. That's what you look at. Not of the fear of the land, but the fruit of the land. I'm here to tell you, no matter what giant you're facing, you might be hooked on meth, you might be hooked on alcohol, you can't get set free. You say, I can't get saved, I can't get set free. I'm telling you the power of God can break the power of any giant in your life and set you free by his power. In ordinary circumstances, this city where the battle took place, Andriai, was almost unassailable. Listen to this. This city, Andriai, was built in a holla, artificially scooped out of the side of a hill, which a deep gorge of the Hiramaks, or Yarmuk, isolated it from the country around. It's not only built in rock, it's protected by a deep gorge. Now why did Og leave this subterranean city that was built 70 feet below the ground? Why would they leave? They can't be defeated. Why would Sahan leave his walled cities? Why would Og leave these subterranean cities? Og takes his men and they fight Jair of the tribe of Manasseh on the plains of Gilead. To this day, military experts are confused. They can't understand why did they leave these massive impregnable cities. Well, if you know God's Word, there's no mystery to it. There's a reason they left those wall cities, and there's a reason that they left their subterranean towns. Joshua 24 11, and you went over Jordan and came out of Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you. the Amorite, the Perzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittites, and the Jerusites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, I deliver them in your hand. Joshua 24, 12, I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy sword, not with thy bow, You didn't drive them out with your sword and bow. Joshua 24, 13, have given you a land which you did not labor, cities you didn't build to dwell in, vineyards and olive birds which you didn't plant nor can you eat. Deuteronomy 7, 20, wherever the Lord thy God will send the hornet among you until they are left and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. Hornets sting fiercely. Exodus 23, 28, God prophesied this to Moses. I will send hornets before thee which shall drive out the Hivite, Canaanite, Hittite from before thee. I tell you what God did, he took an army of hornets and ran them out of them towns. But when you got God working for you, he can use a little insect to bring down a giant. I'm here to tell you, praise God. When God's in the business of saving somebody and giving somebody the land, their inheritance, he does it by unusual means. He does it in a way he gets all the credit and all the glory. What would you do with these Philistines to the ark of God? Stole it. You know what God give them? He sent their whole country. He overrun it with mice and rats. Give all the men hemorrhoids. Are you listening? You can't whoop God. How you gonna fight with hemorrhoids? How you gonna fight when you've been stung 200 times with bees? and you're puffed up and swelled up, all them bees are stinging you. They come out of them Jews just to pick them off like a sniper in an open field. John said nothing to God. He can take a little insect you can hold in your hand, can't even see, and terrify. Hey, I'm telling you, God's great power in your life and mine. That's why we need to walk with him. That's why we need to study history and see the great and mighty acts. Jair and his men slew the giant king. His sons slaughtered his army, took possession of Edra. Consequence battles in the Argab. Jair captured more than 60 cities, fortified high walls, gates, and bars. Many of these great walled and unwalled cities and villages just like God defeated Sihon, God defeated Og. Rahab heard about the Red Sea. Probably wasn't alive. Probably heard it from mom and daddy. Probably heard it from grandparents. But hey, this is something that's just happened. A few months ago, I read about How God saved Saul of Tarsus, the greatest convert in the church age. I've read how God has saved the great men, like Mordecai Ham, the great men, like Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great men, like Billy Sunday, the great men that God has brought off the bottom, but hey, I still, I've seen him save some this year. Just as miraculous and just as powerful. I don't have to get out of bed and find out what God did 100 years ago. Thank God he's still healing people. He's still providing for his children. He's still protecting his people. He's still saving the lost by his great and his mighty power. My question in closing is this. I read it to you and now I'm gonna emphasize it. Has the fear of God ever fell on you? If not, you're probably not saved. I like how God words this. The fear of you has fallen upon us. It's like a fog. Deuteronomy 20 or 220. That also is accounted a land of giants. Giants dwelled in them in old time. And the Amorites called them Zamzumims. That means enormous crimes, murmurs, stammers. That speaks of men with barbarous tongues. Blasphemers of God. Giants, men that openly rebuked and blasphemed God. Exodus 15, 16, fear and dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of mine arm. Luke 1, 12, fear fell upon him. 1 Samuel 11, 7, and the fear of the Lord fell upon them. on all the people. Her fear, her object of terror, of dread. It's when God becomes a dread to you. God becomes a terror to you. You say, what are you talking about? I'm talking about the little child. All little children love God. Taught to love God. Sing Jesus loves me this I know. You wait till the fear of God falls on them. God'll be a dread to him. He'll be a terror to him. He was to me. I was terrified of God. I wasn't until I got earned conviction. You know why? Cause I sensed his holiness and my sinfulness. I couldn't get to God's love cause all I could feel was his displeasure with me. My guilt. I'll tell you that's the missing thing today in our churches is the fear of God falling on people. Those of you that have, some of you that's been saved this year, you know what I'm talking about. Some of you couldn't even go to work because the fear of God had fallen upon you. Acts 19, 17, this was known to all the Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all. and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. God seized that entire town with fear. In the Lewis Revival, in the Welsh Revival, in the revivals of the great awakenings in America, the fear of God would fall on entire towns, entire hamlets and villages, entire families. I'll tell you what mercy that is. that God's fear would fall upon us and we would find peace. Hey, he's coming with words of peace. He's coming to lay down his arms against you. He's coming, if you'll make peace through Christ, you don't have to fear him no more and dread him no more and be terrified of hell no more. Do you fear God? Do you fear hell? Do you fear judgment? Do you fear dying lost? Hey, if that fear has fallen upon you, find peace in Jesus and in his blood. Thank God for the example of God defeating the giants. If I took time today, I could have men, women stand in this building. There were giants in your life unassailable. You had tried to defeat them for years. You tried to get victory and couldn't do it. You turned over so many new leaves, you needed a new tree. You made New Year's resolutions, daily resolutions, I'll never do it again. Haven't meant every word of it till that night. Just a magnet inside of you, pulling you to sin. You couldn't break it. You couldn't get free of it. And when God's amazing grace came in, You began to live. God loosed you. When God resurrected Lazarus, he says, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus come forth still bound in his grave clothes. And Jesus said, loose him and let him go. And that's the story of salvation. When God brings you forth, he gives you life. And then by obedience, he takes that that binds you. and sanctifies you, brings you closer to him. And all that Satan sowed in your life, God starts unwinding that mess and setting you free. Some of you in this building never took, you read more Bible since God saved you in a week than you did all your life. Got more interested in God since God saved you, been to church more than you been all your life. What done that? And some giants got slain your life. God sent the hornet to get you out of that fenced city, that stinging guilt, that stinging conscience, that stinging conviction, to get you out of that penetrated place of the bondage of sin. And God slew you with His Word. You know why you can't reach people nowadays? You can't get them out of their walled cities. Ain't no way God can do that. You can't get them under the Word in open plain. They get in an open plane, you get that word in them. God's got to send that hornet and get them out of them cities. Get them where they'll hear that word and God save them by grace. Is the fear of God on you? You can find peace in the blood of Jesus Christ. For 2,000 years ago, he became the substitute vicariously. Sacrificially, voluntarily, substitutionally, died in your place, bore your sin, took the judgment you would have paid, and the wrath of God fell on him. Now when the fear falls on you, if you'll make peace with him, peace can enter your heart. Give you joy and grace to face tomorrow. I want to tell you something. You know the greatest thing I can think of as a child of God, and I ain't wanting to go to today. The day we die. Praise God. The day we die. And all this is over. Now we don't want that to happen before it's the right time. But the day that no more giants and we're free forever in the arms of Christ. I'm looking forward to that day. But I'm going to be like Jair, helping deliver people from these fortified cities. Let's stand on our feet. Heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden because they didn't believe God. He said, Preacher, you don't know how big my problem is. No, your problem is you won't believe God. He's told you what He'll do for you, but you've got to come to Him. You've got to believe Him. Nobody can do it for you. is between you and Him. God's been bothering you lately about dying, afraid of the Lord coming, you being left behind. Fear the Lord fell on you? I'd do something about it. God bless you.