read selections in Joshua 12 through 14 together. We're not going to read all of these chapters. It is a list of the conquered, a list of territory, but we will read just selective passages of Scripture beginning in chapter 12. verses 1 and then verses 6 and 7. Actually, we'll read Joshua 12, 1 through 7. These are the kings of the land whom the children of Israel defeated, and whose land they possessed on the other side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon and all the eastern Jordan plain. One king was Sion, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshmon, and ruled half of Gilead from Erewhar, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, from the middle of that river, which is as far as the river Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites in the eastern Jordan plain from the Sea of Chinnereth as far as the Sea of the Ereba, the Salt Sea, the road to Beth Jeshimoth and southward below the slopes of Pisgah. The other king was Og, king of Bashan, and his territory who was of the remnant of the giants who dwelt at Ashteroth and at Edri. and reigned over Mount Hermon, over Salka, over all Bashan, as far as the border of the Jeshurites and the Meachothites, and over half of Gilead to the border of Sion, king of Heshmon. These Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the children of Israel had conquered, and Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given it as a possession to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh. And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel conquered on this side of the Jordan on the west. From Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon as far as Mount Halak and the ascent to Seir which Joshua gave to the tribes of divisions. And then what follows is a list of those 31 conquered kings. Chapter 13 We'll read verse 1 through the first half of verse 2. Now Joshua was old, advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains. And so then in the remainder of the chapter there's an overview of all the land that needs to be possessed. And then they begin to distribute the land by lots. Chapter 14 verse 6. Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, said to him, You know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt but I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land where your foot is trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said these forty five years. Ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness and now here I am this day, 85 years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me. Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore give me this mountain. of which the Lord spoke in that day. For you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I will be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. And Joshua blessed Caleb and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And the name of Hebron formerly was Curiath Arba. Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. Then the land had rest from war. You may be seated. May the Lord be glorified in His word. Let's pray together. Oh Lord our God again we come to you in this book of warfare and how challenging and relevant it is since we are learning afresh that we must through not only tribulations enter your kingdom but by putting on your armor and fighting and we pray that you would help us to act to arm ourselves with your armor, to consecrate ourselves to you as Caleb did, who wholly followed you, and to trust that your power is sufficient. Lord, bless us tonight. Please bring healing to our congregation. If we have provoked your majesty in any way and your holiness, please forgive us and have mercy upon us. Bless our brothers and sisters. who are struggling. Return them to us soon. Bless Sam as he is struggling with kidney stones today. We do praise you for the good news of Elizabeth Howland for her Aunt Lisa who has been delivered from cancer and we praise you for that. And so we thank you that you're in our midst and you're the Lord who heals us. Bless us now as we turn to your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, so three or four main points from these chapters tonight, and I find them extremely encouraging. First of all, in chapter 12, we have 31 conquered kings. Then in chapter 13, 1 through 14, 5, we have Joshua, you're old, but you still have one job left to do, and that is to distribute the land. Then in chapter 14, we have the great story of Caleb the faithful, and then we will apply this to ourselves this evening. First of all, 31 conquered kings. Now, I'm sure as we sing that the role is going to be called up yonder, and when we hear the Lord Jesus read our name, And we know that we're here by His grace. It will be a weight of glory that will be unbearably wonderful. But we're also probably going to hear, if Joshua is any indication, we're also going to hear with equal wonder the list of all our Lord's conquered foes and philosophies. Joshua's conquest of Canaan was the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ just as his more recent ones. He's always been the mediator of the covenant. He's always been the one who has fought for his people. And here we have the list that we began reading in chapter 12 of those on the eastern side of Jordan, Og and Sihon, king of the Amorites. And remember that part of the land was distributed under Moses to Gad and Ephraim and half the tribe of Manasseh. Now, what's the purpose of this list? As we go through these conquered kings, we won't go through them by name, but obviously these are monuments that God has recorded in His Word so that we will have a permanent record of the great things that He did for His people. Because this is really a testimony to His power and faithfulness. Look over in Psalm 44, we need to see what God's people thought about these victories. Not far off, just a few hundred years after He gave those victories. In Psalm 44 we read, the sons of Korah wrote this, beginning in verse 4 of Psalm 44, Command victories for Jacob. Through you we will push down our enemies. Through your name we will trample those who rise up against us. I will not trust in my bow, nor will my sword save me. But you have saved us from our enemies and put us to shame and those who hated us. Look at earlier in verse 1. We have heard with our ears, O God. Our fathers have told us the deeds you did in their days. You drove out the nations with your hand. But then you planted, you afflicted the peoples, the very peoples we've been reading about in Joshua. Now notice verse 3. your arm and the light of your countenance because you favor them. Now certainly God's people had to go out and fight. But the lesson here was we don't trust our sword, we don't trust our own strength. This was what the Lord did for us. And remember, every battle did not bring down miraculous hail and an extension of the sunlight. That was in a couple of instances. And yet the Lord was fighting for His people. in all of them. And one day we'll hear, and it will be incredible, the complete list of all of our Savior's conquered enemies. And I pray that He will conquer each one of us by His gospel. And He's going forth now to conquer and disciple the nations, not with the military sword, but with the sword coming out of His mouth. his blessed gospel. So believe that gospel. Speak that gospel young people. Learn that gospel because our Savior is conquering and will conquer until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. But our own story in that can come to an end at times. Chapter 13, our own part in that story. Now most people don't like to be told you're old. In fact, we get offended, and some of you may get offended if somebody asks you how old you are. But here, it's funny, the Lord tells Joshua, you're old. Kind of a bit of a contrast to Caleb in the next chapter. Joshua and Caleb were probably about the same age. But Joshua, his work, his military work, is largely done. And again here, I think it's very important for us to recognize that there will come a day when the Lord will tell us, and you're old and we need to be preparing for it now for our eternal inheritance so that we may be ready to go and be with the Lord forever. Now Joshua, you're too old to go out, but listen, there's a lot of land that needs to be conquered still. Now what does this mean? I thought earlier they had conquered the southern part, then they conquered the northern part. That's true. So they had beaten down all the united Canaanites, but there were still pockets of resistance. And so in chapter 13, verses 1 through 6, the Lord tells them where those pockets are, and I want you to go get them. But first, beginning in chapter 8 and extending through chapter 14 verse 5, he does something else. This is Joshua's last job to do, one of them, before he dies. He is to distribute all of the land, even the parts of it that are unconquered, he is to distribute it by lots. to the tribes of Israel. Now, what in the world is the Lord... I mean, isn't that presumptuous? Shouldn't we conquer it before we start doling it out? I mean, what king starts passing out the spoil before the battle is fought? The king that's 100% sure of victory. And that's why the Lord promises us as His people many crowns. They're right here. They're guaranteed to you. Now go fight. In the light of my promise of victory to you as parents and as Christians and as my disciples, you go and fight. It is significant, I think, that Joshua is told to do this. God's people, God's nation, Israel then under the Old Covenant, will not be unified under one single leader again until Saul. And that's 500 years. And even during the majority of Saul's reign, there's still a lot of division. It was really under David that the whole people again were absolutely united. So Joshua was the last man, Moses' servant, that the people as a whole will listen to. But what did the Lord mean? I want to give you something concrete here. By dividing out the land, before it was conquered. First, the Lord is saying, this is my land, and I give it to whom I want to. Specific allotments were by His appointment, so there should be no complaining. And second, the pre-victory distribution of the land was the Lord's pledge that they would actually conquer it. And third, it was motivation. This is yours. Go get it. I'm with you. My strength is sufficient. Go get it. By the way, isn't it interesting how parallel this is to the Great Commission in Matthew 28, where the Lord Jesus, upon His preparation to ascend to the right hand of the Father, says, All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. I've already won. I've cleared the field. I'm the resurrected, exalted king. Now you go, share the gospel with friend and neighbor and family. Believe the gospel yourself. Disciple the nations. And I'm with you. So it's interesting. Many people in the history of the church have seen parallels between Joshua, end of the Gospels, and Acts, because we're poised there as well. The whole earth belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't belong to these groups who are trying to rebuild the earth in their own image. You do understand this, don't you? All the media out there is in the grip of, whoo, Democrat Party, Republican Party, this forum, these people, this secret cabal, this bank. These people do not own the land. They do not own the earth. This earth and everything in it belongs to Jesus Christ and the meek will inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Psalm 37, Matthew 5. And so the message to us is go use the sword. Go use the weapon to conquer. the nations to me, to make the nations my disciple. And every soul, every seed dropped, every child discipled is one more diadem in the victory of Jesus Christ. You know, it makes a big difference that you look at life like this. Because if we're going to let the media, and even the conservative media, and ooh, you know, we've got the real story of who's really pulling the strings. No you don't. Who's really pulling the strings is at the right hand of the Father. And everybody else is a faker. Everybody else is a scammer. Everybody else is a liar. Jesus Christ rules this nation by His power. Changes the way you pray when you believe this. Changes the way you relate to people. Changes whether or not you fear the beast. Don't fear him. He's a faker. He's a scammer. The Lord Jesus is the one who rules this world by his power. And I think we're taught that lesson, and they were taught it then. Here, here's your land. Go get it Issachar. Here's your land, Benjamin. Here's your land, all the other tribes, Judah. Go get it. It's yours. Take it. I'm the king. I'm giving it to you. Now, one person in particular comes forward in chapter 14, verse 6, and he's been biding his time for 45 years. Now, it's interesting, we don't have time to compare Joshua and Caleb, they were both very faithful. But if you go back to Numbers, very often it's Caleb and Joshua. Not always, sometimes it's Joshua and Caleb, but very often it's Caleb and Joshua. And in fact, when they brought the report back, if you go back and you read in Numbers, that account, I believe it's in chapter 14, It's Caleb. So after they give the report and Joshua and Caleb are like, yes, yes, we can go take the land. And the ten unfaithful spies are like, no, no. We've seen the children of Anak there. There's giants there. They have cities that are walled to the sky. We can't take that. And it's Caleb. It says, Hey, y'all be quiet. Let's listen to what the Lord has said to us. And he tries to quiet the people. And of course, we know what happened. They didn't listen. And at Kadesh Barnea, the horrible judgment of the Lord fell upon them. And so Caleb recounts this story. Notice he says in verses 6-9, now does Joshua know this story? Yes, Joshua knows this story. He was there. Was Joshua deaf? I don't know, possibly. Was he forgetful? It's interesting, Caleb does not show an undue familiarity with Joshua. He respects Joshua's position. So he reminds Joshua, hey, you know what God said to me, verse 6 of chapter 14, concerning you and me. We were 40, he says I was 40, they were probably about the same age. When Moses sent us out, we spied out the land, we brought back word to him, verse 8, My brethren who went up with me who were all dead or alive, they're all dead. They brought back word and they melted the heart of the people. By the way, you think Satan's alive and well in America today? Melting the heart of the people. We can't resist. The evil is too strong. You can't fight. This is what with the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans in Pergamum. We've got to compromise. We can't just give Christ and the Gospel and Jesus and Calvary and God's Word. He says these people with their fear mongering, They made the heart of the people melt. But notice in the end of verse A, I wholly followed the Lord. Now, is Caleb here speaking like, look at me, I wholly... No, he's telling the plain honest truth. These other people, they gave a different report. They were my brethren. They're all dead. God's dealt with them. They did not believe His promise. I followed the Lord. I didn't walk with my eyes. I walked by faith in the promise of God. And so what did Moses do because of my faithfulness? He swore the land where your foot is trodden will be your inheritance and your children because you have wholly followed me. Boy, what a good encouragement for us not to have a divided heart. And you know, it's funny, we talk about be sure your sins will find you out. Let me add a verse to the Bible. I'm not really going to add a verse to the Bible, of course. Be sure your faithfulness will find you out. It may be 45 years, it could be 85 years, it could be who knows how long. But yes, numbers, it's interesting that verse first appears in numbers in the context of this controversy. Be sure your sins will find you out. But the other is true too. The Lord says, because you've done this, you're going to possess this land. I am going to bless you. Well, they were 38 years in the wilderness, 38 and a half from Kadesh Barnea, seven years of conquest in the land. So 45 years have passed. Then we come to verse 10, and it's interesting, Caleb here, the Lord has kept me alive. Now, Caleb didn't proceed to give a commercial about his favorite vitamins or his exercise regimen, or I discovered this, hey, if I have a Snickers and a Miller Lite every night, I've lived for, I mean, you hear these crazy things, you know, I'm 109 because I drink a scotch. I mean, he just, I mean, no, he, no, the Lord kept me alive. Now, let that sink in. You're not going to die a minute before God's work for you is finished. Now, you might die sooner if you're lazy and you don't do anything for Him. Okay, that could be true. I mean, it can't really be true, of course, but God keeps us alive. So that we can do His will, so that His promises will be fulfilled in our lives. You see how one of the reasons, I know we have a lot of sickness in our land, but if you want to make millions and billions, get involved in medicine. Because when people lose faith in God, They end up trusting, they become obsessed with living, but they forget the one who gives them life. And a lot of times the Lord preserves us and gives us strength. It doesn't mean we won't be ache free and no back and not need to take medicine and all this stuff, but it's Him who keeps us alive. Ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses, And he says, here I am, 85 years old. By the way, do you see a contrast? The Lord tells Joshua, Joshua, you're old. Caleb says, I'm ready to go. Verse 11, I'm as strong as I was the day that Moses sent me out. Maybe we do need to figure out what his vitamin was. I'm as strong today, just as my strength was then, so it is now. But who? For going out, for coming in. For who? The Lord. Now, I'll tell you what I want. I want Anakim Mountain. Now the Anakim, of course, were the giants. And Caleb, remember, that was what turned the heart of the 10 spies icy cold. And they went back to the camp. And of course, Israel has a large army of 600,000. And that's how many fighting men there were. And Joshua and Caleb were like, the Lord's with us. We're going to take it. Let's go. No, we can't. The giants are there. And so at 85 years old, what does Caleb say? I want the giant mountain. I want to go where these cities are. And he says, if I win, it's because the Lord's with me. It may be that the Lord will be with me and I will be able to drive them out. You know, we need to be careful with our retirement plans, don't we? Again, nothing wrong if we're going to cease one line of work, but we ought to continue and think about expanding our service to the Lord and increasing, you know, advancing age ought to be marked with advancing conviction that God's present with us, and we can do valiantly, and His presence is the reason that we're able to be strong and overcome. This is so much clearer for us now that the Lord Jesus has come, and we'll talk about that in a moment. So Joshua said, okay, here you go, verse 13, this is your inheritance. And so it was Kiriath Arba, so he's condensing here what happened. Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim, and one can imagine. Caleb going out there, and of course later we read that somebody else, he said, hey, whoever takes this highest mountain, I'll give my daughter to be his husband, but that tallest giant was slain, and so the name of the place was Hebron, which means association or fellowship. One other word about Hebron and Joshua, look in chapter 20, verse 7. I don't want to belabor this, because I want to make some applications, but So in chapter 20, the cities of refuge are given in the land. These were Levitical cities where the Levites were, and people who accidentally killed people and needed help could run to these cities. So verse 7 of chapter 20, they appointed Kadesh in Galilee in the mountains of Naphtali, Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba, which is Hebron in the mountains of Judah. So who got Hebron? It's funny watching commentators do gymnastics. Wait a minute, did Caleb get it and his descendants? Or was it a Levitical city? I think that I agree with what Calvin said, that he conquered it and then he consecrated it to the Lord and was happy to have the Levites in the area where his family was so that they could minister God's Word to his family. But he conquered it and then he freely gave it to the Lord as a sacrifice. in praise to the Lord. Now what do we do with this? Let me give you just a few thoughts here. We need to act, don't we? A-C-T, we need to act. So let's talk about being armed with God's weapons. Let's talk about being consecrated to our master like Caleb was. And let's talk about trusting his power. Now, the list of these conquered lands and areas in Caleb's strength, Israel had to march. They had to go. And if we would win for Christ, if you would win against the sins in your life, you've got to fight for Christ. The distribution of the land before it was actually possessed assumed that Israel was able to conquer the land in the Lord's strength. Caleb's strength was not bluster. He went out and he conquered Hebron. And in each of these instances, I think, the Lord's teaching us, because remember 1 Corinthians 10-11, these things were written for our example, that we must take up God's armor and fight. We must be armed with what his God has given us, because let me tell you, this earth has got to be conquered. by the gospel of Jesus Christ. All authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth. And he's the head now of all things for the sake of the church. He has conquered the devil and he rules with the sword of his mouth. And we're supposed to meet him head on. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. Let's go through this one more time. and look at it quickly here. How are we supposed to be armed? How do we gain the victory? We've got to start with our families. We've got neighbors. Notice he says, your enemy is the devil, but you can put on God's armor. Verse 11. Verse 10, be strong in the Lord of Ephesians 6. He says, remember who you're fighting. You're fighting the evil one, spiritual forces of wickedness. And so verse 13, take up the whole armor of God. Don't neglect one piece of this. Start with what? Having your waist girded about with truth, the belt of truth. Why? Because you're going to trip up if your life is not girded with God's Word. So make sure you're memorizing and meditating on God's Word. We don't memorize just to say we can tick it off, but so that we can think about God's Word and know His promises. He says you've got to have on the breastplate of righteousness. You've got to have an obedient life. that loves the Lord. I know some want to see this as Christ's righteousness, and that's foundational. But as many have said, this is our life, the way we're living out what Christ has done for us. If you say, I'm going to compromise with sin, you're going to lose. Young people, you wonder, why is my life messed up? Why am I not making more progress at 16 or at 14 or 10? Because I'm not walking in obedience to Christ. I'm not consecrated to him. Let me know his word. Let me walk and lead a righteous life before him. We got to take seriously that the Lord Jesus dwells with us. Do you? Does this generation I mean, I love the gospel of grace and a crucified, resurrected Redeemer, but why did He do all that? So that we would be holy as He is holy and walk in obedience to Him. So in our homes, if we're not walking in obedience to God, we got a big chink right here in our breastplate. Very important, the comparison here, an obedient, godly life. Verse 15, what about your shoes? You've got to have good shoes. Okay, and what are they? The gospel. the gospel of peace, end of verse 15, not the gospel of humanitarianism or emotionalism or political activism, but the gospel that makes peace between God and man. If we want to walk a secure course and beat the devil, what does he hate to hear? He doesn't mind conservatism without Christ. How's that been working in the United States? He doesn't mind conservatism without Jesus. That doesn't do him any difficulty. But if you speak of Christ as King, not man, watch out for teeth bared. If you speak when you're out and at work and to your family that Christ, not man, is King and He delivers us from our sin by His death on the cross and by His resurrection. Those are the shoes that we wear. Young people, 8, 10, 12 years old, your feet are growing all the time. You need new shoes. These are shoes that will grow with you as you understand the gospel and learn who Christ is. When your mom or your daddy opens the Bible, don't just sit there and say, yeah, I've heard that before. Okay, what was that about? Oh, I don't know. Was that about God? Okay, make sure you listen. Okay, because these shoes, this is the only way. Can you imagine? You know, when we take trips, I normally don't, my boys think I'm crazy, but I won't let them just wear flip-flops. You got to wear shoes you can walk in, because we may have a flat tire. We may have to walk a long way. And I don't want you walking on highways or by the side of the highway with flip-flops on. But that's the way Christians want to live. Just super casual, nothing too serious. I want to have a good time. I want to have fun. Do you have the gospel of Jesus Christ? The gospel that gives peace with God and peace within? through a redeeming Savior. Is that what's on your feet? Is that what you're walking? That's our security. That's the way that we can stay on the path. He says, take up the shield of faith. Verse 16, you've got to believe God's promises. Why? Because Satan's trying to throw darts at you. Didn't he throw them? Man. If we could see spiritually all the darts of fear, you can't trust God. You can't win. There's no hope. It's the end of the world. Don't you see? People don't believe the Bible. Let me ask you a question. When the Reformation came and Luther said at Worms in 1521, he said, here I stand, God help me. Was the world in great shape at that time? If you read Luther and Calvin, you know it's funny, we think, man, these are the worst times there ever was. Calvin, one time I was reading his sermon this past week, he said, and everybody knows, these are the worst times there's ever been. Okay, I'm like, what? He said this 500 years ago. How do we quench those kind of, or this problem in my family is so big, I can't deal with it. You know, I just want to go hide, I want to go find a hole in the ground. And then Psalm 11 seems so firm. I want to flee like a bird to my mountain until these troubles are overpassed. What does God say to do? Breastplate of righteousness, walk forward in obedience to me, and hold up your shield. What is the shield? Faith in God's promises. Trust Him. So you're in college and the professor throws out at you, well, the world is, and I think they've even added some zeros recently. I mean, if all else fails, just add some zeros, okay? I don't know how many ten to the whatever power it is, how old the world is. And you're like, oh, he's standing before a podium. He must be smart. What do I? You just hold up, just like Jesus did with the devil in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. And there's reliable genealogies in scripture that mean that the earth is about 6,000 years old. Wait a minute, can you really? Yes, by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God. And this is one of the areas, just like the doctrine of the Trinity, and just like the union of the divine and human natures in Jesus, that we're not going to be able to figure out in our teeny tiny pea brains. We would have to be God. And so he just says, this is what happened. Believe it. Believe it. And so what do we do? We take up the shoes. It doesn't mean we don't appreciate what biologists and geologists and people are studying. But we hold this is how you beat the devil. The same way Jesus beat the devil. By believing every word that comes from the mouth of his father. We have Thanksgiving this week. For some of us, I know it's not a happy time. I was talking to somebody last night, a very, very sad time with parents and loss and not being around people that we love. I've really missed my grandmother recently, and she's been gone for I don't know how many years now. It's like, what do you do with that? I'm just going to go hide. I'm going to walk around all week miserable. No, you hold up the shield of faith. What would it say if you're feeling grief about this time of year? Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. To depart and be with Christ is better by far, and one day we will be together again, so we hold on to that even when our hearts are breaking. That's how we beat those missiles of despair and discouragement, and we take up the shield of faith. And remember, fear and despair are Satan's tools. Faith and hope are God's tools. And then he says, put on the helmet of salvation. If we were in 1 Thessalonians, you would see it's the helmet of the hope of salvation. You need your head covered. Why do you need your head covered? Because that's one of the two places that if you get bonked, you're going down. Our minds start racing. What if this happens? What if that happens? Oh no. And now what if they do this? And they just get so big. More things in this world are blamed on them than anything I've ever seen in this life. And it's just bigger and bigger and bigger. And what does God say to do? Stop that foolishness. He says, you put on your head hope. What is hope? Hope is the confident expectation that what God has said, He will do. Hope is not based on how I feel at a given moment. Hope is not based on how much money I have in the bank. Hope is based on the faithfulness and the love of my Heavenly Father. And here the Lord Jesus says, you put that on your head. And so when those doubting, unbelieving, discouraged thoughts come, you say, wait a minute, my God loves me. He's causing all things to work together for good. 1 Peter, the reason I read it tonight, the Lord is working for me through testing my faith, precious faith. So I'm going to trust him that he is faithful to his word. You think, oh, what do you think about when you're discouraged? That's the end of the world. You know, my husband, my wife, my children. Is that helpful? How's that working for you? Or do instead, wait a minute, this is part of the battlefield. And that's why when we go out and we're thinking about our to-do list, and we don't even think about gospel opportunities, because we're so weighed down by what we've got to do, instead of, wait a minute, I'm a heavenly father, and He loves me. And then he says, of course, he says, take up the sword of the spirit. Use the scriptures, use them on yourself first. This is a sword you can fall on with perfect righteousness, okay? Fall on the sword of God's word and take it up. It's God's word, know it. Again, I say this, I'm not trying to get on to your, you can get on to me too. Ask me, are we taking seriously that God says, I give you my scriptures, Did you learn them? Are you thinking about them? Well, I read my Bible yesterday, last week, last month, recently. Yes, recently. Recently is not good enough. We need God's Word every day. And if you are busy and your house burns down, grab an index card of the Bible with you and think about it because His Word. Again, we can't elaborate. This is, as you know, sermons in this, but be armed with God's weapons. That's the first thing I think we learn from this and why it's in the scripture. Second, we got to be consecrated to Christ. I mean, Caleb didn't say, you know, I think my sword will still work. I'm still alive. I'll try. You know, he's like, give me the mountain, I want the giants, I've been eyeing them for 45 years, I'm gonna go get them, and if the Lord's with me, I will conquer. And why? His heart wholly followed the Lord. What do we do with this? I mean, you know, there's obviously, we could all confess, our hearts get divided easily, and they do. But again, the desire is, Lord Jesus, I want to serve you with everything in me as a mother. I need to train these children, and I know they're gonna kick back, and the flesh is gonna fight back. As a father, I need to read the scriptures. I don't feel like I can do it today. I'm so tired, but Lord Jesus, I love you. I wanna follow you. Have you ever thought about, I thought about Calvin, in Paris when he was a young theological student watching one of his best friends burned at the stake. And it really changed Calvin's whole life. Can you imagine? It really is a choice between, I'm going to die right now for Christ. I'm going to be burned at the stake. So it's not like they're going to give me a nice little sterile poison shot and kill me. I'm going to burn, or I can deny him and move forward. Ethiopian Christians right now, we prayed for Ethiopia tonight. I've been told by Malacca that, I think I told you this last week, but in northern Ethiopia they're hammering shut Christians in their homes so they can't get out, and their churches because they hate Christians. So if I confess Christ, Why do people do this? I mean, this is 2022, isn't it? We have phones. Why do we need to go through this? Because we love Jesus Christ. Do you? Do we? We love Him. This is Caleb. This is why he wanted the mountain of the giants. I want to follow Yahweh, my God and my Savior. He's made promises to me. This is where we're weak. Remember, this is why God got into the Ephesians. You've lost your first love. That love for Christ that inspires courage and action and faithfulness when you're dead tired and you just want to give up. I love the Lord Jesus. Now third, and this kind of dovetails into this, where does the power for this come from? It comes from the Lord. Go to, if you're already in Ephesians, go to chapter 1. So we need to be armed with God's weapons, consecrated to our Master, but trust His power. It's not your power. He's not telling you. Isn't it a great thing, Jesus says, be consecrated to me, but I'm not asking you to come up with the consecration. You ask me, Ephesians 1.15. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, don't stop giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of wisdom, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead? This is yours. Paul says, I'm praying for you that you will know. I'm not asking you. Remember in Ephesians, the armor? You put on that armor and you're macho. No. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Consecration? Where does that come from? Young people, are you able to come up with that? Is Sunshine able to come up with that? How about Clark? How about little Olivia and Maddie? Are you able to come up with, I'm going to do my best to be consecrated? That's not what we're supposed to do. The Apostle Paul here shows us this way. He says, I want you to pray. that God will open your mind and heart By the work of the Holy Spirit, verse 17 and 18, so that you will know the greatness of God's power in you, like resurrection power. Look over in chapter 3 of Ephesians. A very similar prayer, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in your inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. Are we praying for this? Some of you are bone tired, I get it. Some of you want to give up. I get it. Are you praying consistently, Lord? Because here's the thing as Christians. Go to Galatians 2.20. As Christians, it's not like, here's your duty, now go do it and be quiet. That's not how it is. Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, which can be very difficult. And the Apostle Paul, of all people, he knew how difficult it can be to live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God. You've got battles in front of you. You've got needs in your life and things that you just... You have to draw it from Christ. You have to seek His strength, because He loves us, and He will help us. And He tells us here, and I just read three passages quickly, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Galatians 2. It's Him. It's His strength. It's not, here's these three principles, now go do it yourself. I've got to be seeking Christ's strength because I cannot do it in my own strength. And he says we live by faith. We live by drawing from Christ the hope and the life and the strength. And notice at the end of there, it says at the end of verse 20, and he sometimes loves you. No, he says, who loved us and he gave himself for us. So Jesus does not sting you with the strength that he will give us. And we have to trust his strength. Now, this is real helpful. some of us this time of year, and I would count myself in that number. I'm joyful, I'm looking forward to being with my family, but also there's a lot of hurt in the past, and I think sometimes the bruises of death, the only thing that will actually make them go away fully is when we see the living Savior, and He just completely heals us. But how do you move forward? Lord Jesus, you're my strength. Get me off the throne of my life. I want to be like Caleb. I want to wholly follow you, but I can't do it. Will you work in me? And he'll say, absolutely. Because if we have a religion and we teach our children, here's these principles, you go do it. We are teaching them and preparing them for a massive colossal fall. Because God doesn't give us these principles and these truths and say, now you go do it. We can't do it. We don't have any strength. Remember what he said there? I'm crucified with Christ and I live, but not me. The life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, drawing from Him, believing in Him, being strengthened in His strength, because I don't have any. Teach that to your children. Teach that to your own heart. Whatever you're going through, whatever the Canaanites and the Giants are in your life, that I can't beat the fear of man. I can't beat the fear of my children, or the fear of my spouse, or the fear of my neighbors. I just know you can't. But Christ can, and He will not share His glory with another. And He wants you seeking Him, so that when He gives deliverance and relief, you will know, He did it! It's Him! He did it! It wasn't that I finally screwed up enough courage, finally heard enough sermons, finally I prayed enough, and now I did it! Is that any better than Frank Sinatra? I did it my way? Not really. It may be religious, but it's still self-depending. The Lord Jesus wants us to be Him depending, Christ depending, Christ living throughout His members, you and me, His body, and showing us, I can do in you what you cannot do in yourself and in your own strength. And that's really Caleb, isn't it? Because Joshua and Caleb, they're both about probably mid-80s, maybe Joshua was a little older, I don't know, but they're both old. And where did Caleb's strength come from? The Lord has kept me alive. If the Lord will be with me, I will endure this, I will conquer this giant. It's all Christ-directed. I pray we learn this lesson because He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or imagine. And He's not stingy with His strength. He will share it. So let's pray for it as we turn to the Lord together. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we do ask that you would be our strength and and our shield as you were for Caleb, and that you would teach us to depend upon your strength. And we didn't even read the verse at the end of Ephesians 3, that you are willing to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or imagine, because of your great power, teach us and our children that you walk in our midst, that you are our strength. Help us to live by faith in you, Lord Jesus, to act, yes, to be armed, to be consecrated, but it comes from your strength. And Lord, help each one of us to face his or her weakness and to learn to depend upon you. We thank you and we look forward to what you will do in our lives and throughout all of your church. Lord, what an amazing thought that the only people that have any strength in this world are people who believe in you. And everybody else, there's nothing but weakness. And they're doing everything in the arm of the flesh. Lord, show your glory in your church. Show the glory of your Son and the strength that he gives to your people. Lord, help us to walk in faith in you that we may draw from you the grace, the hope, the gospel to walk in in faith and obedience. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.