Okay, so there we are. We're recording and Judges chapter 20, we're picking up again in verse 14. This is God's word. It says, then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities of Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel. And the people of Benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day, 26,000 men who drew the sword besides the inhabitants of Gibeah who mustered 700 chosen men. Among these were 700 men who were left-handed. Everyone could sling a stone at a hare and not miss. And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered 400,000 men who drew the sword. All these were men of war. The people of Israel rose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judas shall go up first. Then the people of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin. The men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah. And the people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites. But the people of the men of Israel took courage again and formed the battle line on the same place where they had formed it on the first day. And the people of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until the evening. And they inquired of the Lord, again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin. And the Lord said, go up against them. And the people of Israel came near against the people of Benjamin the second day. And Benjamin went against them out of Gibeah the second day and destroyed 18,000 men of the people of Israel. All these were men who drew the sword. Then all the people of Israel, the whole army went up to the camp, went up and came to Bethel and wept and sat there before the Lord. and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. Excuse me. And Phineas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days, saying, shall we go up once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease? And the Lord said, go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand. So Israel sent men in ambush around Gibeah, and the people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day and set themselves in array against Gibeah as at other times. And the people of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city. As at other times, they began to strike and kill some of the people in the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah. And in the open country, about 30 men of Israel. And the people of Benjamin said, they are routed before us, as at first. But the people of Israel said, let us flee and draw them away from the city and the highways. And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array to Beth Tamer. And the men of Israel, who were in ambush, rushed out of their place from Mereth Giba. And there came against to Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of all Israel. And the battle was hard and the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them. And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. the men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin because they trusted the men in ambush who they had set against Gibeah. Then the men in ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah, and the men in ambush moved out and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in the main ambush was that when they made a great cloud of smoke rise out of the city, then Israel should turn back in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about 30 men of Israel. They said, surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle. But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the whole city went up in smoke to heaven. Then the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. And those who came out of the cities were destroying them in their midst. Surrounding the Benjaminites, they pursued them and trod them down from Noah. As far as Appius at Gibeah on the east, 18,000 men of Benjamin fell, all of them men of valor. And they turned and fled toward the wilderness at the Rock of Ramun. 5,000 men of them were cut down in the highways, and they were pushed hard to get them. And 2,000 men of them were struck down. So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword, all of them men of valor. But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness at the Rock of Ramen and remained at the Rock of Ramen four months. And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword. The city, men and beast, and all they found, and all the towns that they found, they set on fire. Let's there him God's word. Let's pray together. Father. Thank you for your word. I thank you for what you have shown us. But now father, please what we? Well, we do not know. Teach us. What we do not have give us. And what we are not kindly make us. For your son's sake. And amen. And so, between 1861-1865, it is reported that 620,000 men died in the American Civil War. 620,000 men. Now I say that because before I looked up that statistic, unless you're just a war buff, you may have knew that. I didn't. So most of us don't know much about that time and it is a time in our own history. It is a civil war in our own history. And so what I'm getting at is when we talk about a civil war that happened about 5,000 or so years ago, Most of us are not going to know anything about it. And that's what we are dealing with here today. Because of what we talked about before, because of what happened with the Levite, we have this civil war between Israel They're no longer fighting the nations around them, but they are fighting amongst themselves, right? This is brother versus brother, as we will see within our text. And so it's very easy, just like we do with history, to look at these things and say, what does it matter, right? Someone in school that may be studying the American Civil War may say, well, what does it matter? Why do I need to know these things? And even more so with God's Word. When we trudge through these large passages of Scripture, it took me a while to read that many verses, right? When we trudge through these large passages of Scripture, what's it easy to do? Ask the question, why do these things matter to me? Why do they matter in my life? And if you've ever went through a Bible reading plan, you know those times come. Those times come when you're reading through the Bible and you read a chapter just like this one and you think to yourself, how has this impacted me at all? Right? We all think thoughts like that, right? And so the question we're going to ask this morning is why does this matter? But before we do, just as we started the book of Judges, right? book that many people don't want to preach because it's difficult. You have passages like this to deal with and the one we dealt with before. Let us understand that this is God's word. This is God's word. When the apostle Paul told Timothy, Right? The scripture was the Anustos, right? Breathed out by God. This is what he was talking about. He was talking about the book of Judges. He was talking about the book of Leviticus. He was talking about the prophets. And so, we have to take heed to these words, lest we fall in the same predicament that the children of Israel did. These things were written down for our benefit. Right? These things are written down for our benefit. So with all that said, let's take heed to it. Now, 14 through 20 here, 14 through 20, let's dive in together. Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel. And the people of Benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day, 26,000 men who drew the sword. besides the inhabitants of Gibeah who mustered 700 chosen men. Among these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed. Every one could sling a stone at a hare and not miss. Excuse me. And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered 400,000 men who drew the sword. All these were men of war. "'The people of Israel rose and went out to Bethel "'and inquired of God, "'Who shall go up first for us "'to fight against the people of Benjamin?' "'And the Lord said, "'Judas shall go up first.' "'Then the people of Israel rose in the morning "'and encamped against Gibeah. "'And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin, "'and the men of Israel drew up the battle line "'against them at Gibeah.'" And so, as we talked about before, Israel is going to draw up the lines here. They're going to fight because what they were met with when they had asked that question, what they were met with when they asked the question of Benjamin, give us the men who had done this evil. Give us the men who had killed this woman in this way. They were met with no democracy. They were met with no democracy for their brothers. Remember that Benjamin had come out first. That's verse 14. They'd ask that question there in their preceding verses. Give us the worthless fellows. You can see that in verse 13 there. And Benjamin had simply come out to battle. It said, no, we're not giving them up. We're going to defend this sin. And so, when it comes to being confronted with sin, we see these two options. And we see these two options in our society today. Whenever someone is confronted with sin, they either respond in repentance, right? What you're saying is true, I repent of that sin, or they respond in this hostile way. If you can view the society as a whole today, you can see that whenever the gospel goes out and it is preached to men dead in their sin, they respond in hostile ways. Whenever men stand against the things of this world, the homosexuality that is presented as something good, and we are told to take pride in in the month of June, you are always met with hostility. You are met with a doubling down and a defense of that sin. And that's what we see here with the people of Benjamin. People that were supposed to uphold God's law are now doing the very opposite. They are defending these men And they're in that, they're defending their actions. You see, they're defending their sin. And so we're told that they gather 26,000 men to go to war. Benjamin gathers 26,000 men to go to war. Besides 700, I give you there, who we are told are left-handed. We were told they are left-handed. You recall who else we were told was left-handed within the Book of Judges? We were told that Ehud was left-handed in the Book of Judges. Remember Chapter 3? We'll just turn there real quick. Chapter 3, we're told Ehud was left-handed here. Let's see. 15 of chapter 3, then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, son of Gerah, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute to him, to Eglon, king of Moab. Remember, it was Eglon, this king of Moab, who he had made that short sword, and he had put it in his garment, and he had went to him and said, I have something to tell you, I have a secret for you, I have an insight for you. And when he had come to tell him, he had run him through. Remember, him being left-handed, he had an advantage in battle. He's a left-handed man. Something of it too, what is he? He is a Benjaminite. He is a Benjaminite. You see, these are these same people. These are his brothers. So they are left-handed warriors, seem to have the advantage in battle because the way they would fight. they would have their sword in their left hand. And so if you're not used to dealing with someone who fights like that, you most likely would die. And back in this time, it was very easy for people to die anyway. Nowadays, they can put you back together, but back then, if you got cut bad enough, you basically just died. And so these men are great men of war. This is what they have gathered up, 700 men who are left-handed. Not only that, But we're told they could sling a stone at a hare and not miss. They could sling a stone at a hare and not miss. These are deadly men. These are natural killers. These are the top warriors that these people have. We think of, in our society, we think of, you know, Green Berets, Navy SEALs. We think these are our top warriors. These are the top warriors that they have, skilled marksmen, men who are left-handed. Israel, on the other hand, that's going against, so it's all these other tribes against Benjamin, they gather 400,000 men of war. a way larger sum, 400,000 men of war. And they go to Bethel there and they inquire of the Lord, who should go up against Benjamin first? They go and they inquire of the Lord, who shall go up against Benjamin? We have seen this as well. We have seen this in the book of Judges, although it was two and a half years ago, I believe. Most of us probably don't remember it, but remember we had started out the book of Judges with this same question. In Judges 1, it is said in verse 1, After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them? And the Lord had said, Judas shall go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand. You see this same phraseology. Now, it's not pointed toward the Canaanites. Now, it's pointed toward Benjamin. This is going to reoccur. This has reoccurred throughout the book. And it is when the righteous have become the unrighteous. The people who were supposed to shed light on the world have become darkness themselves. And so, the same as the Canaanites was, the Benjaminites are now. And we see that through their actions. Although they had been given all this revelation from God, although God had showed them all this, they were just like Canaan. And I'm going to have to through this so let's push on 21 through 30 there in our text 21 The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites. But the people, the men of Israel, took courage and again formed the battle line on the same place where they had formed it on the first day. And the people of Israel went up and went before the Lord until the evening. And they inquired of the Lord, shall we again go near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin? And the Lord said, go up against them. So the people of Israel came near, against the people of Benjamin the second day. And Benjamin was against them. And Benjamin went out against them out of Gibeah the second day and destroyed 18,000 men of the people of Israel. All these were men who drew the sword. Then all the people of Israel, the whole army went up and came to Bethel and wept. And they sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And the people of Israel went and inquired to the Lord, for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days, saying, shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease? And the Lord said, go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand. So Israel sent men in ambush around Gibeah. So the people of Israel go to fight Benjamin, as the Lord had commanded them. But on this first day there, they lose 22,000 men. 22,000 men Benjamin had almost killed a man a man One of those had almost killed one of the Israelites, right? They're just short. There was 26,000 of them 700 of count Gibeah and they had killed 22,000 because of this this causes Israel to go up before the Lord again and weep and and ask again if they should fight against Benjamin. And the Lord tells them to go out and fight again. And on the second day there, Benjamin kills 18,000 of the Israelites. This causes the whole army, all of the people that is to go and weep and fast and sacrifice before the Lord. You can compare verse 23 there, the first part, Let's see it here, 23. And the Papal Vigil went up and went before the Lord until the evening and they inquired of the Lord, right? The Papal Vigil did. And then you can see 26. Then all the people of Israel, the whole army went up and came to Bethel and wept. And they sat before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And so first of all, just part of the army goes up and then they go back, they lose 18,000 more. And then the whole army comes up and weeps before the Lord and cries to him. So here may be the question in our text. Why is it that Israel, with 400,000 men, are not able to win against 26,000? Why is it? Well, the answer is, I believe, that it is not only Benjamin that is under judgment. It is not only Benjamin that is under judgment. All of Israel had left the Lord. They had left the way that God had prescribed for them. Benjamin, more than them, They had completely went left field, but the whole of Israel was in this state. And not only that, we are seeing something here that Yahweh is telling them. We're seeing something that God is telling them. And it is this, it is not by might, right? 400,000 is a lot more than 26,000, agreed? Right? You'd rather have the 400,000. And in regular terms, you would think, piece of cake. Right? We have way more people than them. And we had seen in the previous chapters that it was always the other way around. They always had less people. And yet what had happened? They had won these great feats. Right? Because why? Because what we had talked about before, Yahweh went before them. Remember we had talked about that last time. That's the terminology of a king. In battle, the king would rally his troops, and he would be on the front lines, and he would go before them. And they would see the king riding out on his horse, and it would give the men courage. And they would say, if the king goes before us, we can follow him. We can go out too. And so we were told in all those other instances that Yahweh had went out before them. It was the language that was used with Deborah. Remember, they had fought that battle. Yahweh had went out before them. They had won that great feat. Yet now with 400,000, Israel cannot win. It is because it is not by might, like said before, but it is by the hand of God that Israel was able to do any of these things. It is by the hand of God that Israel was able to flee Egypt. It is by the hand of God that they were able to even cross the sea to get to the other side there, that they were not killed by Pharaoh's armies. And any success they have is a success that God gives them. Remember we had read this before, Isaiah 31. And speaking of Sisera and his 900 chariots of iron. Remember what we had seen, Isaiah 31. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and horsemen because they are very strong. but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord. And yet he is wise and brings disaster. He does not call back his words, but he will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. The Egyptians are man and not God. Their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble and he who is helped will fall and they will all perish together. So what is Isaiah telling us? He's saying you think that if you go to these pagan people and request some kind of treaty, request some kind of help, because they have all these chariots and they have all these armies, that that will benefit you in battle. And it will not benefit you at all. You think that these technological advantages will help you and the struggle of battle and the struggle of taming land. And what Yahweh says is, if I don't want you to have this, if I don't give you the victory, the victory will not be yours. You see? And so it would have been easy for Israel to think with 400,000, we're just going to wipe them off the face of the earth. By might, by our might, we are going to right this wrong. And yet that's not what we find in our text. We find in our text that every time they go against Benjamin, Benjamin slaughters more and more of the children of Israel. And I want you to pay attention to this. This suffering, that's lots of people dead. This suffering that Israel is seeing has led them to this place. It's led them to repentance. It's led them to call and weep before the Lord. We had seen this in some of our Psalms, right? We'd seen this in some of our Psalms talking about suffering, that this suffering leads us to a place where we can glorify God more. And so this loss here against Benjamin has led the children of Israel to do what they have not been doing before. And that is to go and weep Right? And fast and sacrifice to Yahweh. And this is where it has led them. They cannot trust in and of themselves. Any trust of themselves has been lost. They have fought two battles. They have lost two battles. You see? And so any hope of them saving themselves is out the window. They understand that if they win, it will be by the hand of the Lord. Proverbs 21, 31. the horses made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord. The victory belongs to the Lord. Something that the children of Israel had to understand. So we were told in 27 and 28 that the Ark was there and that Phinehas, Aaron's grandson there, was ministering in those days. Excuse me. This led some commentators to think that this story was earlier in the book. This story was earlier in the book. And that's because Phineas is mentioned in Joshua 24, 33, where his father is buried there. And he's told that he's buried in the town of Phineas there. And so that's led some to believe that this is earlier in the time of judges than later in the time of judges. But we don't know. Could have been that Phineas was just a very old man. Some people argue that way, but we don't know. Nevertheless, Phineas is there, and he's ministering before the Lord for the people. The people are weeping, calling out to Yahweh, and Phineas is ministering for them. He has took this role. And so he asks, Phineas asks the Lord for the people, should they go up this third time? Should they go up against their Brothers you hear that language. They'd said that twice. Shall we go up not against the Canaanites but against our brothers you see stressing stressing the hardship of this battle and So they're told to go again. And this time the people set up a ambush for Benjamin they set up a ambush for Benjamin so back in our text 31 to 48 If we can get back here. Chapter 20. Okay. 31. And the people of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city. Were drawn away from the city, as at other times, and began to strike and kill some of the people in the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel, the other to Gibeah. in the open country, about 30 men of Israel. And the people of Benjamin said, they are routed before us as at the first. The people of Israel said, let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways. And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Beltamer. And the men of Israel who were in ambush rushed out of their place from Mereth Geba. And there came against Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was hard, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them. And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated, and the men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin because they trusted the men in ambush who they had set against Gibeah. Then the men in ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah. The men in ambush moved out and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that when they had made a great cloud of smoke rise out of the city, the men of Israel should turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about 30 men of Israel. They said, surely they are defeated before us as in the first battle. But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke, Benjamin looked behind them, and behold, the whole city went up in smoke to heaven. Then the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. Those who came out of the cities were destroying them in their midst. Surrounding the Benjaminites, they pursued them and trod them down from Noah, as far as opposite Gibeah. On the east, 18,000 men of Benjamin fell, all of them men of valor. And they turned and fled toward the wilderness, toward the Rock of Raman. 5,000 men and them were cut down in the highways, and they were pursued hard to guide them. And 2,000 men of them were struck down. So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword, all of them men of valor. But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the Rock of Raman. remained at the rocker room in four months. The men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword. The city of the men and beasts and all that were found in all the towns that they found, they set on fire." And so the people come against Benjamin in this way, in this ambush against him. They put men out from the city, men within the city, and they draw them out. They divide and conquer Benjamin as it was. They bring them out of the city so that they may destroy the city. So this led Benjamin out from the city to the highways. This allows 10,000 chosen men of Israel to take the city and burn it down, right? We've seen this picture somewhere else. Then we're getting these pictures back to back to back to back. And the author of Judges is telling us something here. He's stressing this point to us. We haven't seen this in the book, but we've seen this in Joshua. Joshua chapter eight, the same thing had happened there. Joshua chapter eight. This is Joshua going up against Ai here. Josh we're going up against AI here so verse 1 of 8 and the Lord said to Josh well do not fear and do not be dismayed take all the fighting men with you and arise and go up to AI see I've given it into your hand the king of AI and his people his city and his land. And you shall do to Ai as its king, as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spool and livestock you shall not take as a plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city behind it. So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go out to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and set them out by night. And he commanded them, behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. And I and the people who are with me will approach the city, and when they come out against us, just as before, we shall flee before them. And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say that they are fleeing from us just as before. So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And as soon as you take the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the words of the Lord. See, I have commanded you. And so Joshua with his armies had done the same thing to Ai here. They went up before them, Ai had come out thinking they were gonna destroy them as times before. They had led them out of the city and then the men in ambush had went into that city and they had set it ablaze. They had set it on fire. And so the same thing that happened to them, the same thing that happened to this pagan land here, this pagan city, is now happening to Benjamin. Why is this being stressed? It's being stressed for this reason. Benjamin, without God, and listen to me closely, Benjamin, without God, is the same as this city of Ai. Right. It's exactly the same. There's no distinction between them. Apart from God being with them, they are the same depraved people. There is nothing special about them. Why is this important? It's important for this reason. Understand. Understand. Redemption is great. God has given us many blessings. But the only difference from you and the person depraved in their sin and death is that God has showed you grace. God has showed you mercy, right? And he has give up his son and put his wrath upon his son instead of you. That's the only distinction, right? It's not of him who wills or runs, right? Like the apostle Paul said in Romans chapter nine, it's not what it's about. but of God who shows mercy. These are the distinctions here. Something that Benjamin didn't understand. Something that the Pharisees didn't understand. Pastor Josh has been going through time and time again of the Pharisees thinking what? It's our ethnic background that makes us special, right? It's who our daddies are. It's who our grandfathers are. This is what makes us special. And the whole time, the whole time what Christ is saying is, it is Yahweh that makes you special. It is Yahweh's love that has been set upon you is what makes it special. And that can be taken away from you. And it was, right? They didn't tend the vineyard. What happened? It was taken away and given to people who would tend it. You see? They thought they were special in and of ourselves. So we, as New Covenant people, shouldn't do the same thing. Shouldn't do the same thing. You may say, well, that's very simple. It's so easy. It's so easy, especially in reform groups, the way we see salvation and things of soteriology, to think that we are special within ourselves. not understand that it's all of grace. It's all of God. And so in the same way that this city fail in Joshua, the Benjaminites are going. to fall. You can see there in verse 20 the same thing is going to happen, how it did happen, to Ai here. It says, So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against their pursuers. So the same thing had happened. Benjamin turned back. There was nowhere else to flee. Their city was ablaze. Men were coming out, killing them in every direction. And the same thing had happened to A.I. here. This has been the result of their sin. This has been the result of their defiance to repent of it. So Israel destroys Gibeah here. And about 600 men of the Benjaminites, they escape there and they go away, but the rest they killed. They killed with the edge of the sword. This is what God had commanded them to do. Remember, we had spoken before, we won't turn there for the sake of time, but we had spoken before of Deuteronomy 13, six. Remember what Deuteronomy 13, 6, it said, it said, if your mother, your brother, your sister, right, I'm paraphrasing, but it said it in that way, if your mother, your brother, your sister, your wife, who you hold, your friend, if they do what? If they seek after other gods, do not listen to them, but your hand is to be the first against them. Your hand is to be the first against them because they desire to take you away to seek other gods away from Yahweh. And this is what Benjamin had done here. And so the brothers, although it was hard, had devoted them to destruction, devoted them to destruction. Jesus had spoken the same way. We talked about it in the Psalms, right? I believe it's Luke 14. No man can be my disciple unless what? He hates who? Father, mother, brother, sister, right? Casts it all aside and does what? Takes up his cross and follows me. This is what Jesus was saying. Unless you love me more than these, you cannot be my disciple. It's not easy, but something commanded. It's what God commands us to. So we do not follow anyone, even our family, if they desire to take us after other gods, to take us after idols. So this is what has happened here. So Israel had devoted them to complete destruction, burning their cities down. This is how we, even in the new covenant, must deal with sin. This is how God's people, Israel's God's people, then the church, God's people, now this is how we must deal with sin. We must not allow it to linger. We must not allow it to live amongst us. We cannot. John Owen said, be killing sin or it will be killing you. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. And what he was saying was, is if you let it stay, it's not neutral. If you have sin in your life, you cannot think, you may think, but it doesn't work out, that it's just something that is neutral. It's something that does not affect anything. It will affect something. You either kill the sin in your life, or that sin in your life will kill you. No doubt of it. And so as the church, we have to understand this and we have to drive it out from our midst. We have to drive this sin out from our midst. And in closing here, let us understand this. It is easy to say, what I don't want to give here is just a pep talk to you. Say, drive out sin from your life. It is easy for me to say that and you say, oh yes, by my mind I will go and I will drive this sin out. And my answer to that is you won't. You won't do it. If I were to lay on the ground, one theologian put it like this, this may help us as far as time goes. If I were to lay on the ground here, and you all came in, and I was grabbing myself by my bootstraps, and I was pulling as hard as I can, and you said, Brandon, what are you doing? And I said, well, I'm trying to get off the floor. What do you think I'm trying to do? You would say, that doesn't work. You can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps. There has to be a force come upon you, outside of you, for you to undergo this task. And I tell you the same thing. If we are to drive sin out of our lives, if we are to be sanctified in the Lord, it's through the help of the Spirit. It's through the Holy Spirit's work in the believer. It's through prayer and meditation. And that's it. So let us trust in God to those ends. Let's pray together. Father, help us to be a people who abhors sin, as you abhor sin, to be a people who preaches your gospel, understanding that we are sinners in and of the same, apart from your grace. Give us strength now to this end. In Christ's name I pray, and amen. Amen.