Hebrews chapter 11 and we'll begin our reading at verse 32 and read down through verse 34. Hebrews 11 and verse 32. And what shall I more say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Beric, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, brought 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, turn to flight the armies of the aliens. In this verse, verse 33 and 34, these two verses, we have noted some of the great exploits of faith, the things that faith has wrought or things that it has worked. And we'll want to note the last one in verse 34, how that through faith they turn to flight the armies of the aliens. And this is, I mean, you just start pretty much in Joshua and you can read on through the rest of the Old Testament and you just trip over repeated times when through faith they turned to flight the armies of the aliens. I'd like you to notice, and again, let's take a look first of all at the text. This really begins at verse 32. And we say that because it gives a description of those that the writer is referring to. And then you have to always look at verse 33, because the first three words, who through faith. That's how all of this was done, was through faith. And it was faith in the Lord. And again, faith always refers unto what God has said and His own ability. And so these here, all the things that were done was they took God at His Word, they trusted not in themselves but in the Lord and in His might. They understood that through, as the Bible says in Philippians 4, it says that, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. They understood that. They understood, as it was said in Scriptures, that all things are possible with God. And so this faith swallowed up any doubt, swallowed up any fear, not fear of God, but rather just the fear, the general fear that we often think of. It just completely took it all away. And they did great and tremendous exploits. It were not their weapons. God was very clear unto Israel that they were not to trust in horses, or in chariots, or in certain weapons that they had or the others had. There was a time, and we've referred unto it before, when they went to battle and they lost to the Philistines, and they essentially said, well, let's go get the ark. And they brought the ark down, and what happened? Well, they lost again. Because it wasn't in any artifact or religious piece that there was. It was always in the Lord that they were to trust. And that's never changed. That has always been, from Genesis through Revelation, that faith is to be in the person of God, in His ability, and in His Word. And that hasn't changed for you and I today. And so as we look at this, and we look down at these verses where it says, who threw faith? And they did great and tremendous things, and he comes to a conclusion, because again, time would fail for him to go over. I mean, essentially the writer, the Holy Spirit, is saying, go read the Old Testament. I mean, that's the epitome of what is being said here. And it makes me marvel, I don't want to get off on a tangent too far or a rabbit trail, but I marvel when you refer to the Old Testament and you hear people and they'll say, well, that's the Old Testament. Well, that's all that Jesus had when He was here on this earth, wasn't it? That is still the words of the Holy Spirit, is it not? Are we not told that the Old Testament is that those men were moved by the Spirit of God? And so it is as applicable as any New Testament verse. And I just marvel at that ignorance that folks have. As Paul said to the church at Corinth, and he reiterated it to the saints at Rome, those things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world have come. And so he refers unto this, and again, essentially, the Holy Spirit through the writer, which we believe to be the Apostle Paul, and if you are of a different persuasion, that's okay, but here in Hebrews 11, he's essentially saying, let's go read the Old Testament. Just go read it. That's this entire book. I mean, he started out in chapter 11, and then in verse 3, "...through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." What's that? Genesis chapter 1, isn't it? So essentially, this whole chapter is just a summarization of faith in the Old Testament. And faith is still happening today in the same way. And he goes into these verses, verse 34 again, turn to flight the armies of the aliens. We find here that the phrase turn to flight means to slant or to slope, to wear away, to be far spent, to exhaust if you would, to spend all of the strength that there is. If you look in John chapter 19, John chapter 19, and notice, if you would, verse 30, a well-known passage of Scripture, where it says, When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. And He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. And the word, or the phrase, and he bowed his head, the word bowed there is the same word that is rendered turn to flight. So it is, in Hebrews 11, we can say that the, let me turn back there and read it, where it says, instead of turn to flight, bowed the armies of the aliens. Just laid them down. Christ here, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head. He had spent all that he was, because the Bible says, he gave himself. So all that was in Christ was given, it was finished, he had nothing left to give, and there wasn't anything left for him to give. Because he had finished the work of redemption, hadn't he? He bowed his head. He was far spent. We find in the book of Luke, chapter 9, if you'll turn there, Luke chapter 9, and we're giving some other renderings of how things are related here and rendered in the Scriptures, but in Luke 9 and verse, if you would, 58, Luke chapter 9 and verse 58, the Bible says, And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. The turn to flight, the word that is, the Greek word that is rendered turn to flight here is rendered lay. So essentially, the armies of the aliens, they bowed or they lay down, didn't they? And that is, and you know an army doesn't just lay down naturally, does it? That's not a natural thing for an army to do. And remember, and again the reference is unto the Old Testament, I mean these weren't conscripts, if you would. These weren't people who had been drafted and were unwilling participants necessarily. Some of them were slaves, but most of them were mighty men of valor of other nations. A lot of them were hired mercenaries. These were warrior people. In fact, all through the Old Testament, Israel dealt with the Philistines. And again, I reiterate this, we mentioned this before, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, instead of taking the straightest way to Israel, or the land of Canaan, He said, I'm not going to take him that way, because if I go that way, they'll see the Philistines, who were a warrior tribe. And if they see the Philistines, it'll be too much for them. So he took them round about the other way, and when they got into the kingdom, then the Philistines came upon them. And again, the Philistines were great, great warriors. But even they, if you read through the Old Testament, they bowed and laid down and were turned to flight. And again, that wasn't natural. The idea again conveyed here is that they were no longer with strength, they did not fight or carry their duties anymore. The word or the phrase, the armies, again literally means an encampment or a castle and army. These weren't a couple soldiers. It was an entire army. Thousands upon thousands of warriors would come. And yet, through faith, they would be turned around. And there is Reference after reference after reference throughout the scriptures, essentially and most particularly from Joshua all the way through. And again, we reiterate, there was a time when God did it with 300 individuals. He kept telling Gideon, whittle down your army, you've got too many people because if I give you the victory of this many, you'll think it's because of you. So he whittled them down, didn't he? And we got to 300 and he says, alright. And then the word aliens. And turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. I'll tell you a little side story while you're turning there. My wife, when she went home back to Michigan, before we was married, she'd come down for a Bible conference in Kansas. The Word of God was preached, and I can give you more details later on in time, but we had been conversing about things, and she knew that the Lord was leading her to join the church in Michigan, and she was telling her mother about it, how she needed to be baptized, and her mom said, well, you've already been baptized, and she told her mother. She said, well, they don't accept alien immersion. And boy, we know what that means, right? Her mother kind of looked at her funny because, you know, it's all the Scientologists and whatnot that there are around today. But she explained to her it means foreign or strange. We don't accept those things. And that's the same way that this word in Hebrews is used, meaning it's strange, strangers, foreigners, non-saved people. And look here in Ephesians 2 and in verse 12. That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That's how this word is used in the New Testament. They were aliens. They were foreigners. They didn't have anything to do with it. And so again, as we reiterated and stated several times a few weeks ago, if you look at this, again, who threw faith, waxed valiant in fight. You remember we talked about who our fight is against. It's not against brothers and sisters. It's against the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's who it's against. So it wasn't a turning of flight to the armies of Israel. They weren't warring against one another. but the armies of the aliens were the ones who were turned to flight. That's what we need to understand. This is where the battle's at. And so, as we look through this, and we want to realize and recognize this great truth. Now, let's note, second of all, this evening, if you'll turn over Philippians chapter 1, I'm sorry, Philippians chapter 2, And notice if you would here a couple of verses, beginning at verse 9. I'd like you to notice the power of God. The power of God specifically with respect to the enemy. Because again, the enemy is the world and the flesh and the devil. That's the enemy. It's always been that way. He's always been the enemy of God's own people. And in Philippians 2, verse 9, it says, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, that is Christ Jesus, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Here we find that the Scriptures bear out the power of God. That the Scriptures tell us that at the name of Jesus Christ, which is to say, not just the mentioning of His name, but the authority that is within that name, That not just the slave, not just the elect, not just the sheep, not just the family, or the kingdom, or the church of God, but every knee shall bow. That's the power that God has. And not only just that the knees shall bow, but the tongue, the same tongues that have cursed God, the same ones that said, if thou be the Christ, come down from the cross and save thyself and us. The very same that mocked and ridiculed the Lord Jesus Christ are going to confess that He is Lord to the glory of the Father. They're going to happen. Now with that in mind, turn over to Revelation chapter 19. Again, this is the power of God. I mean, you think about folks today who are, I mean, they're just blasphemers. And I'm not talking about just using God's name in vain. I'm talking about blaspheming God. And you know, everybody wants to blame God for everything, don't they? But when it comes to something, if it quote-unquote goes right, well, we can't give God any glory that's due unto His name. But if it goes wrong, that's His fault. And that's something. In Revelation 19, if you would, notice here, beginning at verse 19. And again, this is the Battle of Armageddon, and it says, And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image, these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. So here we see there is a triumvirate, or a three, just as there is a holy trinity, there is an unholy trinity. There is Satan, there is the Antichrist, and there is the false prophet. And here in these two verses, verses 19 and 20 alone, what do we see? But God, with His power, what does He do? Does He not turn and overcome the false prophet and the Antichrist? And are they not cast into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone, never to be removed from there again? Absolutely. And then in chapter 20, And we look here in verse 1, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should not deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season. So by the power of God, Satan, so there are, if you would, three of the greatest enemies there are. What does God do with them? He subdues them, doesn't he? And Satan's put in that bottomless pit and he's there for a thousand years and he can't get out until a thousand years, can he? Because God said that's what it's going to be. And there's not a person who doesn't believe that, probably, as far as I know, in this room. But yeah, isn't it funny? We've got a hard time thinking that God can handle things going on here in our own lives. But He can subdue the Antichrist and the false prophet and Satan, and He can put him in the bottom split for a thousand years. No problem. Turn over, if you would, to verse 10. And again, you can read, starting at verse 7, Satan's going to be loosed and you know what's going to happen. It says in verse 10, And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So there's Revelation 20 in verse 10. So, the false prophet, the antichrist, or the beast, they're already in the lake of fire. Satan goes to the bottom of his foot for a thousand years, then he's loose. And he goes and he does exactly what God said he would do. And then God takes him, defeats his armies that he's gathered from the four corners of the earth after the thousand year perfect reign of Christ. And he subdues Satan. Forever and ever. That's the power of God. Those are three of the most powerful enemies there are. And the spirit of Antichrist is already at work in this world. He's been at work. John said it in his epistle. And the Holy Spirit is hindering him. And he's going to continue to hinder him. until He's taken out of this world. I can't imagine, as bad as things are now, I can't imagine what it's going to be like when the Holy Spirit's not here hindering. But He is right now. And we look and we read over these things. This is the power of God. That every knee, even the Antichrist's knee, and the false prophet's knee, and Satan's knee are going to bow and their tongues will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Even theirs. Even theirs. These three will bow, won't they? They will lay down. God will turn to flight them, won't He? He will bow them down. Now, the Scripture tells us in Hebrews 11 and verse 34 that Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets They, through faith, turn to fight the armies of the aliens. Faith gives us access to the power of God. I mean, that's what it does. We trust in the Lord. We don't believe God, what would you do? Well, you turn and fight, or you turn and run away. Just like Ephraim did when they turned back in the day of battle. And so here, as we look and we go over these, and let's look just for an example here, if you'll turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. And again, verse 1. We'll read here, Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 through 3, and then we'll take a look in Joshua here momentarily. Deuteronomy 7, verse 1, it says, When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou, And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thou make marriages with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son." Now stop reading there. And you look here and God tells him in verse 1 concerning these nations, notice the very last phrase of that verse, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And yet, when we read in Joshua, he turned to flight the armies of the aliens, didn't he? They were greater and they were mightier, but they all turned and fled before Joshua, didn't they? Look over in Joshua chapter 10, and we'll look at a very specific example here. Joshua chapter 10. And notice, if you would, verse 1. Joshua chapter 10 and verse 1. Now here they are, and they're getting into the land of Canaan, and they had yet to subdue all of the nations. They had yet to take over it and go into it. So there's some places here and there's some kings over these places. And it says in verse 1, Now it came to pass when Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, had heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them. That they, that is the inhabitants of Jerusalem, feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty." So the king of Jerusalem, he says, man, Gibeon made a union with Joshua, and they were stronger than Ai, and he defeated Ai, so how scared must the Gibeonites be? The next verse, verse 3, Wherefore Adonai Isaac, king of Jerusalem, said unto Hoham, king of Hebron, and unto Piram, king of Jarmath, and unto Japhia, king of Lachish, and unto Debar, king of Eglon, saying, Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon, for he hath made peace with Joshua, and with the children of Israel. Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, now that was one of the names, in Deuteronomy chapter 7, the Amorites. That God said, I'm going to give them to you. I'm going to deliver them to you. And it says right here, the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmath, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon and made war against it. Now just hold right there and just look back to Deuteronomy chapter 7 as we compare Scripture with Scripture. Because here, in Deuteronomy 7, Moses is telling Joshua in Israel, he's telling them and getting them ready to go into the land. And he tells them in verse 1, When the Lord thy God shall bring thee, Deuteronomy 7 verse 1, bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the who? The Amorites. And then we find in Joshua chapter 10, the five kings of the Amorites. And they're listed. And they said, let's go battle the Gibeonites. Because they made a union with Joshua. They made a confederacy, a league with him. Well, let's keep reading in verse 6. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants, come up to us quickly and save us, and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. In Joshua 10 and verse 7, So Joshua sent it from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee. So here we find, this is all the providence of God and Him delivering the Amorites into Joshua's hand. And so Joshua comes and he's going down there and the Lord says, don't be afraid of them, I've given them to you. So there's the Word of God and the power of God. The Word of God says in verse 8, and the Lord said unto Joshua. So there's the Word of God. It's a promise, isn't it? It's what God said. And faith takes God at His Word. And the reason we can take God at His word is because He is able to do what He says. And the very next phrase, fear them not for or because. Don't be afraid of the Amorites. You don't need to be afraid of them. Because or for I have delivered them into thine hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee. So that was God's Word and God's power. The next verse, verse 9, So Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. And the LORD disconfitted them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makedah. And then verse 11, And it came to pass as they fled from before Israel and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died. They were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. So we find here in this passage of Scripture, again, God told them what to do. He reminded them of His power when He said, I have delivered them. The next thing we find is Joshua operating by faith. Because the Bible says in verse 8, the Lord said to Joshua, fear them not. So verse 9, Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly. He didn't hesitate. He took God at His word. He didn't have to think about it. He didn't have to pray about it. He didn't have to wait on anything because God had already told him what to do. If Joshua would have prayed about it, it would have been wrong or even a sin because God had already said what to do. So, the Bible says that Joshua came unto them suddenly. went up from Gilgal all night. He didn't wait till the morning. He went up right then. And the Bible says, verse 10, And the LORD disconfitted them before Israel. That is what God does. God didn't tell Joshua how it was going to happen. All He told Joshua about what was going to take place was, There shall not a man of them stand before thee. What were they going to do? They were going to be far spent, they were going to bow, they were going to run away, they were going to lay down. And they did exactly that. And God killed more of them than the Hebrews did. Through faith, they turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Now, as well, I want to expound on this. We read in this chapter what took place to the five kings of the Amorites. But the faith of Joshua and Jericho and at Ai, that faith that had taken place at those two cities when Jericho's walls came down and when they defeated the city of Ai, that led to this happening. You understand that the faith that Joshua had way back here led to this because it was the Amorites who had heard what he did at Jericho, heard what happened to Ai, and then they saw what the Gibeonites did when they made a union with him. See, faith, faith, faith. And it turned to flight the armies of the aliens. What if Joshua had defeated those at Jericho, but at Ai they lost, which at one point they got in trouble because of what Achan had done. because Achan didn't walk by faith, he walked by sight. But what if they had all walked by sight at Ai? And then you've got the five kings of Amorites, and they could say, 50-50, we might win or lose. Yeah, he got Jericho, but Ai beat him. Faith, and faith, and faith again. caused the armies of the aliens to turn to flight. Furthermore, faith leads to faith, which leads to more faith. See, if we trust God at Jericho, and we trust Him at Ai, why wouldn't we trust Him with the five kings of the Amorites? See how faith just keeps building and building and building? And our past experiences of when God did exactly what He said He would do ought to lead to even more trusting of Him in the future. More and more and more. So that we should have no doubt that God is going to do what He says He will do. Then I want to look at a New Testament example. If you'll turn over to the book of Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. Again, turn to fly the armies of the aliens. In Matthew 16, verse 18, the Lord Jesus spoke concerning His church. And He says in this verse, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Meaning, the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. And this verse is a lot of times referred to, particularly this last phrase, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, is often referred to about church perpetuity. And understandably so. Yet the greater reference here is not to the gates of hell being unleashed on the church, but the church going forth and doing the Lord's work and the gates of hell can't stop it. That's really what this verse is talking about. Not the church on the defense, but the church on the offense. Satan opposing the work, and yet he can't stop it. That's really what Christ is saying here. We are to assault. Go out and fight the good fight of faith. Go and preach the gospel to every creature. That is what Christ is speaking of here. He says, listen, the gates of hell are not going to prevail. They're not going to stop my church. I'm going to build it. See that lost soul over there? He's one of mine. And there is nothing that anyone, including the gates of hell, can do to stop me from going and saving that person. I have sent my church to go and preach the gospel to them, and I will save them. There's nothing they can do. Now look over in Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. Here we see, in the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul sent, as we looked at Sunday evening, in Acts chapter 13, out of the church at Antioch. And he comes to a place by the name of Corinth, and you've probably heard of it. And in verse 1, and we're going to read several verses here. In Acts 18 and verse 1. After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a Jew named Aquila born in Pontus, lately come from Italy and with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. Because he was of the same craft he bowed with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And so, here's Paul, he comes to Corinth, and he's preaching in the synagogues every Sabbath day, and then Silas and Timothy show up from Macedonia, and he's pressed in the Spirit and he throws himself completely into the work. And then we find in verse 6, and when they oppose themselves, Again, that is the Jews. And when they, that is the Jews, opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he, that is Paul, shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean, from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered into a man's house, named Justice, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." Now let me just stop there for just a moment. We'll read some more here momentarily. This was not the first time that the Gospel had been opposed by the Jews. and not at the preaching of the Apostle Paul. And so again, you look back before this and you go, Paul's faith was here, and it was here, and it was here, and it was here, and now he's come to Corinth. because he believed that God had saved him, he believed that God had sent him forth, he believed that it was the work of God that the Holy Spirit said, "...separate unto me barns to sow, for the work whereunto I have called them." And he had been sent out to preach the gospel to the Jew first, and as well to the Gentile. He believed that he was an apostle unto the Gentiles. He believed that he was to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ and to suffer great things for his namesake. He believed it because that's what God said. and he had been doing it, and doing it, and doing it, and he had faced opposition after opposition after opposition, and he comes now here to Corinth. It's just like Joshua with Jericho, and Ai, Gibeon, and then the five kings of the Amorites. Just like it. Everywhere he faced opposition, and they beat him, and they did all manner of things to him, and they threatened him. You say, well that's not really turning to flight the armies of the aliens. The gospel was never hindered. See, it's not the physical body. It's the word of God and the work of God that went forth. They couldn't stop it, could they? All the threatenings, and all the beatings, and everything that Paul endured. He said, I endure all things for who? The elect's sake. You read that in 1 Timothy. In fact, we find in the book of Philippians 1 and verse 12, he says, I would that ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. The gospel was furthered by the things that happened to him. Did the aliens or the armies of evil, did they somehow stop? No. Was the gospel bottled up and kept from going out? No! It continued to go. In fact, it furthered it, Paul says. Just like Joseph said unto his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. What a tremendous thing. And here in these verses, the Lord, notice verse 9, "...then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee. And no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city." He essentially tells me, he says, I've got a bunch of lost sheep here. And you're going to stay here and you're going to preach the gospel. And I'm going to save them. and then a church is going to get established and you're going to teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." He said, I've got much people in this city. The next verse, verse 11, and he continued there a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them. See, there was great opposition. They opposed themselves, they blasphemed, and he still stayed there and preached. Well, let's keep reading the next verse, verse 12. When Galio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. So the Jews said, come here, Paul, and they took him to the Roman judgment seat of whom this Galio, or however you want to say his name, was the guy in charge. He's the magistrate. He's the deputy. And in verse 13 it's saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. And he draved them from the judgment seat. So Gallio says, I don't care about your Jewish law. You brought it before my magistrate. He goes, you guys take care of it. I don't care about it. He's a wicked man. That's what he was. And then in verse 17, then all the Greeks, because again, they're in Corinth. It's the Roman Empire, but these are Greeks. says, then all the Greeks took Sosthenes. Now who's Sosthenes? Well he's the chief ruler of the synagogue and beat him before the judgment seat and Galileo cared for none of those things. So here's the magistrate who's supposed to keep law and order. And he actually furthers disorder, doesn't he? But the Greeks take this individual Sosnes, he's the chief ruler of the synagogue. He's one of the Jews that lashed on to Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. He's one of them. And said, this man is teaching things contrary to the law of God. He's basically doing to Paul what Paul had done to Stephen. But now I should turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Here is Paul, and he's writing a letter. He's already left Corinth, and he's now writing a letter back to the Corinthian church. And in 1 Corinthians 1, and in verse 1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and, what's that name? Sosthenes. our brother. Well, isn't that something? This is the same individual who took him, was part of those who took Paul onto the Galileo's judgment seat. And they wanted him killed. And God had already told Paul, He says, I have much people in this city. He didn't tell him who the much people were, and He didn't say, Thestanese, he's going to come fetch you tomorrow, don't worry, he's one of them. He said, I have much people in this city. And Paul continued there for a year, or 18 months it was. preaching the Word of God unto them. And then Galileo, he's there, the deputy, the magistrate, and they drag him forward, but Paul is there preaching the Word of God. And when he's about to give his own defense, as he always did, Galileo interrupts and says, I don't care. And so the Greeks, who were in charge of the government, they take Sassanids, who brought Paul and they beat him. And that's the last we hear about Sosthenes until right here. You want to talk about turning to flight the armies of the aliens. What do we say that that phrase, turn to flight, means? To bow down. Oh, Sosthenes bowed down all right. He bowed down in a fallen, broken, cross-eyed position, crying out, God be merciful to me, a sinner, is what he did. Paul, through faith, turned to flight. Sosthenes and his army, didn't he? And he turned into flight in the greatest way. He ended up flying unto Jesus as his Savior. He went unto Christ, didn't he? He came unto the Lord. Through faith. Here he was, Paul's preaching, there's opposition, Jesus says to him in a vision, don't go anywhere, I have much people in this city. That's what the Lord said to him. Paul, what did Paul do because of what Christ said to him? He stayed and preached. Even when he got dragged before, as I understand it, it wasn't that Paul preached for 18 months and at the end, Sosthenes and them drug him. It was sometime during those 18 months that that happened, but Paul stayed there for 18 months. Some point in time, Sosthenes was saved. It had happened under Paul for the furtherance of the gospel. See, Sassanus was an alien, wasn't he? According to Ephesians 2.12. He was a foreigner. He was without God and without hope. He was a stranger and he didn't have any of the promises and was not of the commonwealth of Israel. But by faith, Paul stayed and preached the gospel, and by faith, Sosthenes, what happened? He was grafted in, or he was brought in, into the fold, wasn't he? Again, the power of God, He will either turn them away, or He will turn them to Christ, won't He? And by turn them away, I'm not saying refuse them from coming to Christ, don't misunderstand me. Well, he will turn them away that his people will be able to do what God tells them or he will turn them unto himself and save them. And then they will no more be in opposition unto God and his people and his word. And it all started with what? Faith. Trusting and taking God at his word. And so may God help us that we might, as we go through our day, you may face some individual. Maybe a lost individual. And again, maybe the world, the flesh, and the devil. Only by faith will they be turned to flight. Now, it's entirely up to God whether He turns them away And they're no more as the five kings of the Amorites were, or if he turns them unto Christ as he did Sosthenes. That's all in God's hands. But we're to walk by faith. So may God help us that we'll do so.