of our church. Joshua chapter number 8, Joshua chapter number 8. We go from the dreadful scene in chapter 7 with the stoning of Achan and his family, the judgment of God necessary in a very sobering reminder of the consequences of sin. We go from that dreadful scene at the end of chapter 7 to our attention being drawn to chapter 8 and new instructions for the conquest of the next city that God would have them to conquer in the promised land, the land of Canaan, the little town of Ai, a town that they had already attempted to defeat, but without faith, without being right with God, and 36 men were slain. They ran from that little city and that small army, where once they had been great victors and just marching around by the power of God, victorious over Jericho. They had run from Ai, but now the sin had been dealt with. What had been a faithless, futile attempt to conquer AI was now contrasted with a faith-driven, God-sanctioned strategy. Sin had been dealt with. Judgment had been, justice had been meted out. Israel now had to march forward in the power of the Lord, by His grace, God's mercy provided another opportunity for Israel to claim God's promise of the land of Canaan. Yes, they had received a poignant reminder of the consequences of sin and the wrath of God, but they were reminded that God is still faithful to His promises. As Israel dealt with sin in the camp, God's justice was satisfied, the sin was forgiven, and it was time to move forward. 1 John 1.9, I love 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then we move forward, we go forward in the Christian life. We accept God's forgiveness, we claim the promise of forgiveness. And though Israel had learned a hard lesson, it was time to get up and get busy once again for the Lord. We see, first of all, discouragement about the past and fear of the future can cause us to drift and even backslide spiritually. Israel had a choice now to make. They could remain in fear and in discouragement, looking at the past, saying, how could they ever be successful? Woe is me. We are incapable. We have to live in this constant state of discouragement and defeat. But no. God called them to move forward. The sin had been dealt with. Yes, it had been a sobering reminder, it had been a poignant reminder of the consequences of sin and the wrath of God, but we also are reminded that God is a God of mercy, and a God of grace, and a God of forgiveness. And discouragement about the past and fear of the future must not cause us to drift and to backslide spiritually. We can get down and we can get defeated in the Christian life, can't we? We can be tempted to give up, to throw our hands up in despair, but God wants us to accept his forgiveness, humbly submit to the consequences, all while begging for his mercy. I've been there. How could I have been so stupid? Lord, please forgive me. Begging and pleading for his mercy, while humbly having to submit to the consequences. Israel had just been there. They had to accept his forgiveness. Sometimes we get defeated and discouraged in the Christian life and we say things like, well, I can never forgive myself. It's really not about us forgiving ourselves. It's really about claiming God's promise of forgiveness. If we confess our sins, if we in true repentance, confess and forsake our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. It's really about claiming his promises, accepting his forgiveness. And while we humbly submit to the consequences, begging for God's mercy, accepting His forgiveness, we are still commanded to go forward for the Lord, just like Israel. Psalm 37 and verse 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in His way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. Someone once said that the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. Proverbs 24 and verse 16, for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Again, we find ourselves often in the tension of Romans 7, as Paul would write, But did Paul stay there in defeat and discouragement? No. He pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And we must do the same. David, in Psalm 32, wrote of the restoring power of forgiveness. I wish we had time to go through the whole Psalm, Psalm 32, where David would cry out and even talk about his bones waxing old because of the consequences of his sin. But by the end of Psalm 32, we see David accepting God's forgiveness and being restored. Psalm 51, another Psalm that David wrote, around the time that he was confronted by the prophet Nathan, where Nathan said, thou art the man. And David penned, by the inspiration of God, Psalm 51 and verse 12, against thee, and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sights. He talked about being purged with hyssop, the cleansing forgiveness of God. And then he wrote in Psalm 51 and verse number 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirits. There is restoration. There is joy. There is the upholding hand of God, even though we may fail him miserably. make sinful choices, go back into sinful habits and thought patterns. We are thankful for the promises of God. We're thankful for His mercy and His grace that though the just man falls seven times, he can rise up again by the grace and the power of God. And we see that here with Israel. where they could not remain in discouragement and defeats. It was time to move forward. And what does God give Joshua in verse number one? The Lord said unto Joshua, fear not. He says, neither be thou dismayed. What does God give to Joshua as the answer for his worry, for his fear, for his discouragement, for their temptation to be defeated? He gives them the word of God. He gives them the promises of God. He reminds him to fear not, be not dismayed. He reminds him of the promises of God. The Word of God is exactly what Israel, what Joshua needed in this time of worry, fear, discouragement, and defeat. God said to Joshua, fear not, be not dismayed. Similar to Joshua 1 and verse number 9, right? Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest." I have had that verse, God has placed that verse upon my mind and my heart so many times in my life. I'm so thankful for Joshua 1 and verse number 9. And here we see the reminder of God's promise to fear not, do not be dismayed. Take all the people of war, he says in verse number one, take all the people of war with thee and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai and his people and his city and his land. Oh, what a much needed reminder of the promises of God. of God's abiding presence, that God desired to take Joshua and Israel and use them once again in the claiming of His promises in the conquest of Canaan. Joshua had the same promise from the Lord that he had heard before they ever crossed the Jordan River. Joshua had the same promise from the Lord, and he needed once again to grab hold of it and to live it out, live it out in faith and obedience. It was the Word of God that he needed, that Israel needed in this moment. And how desperately we need the Word of God in our times of weakness and disappointment and doubts. When we get discouraged and we say, God, how can you ever use me? How can I ever be effective in your service again? We claim the Word of God. We listen to the Word of God as we claim the promises, the principles, and the commands of Scripture. And we forget the things that are behind and we press forward to the things that are before. So we see discouragement and defeat is met with the Word of God and then from the Word of God there is a determination. A determination. Instead of attacking Ai in their own strength and wisdom, though, they followed the instructions of the Lord. God had renewed them. He had promised to them once again not to fear that he would be with them, to not be discouraged, to not remain in defeat, but to go forward. And he gave them instructions. He said, take all the people of war. I will tell you exactly how I want you to defeat Ai. The whole army was gathered. And then in verse two, and thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king, only the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves. Lay thee in ambush for the city behind it. I've loved wartime strategies. I've maybe mentioned this before. I would go down to Eagle Library. just a couple blocks down from the little Christian school where I attended. And in my day, as a young kid, I could check out, I believe it was, six books from the library. And I'd go to Little Eagle Library, and I would check out all six books. I'd max out my library card. And almost all of those books were history books, and specifically either Civil War or World War II. And I bought books on Gettysburg, and I would, we went to Gettysburg as a kid, and I would sometimes, in this one Gettysburg book, I would lay it out, and it was an artist's rendering of the Battle of Gettysburg, and it had all the blue, and it had all of the red for the Confederates, and it had all the different battle lines, and it would show the different moving of the troops, and then we got to go to Gettysburg, and I got to see it. And all that strategy, it always just fascinated me. And here we see from marching around Jericho to now a strategy of an ambush. God changes the strategy, and we'll get to this in a minute. I believe there's some applications here. But the basics of the strategy were they were to take a group, in verse 3, 30,000, and they were to move by night, and they were to move, we read, Verse four, and he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city. Go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready. So 30,000, by night, move behind the city, not very far from the city. And they were to be the ones who would be prepared to ambush Ai. But the rest of the army stayed on the other side of the city, to the north, on the other side of the valley. But then we read in verse number five, and I and all the people that are with me will approach unto the city and it shall come to pass when they come out against us is at the first that we will flee before them for they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city for they will say they flee before us is at the first therefore we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize upon the city for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands. So the strategy The strategy is to send the 30,000 behind the city to hide, and then the rest of the army would remain to the north on the other side, and then there would be 5,000 that would be sent ahead the next morning to lure the people of Ai out of the city. So the army of Ai, the next morning we read that they rose up early in the morning, and we read that The army of Ai saw that 5,000 that Joshua sent ahead, and they, looking out over, Ai sees the 5,000, and they say, oh, we can take them like we did the previous army, the previous attack. They will run from us like before. So here, God uses a sinless form of deception And they, in their strategy, send the 5,000, 30,000 hiding behind, the rest of the army hiding back away. And when that 5,000 approaches the city, the Aites come out in overconfidence, thinking they can just make the Israelite army run like they did before. And as they came out of the city, the 5,000 began to flee. coming back toward the main army. And the Aites think that they've got this battle won like last time. And we read, in verse number 11, all the people, even the people of war that were with him went up and drew nigh and came before the city and pitched on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between them and Ai. And he took about 5,000 men, sent them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city. That's that 5,000. And when he had sent the people, even all the hosts that was on the north of the city and their liars and wait on the west of the city, that's the 30,000 back behind. Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley, and it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hastened and rose up early. And the men of the city," this is verse 14 of Joshua 8, "'went out against Israel to battle he and all his people at a time appointed before the plain. But he wist not that there were liars and ambush against him behind the city.'" The whole city comes out eventually and chases what he thinks is a surrendering or retreating Israeli army. And as the whole city is emptied out, we come down, verse 15, and Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. And all the people that were in Ai were called together. to pursue after them. And they pursued after Joshua, were drawn away from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that went not out after Israel. And they left the city open and pursued after Israel. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. and the ambush arose quickly out of their place. And they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand and they entered into the city and took it and hasted and set the city on fire." So as it looks like they're running away, as the 5,000 are running away and as they begin to come close to the rest of the army, Joshua holds out his spear. That was the signal for the 30,000 to come and invade the city that was now empty, was open and ready for the advance of the Israeli army, and they marched right into the city. Obviously the rest of the army turned and marched in and defeated the entire Ai army, all the people, and the city was destroyed. We read there the great victory. We read there how God gave Ai into the hands of Israel. And in verse 20, And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon their pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again and slew the men of Ai, and the other issued out of the city against them. So they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side, and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. And the king of Ai, they took alive and brought him to Joshua. And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field and the wilderness therein, they chased them. And when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned into Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was that all that fell that day, both the men and women, were 12,000, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. A full and complete destruction. City burns and they were allowed, as we saw earlier in the chapter, they were allowed to take some of the spoils of the city. Achen would have been able to gather from the spoils had he just waited a little bit longer. If he had just restrained his flesh, obeyed the command of God, not succumbed to the temptation, he would have been able to enjoy the spoils of the city of Ai. How often we rush ahead of God and we spoil the best that God has for us because we want instant, selfish gratification. Again, God can forgive, He can renew, He can restore. But there is shame and reproach that we bear when we run ahead of God in disobedience and faithlessness. We never know what the consequences will be when we disobey God, but we thank God for his mercy. Ai was now in the hands of Israel, defeated, demolished. We have to remember, as hard as it is for us to, in this day and age, to think of what Israel did to the people of Canaan, we have to remember that these people, of Canaan had decades to repent and rejected God. If not for Rahab, and then in chapter 9 we'll see the Gibeonites, if only a small remnant, it was only a small remnant that repented, that saw the God of Israel as the Lord God Jehovah and turned to Him in saving faith. You gotta remember, again, that these people of Canaan, they were very much like the Hamas and the Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels, the terrorist organizations of today. There is a very one-to-one comparison when we understand what the people of Canaan were like. They were very much like what we see today among these terrorist organizations. Some of the things that we read that were done to the people of Israel, and on October 7th. Some of the things that we read about that the Taliban is doing in Afghanistan to women and children, that was par for the course for the people of Canaan. I'm not saying that we are in the dispensation where we take our swords and our spears and our tanks and our missiles and we go and we physically assault pagan countries. That's not the dispensation that we live in. But in this dispensation at this time, it was God's orders, God's command to wipe out the entire land of Canaan and renew it and restore it for God's purposes, for God's glory. To build altars and a tabernacle and eventually a temple that would honor the one true and living God. We're thankful for the Rahabs and her family, for Rahab and her family, for the Gibeonites and a handful of others that repented. But it just goes to show that the grips of sin can be generational. The grips of sin can affect entire cultures, and we're concerned about that right now here in America. That the way sin is gripping our culture, permeating our culture, and people are accepting lies and resorting to all sorts of different perversions. And it just goes to show how much sin can permeate a culture, can affect a people, but it begins with the individual. Each of us are individually responsible before God for our sin, and for our choices, and for our response to the gospel. The Canaanites and Ai were utterly destroyed, but God in this case allowed them to take from the spoils. Achen missed out because he chose to go his own way and do his own thing. And his sinful instant gratification, he died, was stoned and burned in that heap. as a reminder of the consequences of sin. And also remember that Jericho was the firstfruits. It was the firstfruits of the land that was to be specially dedicated to God. Ai was no longer the firstfruits. The victory still belonged to the Lord. The battle still belonged to the Lord. They still had to depend upon God and trust Him for the method. But Jericho was the firstfruits. And Akin's sin had to be dealt with in a severe way. Now they could take of the spoils, just as we are to give of the firstfruits of our increase. Just as the principle of firstfruits was applied in that day, we are still to be giving God our very best. But now they're in AI. They have conquered AI. And it was a different method, but it was still the same God. the Lord God Jehovah that they were to depend upon for victory. In this case, they could use swords, they could use spears, like typical military tools. They used ambush, a sinless form of deception. But the principles of victory remain the same. And you know, that's the way it is in the Christian life. The principles for victory over sin remain the same, but it can look a little bit differently from person to person, from battle to battle. We're all tempted, we all fail. 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. We're all sinners, we all have feet of clay, we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and we all have different propensities or weaknesses. The lure on one satanic fishing line may not appeal to some of us as the lure may appeal to someone else. I'm not much of a fisherman, I've done a little bit of fishing, but you can ask some of the men in here who are good fishermen, they use different lures, different times of the day, different types of currents, different types of climate, environment, weather, all those different things, and the type of fish that they're trying to get, certain types of lures that they use. And Satan knows our weaknesses. Satan knows the Achilles heel, the chink in our armor. We're all sinners. We all have temptations that are common to man. We sometimes get this victim mentality, oh, woe is me, no one else faces, yes, someone somewhere or other people right now are facing the same thing or worse. Sometimes we get the woe is me mentality. We're to remember there are no temptations taking you, but such as is common to man. The principles of victory, though, remain the same, though there may be a little difference from person to person, from battle to battle, from the Jericho's to the Ai's. We know some people are tempted more by money, some more by power, some more by sensual lust, but all of us are tempted. The lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, it appeals to all of us, because we're sinners by nature and by birth. And even as believers, we have the old man, and the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And Satan walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And we saw what happened to Israel when they faithlessly ran ahead of God, not examining themselves and searching the camp to see if there was sin, not praying and seeking God. And they were defeated by a little town of Ai. Now they had victory. A little different method, but the same principle, depending upon God, trusting his word and following God's commands. As believers, we are all commanded to put on the whole armor of God, in Ephesians 6. We know that the word of God, prayer, and faith are essentials for trusting God, for depending upon Him for victory in the Christian life. God gives us wisdom, God gives us strength to apply His truths in such a way that we can have victory over sin. We have a mind that's to be sober. We're to have the mind of Christ. We're to gird up the loins of our mind. We're not to empty our minds. Again, I don't mean to be overly critical of the phrase, let go and let God. I understand there's a well-meaning intent behind that phrase, trusting God, but we're to do everything that God has empowered us to do for ourselves while trusting him. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord. There is a preparation of the horse for battle. We're to be prepared people. to put on the whole armor of God to be good students of the word as a workman that is not ashamed. We're to be people of prayer and of faith. We're to take the word of God and apply the truths and wisdom and by God's strength, apply the truth of the word of God to the circumstances, the temptations in our lives, that we might have victory over sin, that we might be faithful, effective believers. in the Lord's service. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. We need God's wisdom. They needed God's wisdom for Jericho, they needed God's wisdom for Ai. We have the Jerichos in our lives, we have the Ais in our lives. We'll have the Gibeonites in our lives, we'll have other types of Ais, Canaanites in our lives. We depend upon God. We must be willing maybe to place a guardrail or a fence in our life in a stricter place to help prevent a certain danger. We know there's a real present danger in that area, so we put a guardrail, we put a fence. It may be a little stricter than someone else, but we know we have to have it. We may have to limit or remove access to certain temptations. There are some temptations that you can't completely avoid because you have to go to work and deal with that person. You have to go to a ball game or a team and play there. I mean, there's certain places and things and certain classes and areas that you have to go to and you know you have to deal with that particular issue. You know there's gonna be a temptation, but we limit the temptations as best we can with the Lord's help and by his wisdom. We make it hard to sin and easy to do right. If we have a quick temper, we need to memorize scripture and depend upon the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that is. But we also may have to quit playing a sport. We may have to remove ourselves from a highly competitive environment because we know we can't handle it. I had a friend in high school who had a terrible temper. He was confronted at the Christian college that he attended and he eventually told us he said he had to quit a particular sport because he couldn't handle it. It was better for him to cut off that hand or pluck out that eye rather than to offend. Sometimes we have to make those kinds of radical spiritual amputations. So the victory over sin, the principles, the commands, the promises for victory, they remain the same. We depend upon the Lord by his grace and by his strength, according to his mercy. But it may look a little differently from person to person, from battle to battle. Jericho was the first fruits of the land, a special dedication to the Lord that required a unique miracle and a lesson in full and complete dependence on the Lord. While there was still full and complete dependence on the Lord for Ai, It was a different strategy. It involved an ambush, and it did involve some swords and spears. It involved the army going into full-scale battle. It was a little different method, but still required full dependence and full faith and trust in the Lord. In this dispensation, in the dispensation in which we live, God still performs miracles. But we don't go out and expect God to part the waters of the Wabash River. We drive our cars across the bridge. You might get in a boat and float across. Maybe you're daring enough to swim across. I don't know if anybody would, you might become toxic or radiate or become radioactive or something. But God still performs miracles in this dispensation. I know I'm being a little silly by saying he doesn't part the waters of the Wabash River but God does perform miracles in the saving of souls, in the healing of diseases and sicknesses with, or sometimes even without, the use of medicine. We're thankful for good surgical procedures, good medicines, different types of activities and skills, or doctors and nurses with skills, and we're thankful for some of the medical technology, but sometimes God heals without any of those. He does miracles in the saving of souls, in protecting us from accidents and tragedies, maybe in providing for a certain financial or material need. God still performs miracles, but we know that more importantly than the physical miracles are the spiritual ones. Victory over a sinful habit or addiction, grace to endure a devastating circumstance with a testimony that honors God, The salvation of a loved one, particularly after years of resistance, those are all miracles. We are thankful for the grace of God to give us victory. Some of us know the sins that so easily beset us. Some of us stand here or sit here knowing the types of addictions and habits that God has allowed by his grace to break in our lives. First of all, the salvation that we know As a born-again believer, if someone here does not know Christ as your personal Savior, you're still in that bondage of sin. You can experience the breaking of that bondage of sin, and you can be gloriously saved, and you can be born again. And you can know and experience the supernatural work of God in saving you from an eternal hell and forgiveness of sin. That's the greatest miracle. But we think of some of the habits and addictions and think of some of the issues that we have in our life and some of those sinful patterns of behavior and wrong thinking patterns. And God dealt with us and maybe even used an individual in our life to, like a Nathan, point the finger in our face and say, you are the man. You're the one. And we look back and we're thankful for those people. We're thankful for God using individuals. We're thankful for the passages of scripture where God arrested our hearts and our minds and brought us to our knees. And we're thankful for those victories. For the things that we used to do, we don't do them anymore. The things we used to say, we don't say them anymore. There's a great change that God has worked in our hearts. The principles for victory over sin. include careful study and application of the word of God, faithfulness to church, fellowship and accountability to fellow believers, prayer, putting on the armor of God, habits of godliness, being filled with the spirit and ultimately trusting God. And that may require some counseling where there's hours of going through layer after layer. It may require sometimes hard, difficult confrontations with people who may or may not love us or may have hurt us. There's multiple ways in which God helps us in applying the truth of the word of God with his wisdom to our circumstances, to our relationships, to our situations where we can have the victory to God's glory, and it may not be the victory that we think. Sometimes I've walked out of meetings and I've had parents pull their kids out of our Christian school and basically give me a Christian cussing on the way out the door. But at the same time, God was doing a victory, was working in that situation in ways that I didn't even realize. And sometimes it was just a few days later I realized it was probably a good thing that they left. It even was an opportunity for me to do some self-inspection, to do some self-examination, where I could learn. Sometimes I've been the one who has to fall on my own sword, and I'm the one who has to say, please forgive me, I was wrong here. We have all of these different methods for victory. But ultimately it all comes down to depending fully and trusting fully and completely upon the Word of God, upon the Lord God Jehovah and trusting Him. They trusted him for victory over Jericho, and it was a parade around the city, six days, and then on the seventh, seven times around, and trumpets blowing and a shout. In Ai, at Ai, it involved, first of all, getting rid of some sin in the camp, and then it involved 30,000 soldiers on one side, the rest of the army on the other side, and 5,000 going out to lure the Aites out of the city. There are times where we find we have the Jerichos and we have the Ais. But no matter what it is, we trust God. We depend upon the Lord. We apply His word. We apply the truths of God's word, the principles, the commands, and the promises to that situation, to that relationship, that ultimately God would receive the glory, because God is ultimately the one who is the victor. So we've seen defeat and discouragement. We've seen determination. We've seen victory, and now we see in verses 30 through 35, in the verses that we read in our scripture reading earlier, we see renewal. We see renewal. Verse 30, now I had my timeline wrong, I apologize. I had mentioned this altar before, but I had the timeline wrong in my previous sermon, so I apologize. It was here that they fulfilled what Moses had commanded in Deuteronomy 27, to build this altar unto the Lord. They defeat Ai, And they build an altar, verse 30, unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel. That was Deuteronomy 27, written in the book of the Law of Moses. And it was an altar of whole stones. They were not to use any kind of tools. They were not to carve off, or chip, or saw, or anything. They were simply to take whole stones, over which no man lift up any iron, and they offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings, specific offerings. burnt offerings often dealt with sin, the peace offerings often dealing with a relationship with God and worship and offering praise to Him. So we have the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, both offered on this altar. And then notice in verse 32 what was written on the side of the altar. It was a copy of the Law of Moses. We understand that in ancient days, kings would write a record of their accomplishments on huge stones covered with plaster. Sometimes archeological digs will find these and there's some sort of written record of the triumphs of some king. But what was written on the side of this altar? It was the law of God. Joshua didn't write, I won the battle of Jericho, I won the battle of Ai, look at me. No, he wrote the glory of God. He wrote the word of God. He gave praise to God. He said, to God belongs the victory and the glory. Joshua did not record his successes. He wrote the law of God, the true source of victory. As believers, we have the law of God. We have the word of God. This is the source of our victory. Do we know it? Do we study it? Do we meditate it? Do we apply it? Do we live it? As believers, we have the law of God written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Romans 8, 1-4, 2 Corinthians 3, verses 1-3. As believers, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us who points us to the truth, to Jesus Christ. We are a living sacrifice, Romans 12 says. We're to lay ourselves upon the altar. We die daily to our flesh, as Paul would write. And then notice what they did after they offered the sacrifices and wrote the law. We see that also that they read the law. They took time now in verses 32 through 35 and they read the law. And they read between the two mountains, Gerizim and Ebal. It was like a natural amphitheater. And they stood and they listened. And as the law was read, it would have echoed across between those two mountains in that valley, like in an amphitheater. And we read there that the elders and the officers and the judges stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priest, the Levites, verse 33, as well as the stranger between Gerizim and Ebal, the two mountains, as Moses, the servant the Lord had commanded before. that they should bless the people. And afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings. How many times do we only read the blessings? We like certain passages, right? And there are people who do this a lot. And it's all about the blessings, but those passages that are the cursings, I don't know, we'll kind of skip over those. It's the whole law. The blessings and the cursings were read as it is written. In verse 35, there was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel. As he stood there, I don't know what kind of a podium or pulpit he had, but he read word after word. And he declared the truth of God. The law had been given to them at Mount Sinai, repeated by Moses in his final sermon in Deuteronomy, and now they're reminded of the word of God as it is read before them. I don't know how long that took. Genesis through Deuteronomy. I should keep you here a couple more hours, right, to read Genesis through Deuteronomy? Just joking. But it's hard for us to sit through a 45-minute message. Can you imagine how many hours they sat or stood listening to the law? This was a renewal of the covenant. It was a renewal of their covenant with God and a renewal of their commitment to conquer the land, to obey the command of God, to fulfill his promises as he had promised them, the victory and the defeats of the Canaanites. They were to fulfill that. They were to not take the promises of God and again, make it a pillow or to turn into statues, the promises of God, the commands, the principles, they were provocations to go forward and to claim the victory. And how much we are reminded of the word of God being a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. that we are not led by superstition, by visions, by signs and wonders. We're not led by our feelings or our selfish desires. According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of His word. In Hebrews 1 and verse number 1, in times past, through various sundry means, diverse manners, sundry ways, God declared His truth unto His prophets, but now, now He hath given unto us His Son. We have the truth of the Word of God. I'm not quoting that verse correctly, but the point is that in various ways, in diverse manners, God gave the revelation of God's Word to the prophets, but now He has declared His truth through His Son, the living Word of God. We have the whole canon of Scripture. We're not to live by our feelings and our selfish desires. Some people live by superstition, worried about every little thing. Every little thing has some sort of hidden meaning. And they live almost in a paranoia, looking over their shoulder. What's gonna happen next? What did that mean? What was that? No, we're not to live in superstition. We're not looking for visions and signs and wonders. Those gifts have ceased. We have the completed written word of God. We have the living word of God, Jesus Christ, who came and bore our sins on the cross and rose again. We apply the principles, promises, and commands to the circumstances we face. We don't go against them. We don't disobey them. We don't ignore them. We obey the principles, the promises, the commands of God's word. That requires that we leave behind past failures. that we accept God's forgiveness and we determine to go forward for the Lord in victory, renewing our commitment to the Lord and to accomplishing His perfect will for our lives. We claim His word, we obey His word, and we follow Him completely. Great lessons from Joshua chapter eight. May we apply them each and every day of our lives going forward for His glory. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this tremendous chapter that helps us. We face the Jerichos, we also face the AIs. Reminders in both of how much we need to depend upon you, search our hearts, trust you, listen to your word, apply it, live it out, trust it, obey it. Lord, we ultimately trust you for the victory. and to you belongs all the glory. I pray, Lord, that you will work in our hearts. If there's someone here does not know you as their Savior, may today, may the day they turn from their sin and turn to you in saving faith and trust your finished work on the cross and your resurrection for forgiveness of their sin, for cleansing of their sin. As believers, Lord, may we go out from here committed and determined, Lord, to go forward for you, forgetting those things which are behind, pressing forward to those things which are before. For the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.