Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. And we want to begin reading at verse 32 down through verse 40. And again, our subject is faith. And we've been noting the victories or all the things that faith has done for these Saints of God in the Old Testament, and I pray that it has encouraged you, it has encouraged me, and that we might also walk by faith. We want to look here tonight, and we find here in verse 32, we believe the human writer is Paul, the Holy Spirit is the one who has given these words unto him, and he says, And what shall I more say? That is to say, what more can I say about faith to encourage you as children of God that you who are justified would live by faith? What more could be said than what has been said in the first 31 verses? And there was a lot that's been said in the first 31 verses. And so, again, it reminds me of, there's a hymn, and it's based on one of the verses, and it's, What more could He say than to you He hath said? What more can God say to you and I? to provoke sinners to come unto Him by faith and be saved. What more can God say unto His people to follow Him and put their lamp upon the lampstand? And what more could He say unto His church than what He has already said to trust Him, follow Him, and carry out that great commission He has given unto us. What more can He say? And the answer is, He has already said more than enough. So we look here and it says, and what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, and of David also, and of Samuel, and of the prophets. And he kind of just takes these individuals and he just groups them together, doesn't he? Instead of saying, well, you know, Gideon did this, and Barak did this, and Samson did this, and Jephthah did this, and David, and Samuel, and then all the prophets. I mean, think about if he had to spend time, and even if he had gone into greater detail in those written before, Hebrews would be a lot longer of a book. And so he just kind of begins to summarize these things. And it's very interesting, as you and I believe that the Holy Spirit is one who gave these words, moved Paul in writing these things, that he then does it in this fashion. But Elistes, and I encourage you to take up your, I'm sure if you have any, most Bibles will have a center reference or a side reference and you can run reference onto the lives of these individuals and you can go down through these things and take a look at them or Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, those are all judges. We just recently read the book of Judges, so that ought to be familiar to us. And then David and Samuel, and we'll be getting into that as soon as we finish up here with Matthew. We'll be reading about the great exploits of faith that they did. But he records these things as if to say, these are some individuals you ought to pay attention to about their faith. And he goes on into verse 33 and he says, "...who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens or the strangers, women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder. They were tempted or tested or tried. They were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Now we want to look here tonight at the phrase in verse 33, who through faith subdued kingdoms. Who through faith subdued kingdoms. Again, the writer begins to summarize. And instead of individually, he groups them together. And these were those who exercised their faith in the Lord God. And faith needs to be exercised in the Lord. The Bible brings it out very clearly. And we might ask ourselves as you look at this, how the Bible says that these wrought these things. In that word there, wrought righteousness. The word wrought is an old English term meaning work. And so we might inquire with our own selves tonight, what have I subdued? What have I wrought by faith? Because this is, again, something we're going to have to answer when we stand before God at the judgment seat of Christ. What kingdoms have I subdued? What works have I wrought by faith? And you can go on through these things and inquire with yourself, but I pray that you would honestly and earnestly have these questions set before you. Turn over, if you would, to the book of James chapter 2. The book of James, chapter 2. And isn't it marvelous how God's Word just all fits together? You know, we see here the Old Testament saints of God, they didn't live, they weren't saved by the law and they didn't live according to the law. They were justified by faith, just like everyone who's saved is. And they also live by faith, just like everyone who is justified is to do. And we find here that James writes in these words, and he says in verse 18, he says, Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. And so here we find and we read about Samson and Barak and Gideon and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets. And how do we know that they had faith? How do we know that they believed God? Because of the works that they did. It always evidences faith, doesn't it? Turn over, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians. You see, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, the Bible is very clear. Faith without works is dead. And these here in the Old Testament, of which Paul records their names, and he writes of the things that they did, he is showing you and I how that this was all done by faith. You think about the exploits and the works of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and Jephthah, and David, and Samuel, and all the prophets, and all the things that they did. And I marvel at Jeremiah, and Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, and all the things that they endured. And even those, Hosea, Joel, and Amos, and Jonah, and Micah, Obadiah, Nahum, and Bekik, Haggai, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, all of them. And if I left out one, it wasn't intentional. But you think about All the things that these here did, it was all done by faith. Well, nothing has changed. Because in 1 Thessalonians 1, we find in verse 3 that Paul writes of the church of Thessalonica, the church of the Thessalonians. And he says in verse 3, remembering without ceasing your what? Work of faith. Your work of faith. And so what he's saying about them, he says, oh, we remember the works that you did by and through and of faith. And he goes on, he says, in labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. And then notice verse 4, if you would. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Well, how did he know their election of God? Because he saw their works that were done by faith. That's how. And that's why the Bible makes it very clear and very plain. We have how that there are those that God has saved and there are those who make professions and say that they're saved. But the Bible says that you'll know a tree by its fruit. You'll know a tree by what it produces. And so we have to ask ourselves, what are we producing? What is coming forth? Well, here, it was a work of faith. And in fact, you'll notice as he goes on down through this and he tells us all about it. And the saints of God, the church of the Lord, there at Thessalonica, he tells us some of the work that was done. In verse 8, For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith to God's word is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. Wouldn't that be marvelous to hear how that folks and that this church here in Plant City, Florida, how that the Word of God sounded out from us and it went into the regions beyond of us. And you know, imagine there are some folks, and just imagine his brother, Rauls, he's got to go to the Philippines there, or he's planning to go into there next year, and he gets over there and he says, well, you know, are you familiar with such and such churches? Oh, yes, we've heard about the Bible Baptist Church of Plant City because, as the Bible says here, from us sounded out the Word of the Lord. That's what we need to be known for, the Word of the Lord sounding out. We find as well, this wasn't the only thing that they did. You look down into verse 9, and the Bible tells us, it says, For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." You see, they just weren't those who were propagating the gospel, but their lives were turned, they had repented, and they were devoted unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And we sorely lack that in our day, lives devoted unto the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like you to turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 15. The book of Romans chapter 15. You see, Paul here, he refers unto these individuals, Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets. He calls them the prophets, you know? And it's kind of like, there's times when I'll refer it home or somewhere, I'll say, well, the boys. And typically, it used to mean the two oldest, but Emma and Jameson, they come a-running too. But you understand, he's just making a general statement about these. And I think it includes even those who don't have books named after them. Even Nathan was a prophet, the Bible tells us, who did a great work. He was a tremendous prophet in the life of David. But you'll notice here in Romans 15 and in verse 4, the Bible says, "...for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." And so these things he's referring under the Old Testament, these are written so that you and I might be encouraged and admonished to carry on in the Lord's Word. Now let's again look back, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 33. And we said we're going to deal with the subject of subdued kingdoms. They subdued kingdoms. And again, as the writer said, time would fail me to tell you about the kingdoms that these individuals subdued. I encourage you and implore you to run the Scripture references and look them up. And even Joshua, the kingdoms that he subdued, we'll run a little reference unto him. But I want you to notice there in verse 33, first and foremost of all, that all of this from verse 33 down as all that was spoken of through verse 38, it was all done by faith. And again, what does faith mean? It means taking God at His Word. It means that we see those things that are invisible, we see them. Now, we don't literally see them, but we see them by faith. It means that those things which are not real to the natural man are real unto us because God spoke of them. They have become real. the promises of God, even those of which we've yet to obtain, and there are many we have yet to obtain. They will not be obtained in this lifetime, yet they are real unto us. The Bible tells us that this was all done through faith. The first thing listed here is that they subdued kingdoms. They subdued kingdoms. Now the word subdued means to struggle against. It means to conquer. And I remember there some years ago, When I was out of high school and in college and I had settled on the profession of law enforcement, as any fool would do, and I went back up and I wanted to get used to being hit and things like that, so I started working out with the local high school wrestling team. And we had a young man there who went to states just about every year, I think it was, and he was good. I mean, he was good. Boy, I tell you what, that's a fight. And I think, if I recall correctly, they have three periods and they're three minutes long. And I'll tell you what, we were in the same weight class at the time, and we was wrestling together with one another. And I looked up, and I had never wrestled before, and I looked up and I said, when's the bell gonna ring? And they said, you got two and a half more minutes. And I thought, I've been down here for ten minutes. I want you to understand that it's a struggle, isn't it? It's a warfare. It's a fight. And I remember when I was in a forceful, that's what we called it in law enforcement, when you get in a fight with a defendant or a suspect, as we would call them. I tell you what, it's the longest seconds of my life. And you are in a struggle for your life. And this is the way we need to approach this. It is a struggle for our lives. This is a struggle against something. It also means to ultimately to conquer it or to overcome it. We find that these here did all this in, by, and through faith. David, and Barak, and Gideon, Joshua, all of these struggled against and conquered other kingdoms. They struggled in war against them and eventually overcame them. It should not be our thought that as children of God in this life that we're going to wake up, get out of bed, stroll through our day, and retire at the end of the evening and everything's just going to be all honky-dory when it comes to serving the Lord. It's a struggle. It's a fight. It's a war. The word kingdom means and denotes sovereignty, royal power, or dominion. And so when you think about this and we think about the things that were done and all the struggles and the fights that took place and all that was done, go ahead and turn back if you would in the book of Joshua. The book of Joshua. Give me just a minute and I'll locate it. And you can turn over to it with us. There it is. I believe it's in Joshua chapter 11. Joshua chapter 11 is what I want. And boy, it's a tremendous thing to read about all that was done by these individuals here. And I just want to take a look at, if you would, just these few verses and take a note and see what Joshua did and how that he fought and all the things that were done. And it tells us here, in these verses, beginning at verse 1, it says, And it came to pass when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and the king of Shimron, and to the king of Akshaph, and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains, south of Chittoroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, and to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite and the Hittite, the Perizzite and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, now notice, even as the sand that is upon the seashore, in multitude, with horse and chariots, very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel." Boy, don't you see how that the Lord had gathered all of these kings together for Joshua to subdue them? One day He's going to do that with the armies of this world and the kings of this world, that the true Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord's going to gather them all together and He's going to subdue them. But we find here that they came, and it says in these verses, they came to fight against Israel. Well, there are some things that are going to fight against you and I as children of God. And we're not supposed to lay down like a carpet and let them just steamroll us. We're to fight. The Bible goes on a little further here in these verses. And you'll notice in verse 6, it says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid of them, afraid because of them for tomorrow about this time I will deliver them up all slain before Israel. Thou shalt hoe their horses and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua came and all the people of war with him against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and they fell upon them." Notice that. I mean, can you imagine this? I mean, again, Israel, the Bible tells us, was the smallest of all the people there were. And here all of these hosts, all of these kings, and every king has a kingdom, and these all came out to fight against Israel, to struggle against them. Now what a tremendous thing how Joshua subdued them. How did he subdue them? Well, he did what God said. He wasn't afraid. You'll notice how that is, he dealt with these, and the Bible says, the Lord said, for tomorrow, about this time, I will deliver them up, all slain before Israel. And then the next verse, verse 7, So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and they fell upon them. No questions asked, did he? Joshua didn't stumble at the promise of God. We don't see where Joshua says, yeah, Lord, but they got chariots. Lord, but you know, look at all, there is the sands of the seashore. There's no but in faith, is there? It takes hold of the promise of God. It believes that what God says He will do, He will do. I want you to notice, if you'll turn over to Colossians chapter 1, When God saved you, He changed what kingdom you're in. The Bible tells us that when God saved us in Colossians 1 verse 13, He took us out of the power or the kingdom of darkness, and He put us over in the kingdom of His Son, didn't He? So we're on a different kingdom now, or we're in a different kingdom. He bound the strong man. He bound the prince of the power of the air and of this earth. And He bound him up and He spoiled his kingdom. Thank God by His grace, if you're here tonight and saved, you are one that He spoiled. In Colossians 1 verse 13 it says here, "...who hath delivered us," referring unto the Lord, "...who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." You know what kingdoms are, don't you? It's a place where a king has dominion, where he has authority, where he has power. God has a kingdom, doesn't He? And we find here that there is another power of darkness and we're in fighting against that. We're not in league with the power of darkness anymore. We're warring against it and it's warring against us. Now there's a struggle and there's a war. The Bible tells us I'll just read it right quickly in your hearing in Romans 7. I encourage you to read beginning at verse 15 down to verse 25. But Paul talked about a war within himself. There's a war within you. And you know the Bible says in verse 23, it says, But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. And again, I believe this is referring to the old man and the new man, the war between the two. That old, sinful, Adamic nature that we had when we came into this world, and now the new nature that we have, that is the Lord Jesus Christ in us. And they war against one another. Well again, as we said in the offset in the beginning of the message, when's the last time you fought and you won against that old man? When's the last time that we yielded not to temptation? When we slew that old man and put him down. Whereas Paul wrote in Colossians 3 and verse 5, when we mortified or put to death the deeds of the flesh. You see, it's a struggle against it, isn't it? It's a warfare. And it must be subdued, and it can only be subdued by faith. In Luke 17 verse 21, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is not coming outward, but it is within you, that is, in the midst of you. We know that the Kingdom of God is spiritual at this time. One day it will be physical and literal. But the Bible speaks to us. And like Joshua, who subdued Jericho and Ai, and all these kings of the land of Canaan, we have to subdue those kingdoms in our lives as well. I want you to turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I'm sorry, chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Listen, we're in a struggle and we're in a fight, and it's one that the ramifications are great. The warfare that's going on between us is, while it cannot touch the salvation that God has wrought within us, make no mistake, it's still important. It still matters. And I think anybody who says, well, it doesn't matter how I live or whether I fight in war, boy, I tell you what, it makes you wonder whether they're saved or not. These here subdued kingdoms. In 2 Corinthians 10, beginning at verse 3, the Bible says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. You remember there when Simon Peter took out that dagger or sword and he cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest and the Lord said, put up thy sword. Remember how he told those who were trying him and he said, if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight? They didn't understand. Well, how come you're not fighting against this trial? He said, well, it doesn't have anything to do with my kingdom. See, we have to understand here that our fight is not against, again, and I reiterate this, it's not in this world like a lot of people think it is. And we can't use politicians to do it because, in reality, they're against it. They're against the Lord's work. There's no friend for God's people in politics. There isn't. Paul said that we're not supposed to entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life. We're not. You take a look here in 2 Corinthians 10, it says, We do not war after the flesh. Verse 4, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. If our weapons of our warfare were carnal, they could not be mighty, could they? They couldn't do it. If we were dependent upon knives and swords and guns and amendments to carry out the work of the Lord, well I tell you what, we wouldn't be here this day. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty through God. To the pulling down of strongholds. And notice he goes on into verse 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now I'm going to ask you tonight, and this is a question I ask myself frequently, is every thought that you have, has it been brought captive into the obedience of Christ? And the answer is no. It's no. The answer is no. Not every thought that I have, that you have, that we collectively have is in obedience unto Christ. And it never will be. We understand that. But there ought to be that striving or that struggle too. There ought to be the desire that we would not think presumptuously, but that we would say, not my will but Thine be done. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And so we find here that the Bible says, how is it that my thoughts are going to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ? Not with carnal weapons. No. but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. I tell you what, every wrong idea I've had, and by wrong I mean contrary to God's word, and you do the same thing, we build strongholds around it in our hearts and in our minds. We build castles and bulwarks. And we dig our heels into the sand. And we say, this is the way it ought to be. And the only way that false ideas and false thoughts and false imaginations can be brought down is by the mighty weapons through God. And they're spiritual, aren't they? How did Jericho cause those, and remember, I don't remember all the dimensions, but they were bigger, they were thicker than our walls, they were taller than our walls, and there were two sets of them for Jericho. How did they come down? By faith. Not one cannonball was shot, not one ramming rod was run into any of those walls, were they? They marched around that city seven days. And on the seventh day, they did it seven times, and they blew the hordes, and the Bible says that the walls just fell in, or fell down, by faith. The Bible speaks of, if you'll turn over to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. And you'll notice here in verse 11, well back up to verse 10, Ephesians 6 and verse 10, Paul writing here, he writes several things unto the saints of God at Ephesus and he says, He begins to draw to a conclusion here and he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles or the tricks of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Or the wicked one, meaning Satan. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and then verse 18, He said, I want you to take all these things, and you're supposed to put them on. You're not just supposed to carry them around. And think about this for a moment. I played football, and many of you did as well. You know, we had our shoulder pads, and I'm sure you've seen it, and you pulled the helmet up through the shoulder pads when you weren't wearing them, and you carried them around. I didn't go out on the field to play like that. I put the helmet and the shoulder pads on. Too many of us are trying to do the work of the Lord or fight the good fight of faith, and we didn't put the weapons on. We didn't put the armor on. Verse 18, he concludes with this. And I think that this is all important, but we must not certainly neglect this, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." They're in a warfare. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4 verse 8, I have fought the good fight. In 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 12, he spoke about the good fight of faith. I want you to understand here, the good fight of faith and I have fought the fight was not referring unto Paul going out and preaching and instilling the doctrines of God's Word into people. It had more to do with that fight of faith within himself. We have to realize that there is an inward work that must be done, not just the outward work. The Great Commission talks about going. We go out, don't we? And then we baptize those that are disciples, or made disciples. And then thirdly, we teach them to observe all things. Well, The teaching to observe all things that Christ has commanded, that's dealing with the inward stuff. That's the work upon us that God continues after we're saved. That work has to be done. And we find here that we're to labor together with Him in that. The Bible says in Romans chapter 6 that we're not supposed to yield our members, our bodies, as instruments of unrighteousness. Because sin doesn't have dominion over us anymore. Sin is not the kingdom over us anymore. The Lord is. He's our sovereign. He's our king. And He has authority over us. So we are to yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto Him. Notice, if you would, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. The Bible tells us in Romans 8 that you and I have been predestinated to be conformed under the image of Jesus Christ. And that conforming under the image of Jesus Christ started the day God saved you. And it's been going on ever since. And you and I who have been saved, we ought to look and act and think and believe more like Jesus than we did when the Lord saved us. And Paul says here to those at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 13, he said, Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Notice that. He said, watch ye. And he's talking about being like a night watchman. Pay attention to what's going on. You know? And he says here, stand fast in the faith. Don't waver. Don't depart from it, but stand fast to it. And then he says, quit you like men. Act like men. You know, we don't send women and children off to war, do we? I mean, even our own military, as equal rights as we have, women are still predominantly forbidden to be in combat aspects of it. He says, act like men. Act like you're a mature adult and fight. Stand. So, what kingdoms have you subdued lately in your own life? I have a book and it has some wonderful thoughts, so let me ask it in this way, and I ask myself this. Have you subdued the kingdom of ungodliness in your life? What about the kingdom of anxiety? Doesn't the Bible say, be anxious for nothing? Isn't that what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi? How about the kingdom of frustration? Doesn't the Bible say, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose? So, frustration, if it's working out for our good... How about the kingdom of fear? Have you subdued that one? or you're afraid to do what God says. You know why we have fear? It's because we don't trust the Lord, that's why. It comes back to we don't believe that God will do what He says He's going to do. And that's why when God says something, we say, yeah, but. Yeah, but. When we ought to say, that's what the Bible says, Have we subdued the kingdom of discontentment? Didn't Paul say that godliness with contentment is great gain? Many people are discontent today. They're discontent with the lot that God has given them in this life. I mean, isn't that what led to the great difficulty in Achan's life when he saw the silver and he saw the Babylonian garments and he coveted them? He was discontent that those things were not supposed to be taken. He said, why can't I have those? He was not happy with what he had. Wasn't Miriam and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, weren't they all discontent with their lives? I mean, isn't that Korah, the gainsaying of Korah, when they said unto Moses, you know, essentially, who died and made you boss? Well, the Lord made him in charge, didn't he? They were not content with their place that God had given them. What about the kingdom of unthankfulness? Isn't that what the Bible says, in everything give thanks? In everything give thanks. That's a hard one, isn't it? Especially when you're in the season of affliction. You know, when you're in the season of Mary, that's easy to give thanks, isn't it? How about the kingdom of pride? That's a tough one, isn't it? What about the kingdom of anger? I'm not talking righteous indignation. As one writer, he said, our anger has very little righteousness to it. What about the kingdom of judgmentalism? What about the kingdom of lack of self-control? The Bible says we're supposed to be sober, which means self-controlled. What about the kingdom of the unbridled tongue? Have you subdued that one? What about the kingdom of worldliness? Or the kingdom of jealousy? These shall only fall by faith. Let's turn over to Judges as we close tonight. Judges chapter 8. Some years ago there was a movie came out, it was called the 300, it was supposed to be about the 300 Greeks that held off the Persian army as they came in, and then ultimately the Greek Empire took over of things. And it was at a mountain pass, I can't remember, I want to say it was Thermopolis, but don't quote me on that. But anyways, And I remember when it came out and somebody at work, I can't remember where I was at, if it was in college or what, but I was at work and somebody was talking about it like, oh I'm really looking forward to seeing it. And I said, do you know that there was a 300 before them? God took Gideon. And God told Gideon, he said, listen, you've got a massive group of army of men. He said, but I can't, you've got to whittle it down. He said, you've got too many people. Whoever heard of a fight having too many people? And you know, God whittled that army down to 300 people. Three hundred people. And in Judges chapter 8 and in verse 10, we'll read here how many by faith they overcame of the Midianite kingdom. It says, Now Ziba and Zalmunna were in Kharkor, and their hosts with them about 15,000 men. All that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east for there fell 120,000 men that drew sword. So earlier, Gideon and his 300 had slew 120,000 and now there were 15,000 left with the two kings of Midian. And he slew them too. 135,000 people God laid down at the feet of 300 mighty men of valor. It was all done by faith. All done by faith. I want you to understand this. This is less than 10%, okay? Because 10% of 3,000 is 300. And then you have 30,000. So 300 is 1% of 30,000, if I did my math right. But this was 135,000 people. And you know what? A lot of people's reaction to that thought today is, yeah, but God doesn't do that anymore. Oh yes He does. There is not a kingdom in our warfare, in our fight, in our caning, in our earthly pilgrimage that cannot be subdued by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's not one. And you know, not every kingdom is the same, is it? I mean, they went to Jericho, right? And they had the walls, didn't they? And they had to march around it. And then they came to Ai. And by unbelief, I think it was 36 or so perished. Israelites perished. And then they found out about Achan City. And they repented and God said, alright, now you can go in. They didn't march around the city of Ai seven days. No, God had a different plan, didn't He? And then when they fought, as we already read, Joshua and all those kings of Canaan were gathered together. How did they overcome them? Did they march around the city for seven days? No! But they were all done by faith, weren't they? Well, let's close with Philippians chapter 4. We've already said that Weapons of all warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God. They are mighty through God. Do you know how things come down? Do you know how the kingdoms that you're fighting and I'm fighting and we're struggling and we're warring against, do you know how they come down? They come down by the power of God. And in Philippians 4, in verse 6, it says, Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. You know, there used to be a phrase called prayer warrior. And that's because they were fighting by faith and prayer over something. You see, you've got all of these kingdoms, again, unbelief, fear, whatever that may be. Those kingdoms have to be subdued. They have to be subdued. And it's a war. And you're going to need to go through this book, and you're going to need to be on your knees, not necessarily literally, but you are going to have to be spiritually prostate before God. You've fallen before Him seeking for His help and His aid to pull down this kingdom before you that you're fighting and warring with. And I didn't list all of them either. We must have power with God and that is through prayer. So, if we're going to subdue these kingdoms in our lives, this is the way it's done. You know, it's not flashy. It's not fancy. And you know, some of those, as I remember Timothy John told me, he said, there's some things in your life that aren't going to come down the first day, or the second day, or the third day, the fourth or the fifth or the sixth. He said some walls don't fall until they've been marched around seven days. Remember Jericho? It's not like, hey look, there's a crack in the wall. No, on the seventh day, that morning, they went out. Those walls were just as good as they were the first day. And as they marched that sixth time around on the seventh day, they hadn't started to crack. The earth hadn't started to shake. Can you imagine just as that last Israelite had come around full circle and walked over the start slash finish line, then the walls fell down, didn't they? You know what God's teaching us? Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep subduing that until the wall falls down. And when the wall falls down, do like Joshua did. Destroy them all. And then cursed be the man that built this place again. Whatever kingdom. Don't build that kingdom of fear back up. Don't build that kingdom of ungodliness back up. Lay it to waste and cursed be the man that builds it back up. Are you subduing kingdoms by faith in your life? Well, we need to be. Because there's only one king that we are to submit to and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't have other kings in my life. They have to be brought down and destroyed. No man can serve two masters. And again, when he said that in Matthew 6, he says no man can serve God and mammon, that was an example. No man can serve God and fear either. No man can serve God and jealousy. No man can serve God and anything else. All of those things must be destroyed. They must be struggled, fought, and eventually conquered, and that will only happen by faith.