The Lord Fought for Israel

10.

I love that song.

We continue our series in the Book of Joshua.

Say hey.

The end of the year is coming up not too far away.

You got a lot of chapters to go.

We're not going to cover them all.

We preached Joshua chapter nine last week.

Joshua, chapter ten.

The title today is the Lord Fought for Israel.

We won't read this entire chapter.

It's a long chapter.

Let's begin reading in verse six.

And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal,

saying, slack not thy hand from thy servants and 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.

And so Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of

war with him and all 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.

Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly and went up from Gilgal

all night.

And the Lord discomforted them before Israel and slew them with

a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that

goeth up to Beth Horon and smote them to Azekah and to Makida

Makkedah again.

Just got to say those things fast.

And it comes out right.

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel and were

going down into Beth Horon, that the Lord cast down great stones

from heaven upon them unto Ezekiel.

And they died.

And there were more which died with the hailstones than they whom

the children of Israel slew with the sword.

But you think that's a great miracle, look at this verse 12.

Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered

up the Amorites before the children of Israel.

And he said, in the sight of Israel, son, S u n, stand thou still

upon Gibeon.

And thou moon in the valley of Aijalon.

And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people

had avenged themselves upon their enemies.

Is it not this written in the book of Jasher?

So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to

go down upon a whole day.

And there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord

hearkened unto the voice of a man.

For the Lord.

Look at this.

For the Lord fought for Israel.

Look at verse 15.

Before we pray.

And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him unto the camp to

Gilgal.

Just kind of remind you that every time they went and fought.

They come back to Gilgal.

They go fight.

Come back to Gilgal.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord, for your love and your tender

mercies.

And I pray God that today we again would see, Lord, that you are

fighting for us.

And Lord, that we are more than conquerors through you that

loved us and gave yourself for us.

And I pray today we would again just see the importance of

obedience to you and following you, allowing you to lead us and

Lord, accepting the promise that if we will follow, that you

will fight for us.

Lord, we thank you.

In Jesus name, Amen.

As we think about the book of Joshua again, we think about our

theme for the year.

Higher ground.

Higher ground.

And God's purpose or God's will for every Christian is that

we live a victorious Christian life.

That is, that should be and indeed is the goal of every Christian.

Remember now, God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt.

He delivered them from Egypt with a mighty hand.

The Bible says he delivered them from Egypt.

And there's so many ways in which God describes that.

But he delivers them from Egypt with a mighty hand.

He delivers them from Egypt on eagle's wings.

So descriptive of how great God.

A great God performed miraculous things for the children

of Israel.

Great deeds he did for Israel in order to deliver them out of Egypt.

But he didn't deliver them out of Egypt to simply wander in the

wilderness.

Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verse 23.

Deuteronomy 6:23

Again in those sermons by Moses, Moses said, and he brought

us out.

He brought us out of Egypt from thence that he might bring us

in.

He brought us out of Egypt to bring us into the promised land.

He brought us out of Egypt to bring us into Canaan land.

He brought us out of Egypt.

He delivered us from Egypt in order that we might live the victorious

Christian life.

That we might live that life that Jesus intended for us to live.

When he said, I came to give life, I'm so thankful.

God's will for everyone is to be saved.

God wants everyone to accept him as savior.

God wants a personal relationship with you.

He desires a personal relationship with you.

So much so that he sent his son, Jesus Christ, his only begotten

son, to die for our sins.

To be buried and rise again from the dead in order that we might

have eternal life.

He gives life.

Jesus said, I came to give life.

But he didn't stop there.

He said, and give life more abundant.

Aren't you thankful this morning that it's not just heaven

that we gain when we get saved?

I mean, that's a great Thing to escape hell and have a home in

heaven.

And knowing that, not hoping so, not thinking so.

But I'm thankful.

I know when I die, I will go to heaven.

I know when I die, I will escape hell.

Because I put my trust, my faith in Jesus Christ, his life,

his death and his resurrection as my only means of escaping the

wrath of God upon sin.

But that's not where it ends.

God does so much more for us in giving us again that abundant

life.

To give us a rich life, to give us a life that's meaningful

and with purpose.

And so many people today are looking for life with meaning.

Can I tell you, man?

God gives us that and more than that, his love, his grace and

his mercy.

And I could go on and on, but Moses reminded the children of Israel.

Hey, God didn't bring you out of Egypt and deliver you from Egypt

just so you could wander for 40 years in the wilderness.

He brought you out that he might bring you into Canaan.

He brought them out after 400 years of bondage, he sent Moses to

deliver them.

They came to Mount Sinai and they received the Ten Commandments

and they came to Jordan.

And because of the lack of faith, they did not cross over at

that time.

Now, 40 years later, they've come through the wilderness journey.

They crossed Jordan on dry ground.

What a great miracle.

They set up some special memorials there.

Not only in the Jordan river, but in gilgal.

Set up 12 stones to remind them of the great miracle God performed

by parting the Jordan River.

The camp in Gilgal became a special place.

The city of Gilgal became a special place.

Then they surrounded Jericho and God made the walls come down.

A battle they could not win on their own.

An impossible, impossible enemy to defeat.

And God did it for them.

God fought for them.

They lost the battle in AI, a smaller city that they should have

no doubt defeated.

But because of hidden sin and because of their prayerlessness and

disobedience, they were defeated.

But then, as they asked for forgiveness and God forgave them

and they got rid of sin in the camp, then they went in, they won

and defeated AI and Bethel.

After that great victory, they came to the valley of Shechem between

those two mountains and rededicated themselves to the Lord

and reconsecrated themselves and renewed themselves.

By the way, we as Christians sometimes need to do that.

We just need a time to say, hey, Lord, I thank you for the victories.

And Lord, the defeats happen.

And Lord, I'm sorry, Lord, I want to yield myself to you, consecrate

myself to you, and Then we have the deceitfulness of the Gibbonites.

Remember that.

That's what we preached on last Sunday and we illustrated.

The picture here is that of us as Christians dealing with the enemy,

the world, the flesh and the devil.

But again, the devil uses all his devices and he is deceitful.

He's not just a roaring lion, he's also a snake.

Sometimes, again, I think I'm the one who says it more often than

anything.

He's a roaring lion seeking who may devour.

We never mention about again the snake, just so deceitful.

He's a liar seeking to deceive you.

And that's what the Gibeonites did.

They deceived Israel, made a league with them.

You have to go back and read it yourself in chapter nine.

And now we are starting the battle of the southern campaign.

So Jericho and AI are the middle portion of the land.

And we're fixing to see the Gibbonites live in the southern part.

And so he's about to start the southern campaign.

And he starts the southern campaign with an invitation to come.

The Gibeonites said, hey, we made a league with you.

And we have these five kings who come up against us, Come help

us.

And so in verses 1 through 5, we see the Amorites, the Canaanites.

There the kings make alliances.

These five kings, these are again the enemies.

Israel, by the way, the enemy of Israel is the enemy of God.

I want to remind you, lots are going on in the news.

And I'm thankful for a country who has stood behind Israel.

I'm thankful for a president that stands behind Israel.

These five kings feared the alliance that Israel had made with

Gibeon.

And because of that fear, they, five of them, five kings got

together and said, hey, let's make a lead together, an alliance

together, and let's go.

Let's go defeat and let's go attack.

The Gibeonites, they feared these five kings feared Israel.

They feared Israel.

And they feared Joshua because of the success they'd had at Jericho.

They feared him because of the success they had had at AI.

And they were coming for them.

They knew it.

And so again we see this fear taking place.

It is amazes me how many times that when God uses someone or God

does something for someone, that sometimes we as Christians have

a tendency to, I don't know, be jealous.

This is dealt with in the New Testament many times when it comes

to the book of Corinthians and Romans, when the Bible makes it clear

that God has given to every Christian gifts to use in the church

to help build up the church, to help encourage the church.

And the Bible says that God gave gifts to everyone as he saw

fit.

So we're going to be careful in the Christian life that successes

of others, that we rejoice with those who have success and don't

allow ourselves that selfishness to impose upon our will

and cause ourselves to sin because of it.

See, God promised Israel that if they would do right, he would

be with them.

God promised if Israel would follow him, that he would bless them,

that he would fight for them.

Over and over and over again he promises that he will fight for

them.

And in light of that, Joshua saw great success.

I'm thankful for a church who believes the Bible, who believes

the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God and that it

is our roadmap.

It's our guide.

This is how God speaks to us.

Of course we understand the Holy Spirit as well in that still

small voice.

But as God speaks to us, this is a lamp unto our feet, a light

unto our path.

We're to follow Him.

We're to.

As he guides us, we're to lean not into our own understanding, but

in all thy ways.

Acknowledge him and he will direct our paths.

I'm thankful that we, as a church, and I'll put it this way,

believe in the old paths, that we still believe in the old time

way.

That we believe that a successful church is one that follows

the Bible, that the Bible is our guide.

The Bible makes it clear that preaching is paramount.

That it's through the foolishness of preaching that God

uses to save souls in the New Testament.

It's through preaching that God uses to teach his people and

build his people up and encourage his people.

We believe in prayer.

Prayer is a muscle that moves the arm of God.

Pray without ceasing.

Amen.

We ought to always be in an attitude of prayer.

We believe again in worship and singing.

I'm thankful for the music we have here at our church.

I've said that a whole lot the last couple, two, three Sundays.

I'm just amazed how God is using those who play instruments

here and those who have a voice.

And God's been so good to us and we ought to worship him in spirit

and in truth.

And it's important again, the preaching, the praying, the singing.

By the way, I'm still glad that we're a church that says Amen

every once in a while.

Shout.

Don't lose the shout.

We talked about this the other here a while back.

Amen.

Just simply means I agree let's practice.

Ready?

I agree.

See, that's awesome.

I'm thankful for a church who still believes in altars though.

I would say, and I haven't said this yet, I'm going to say it

this morning.

Since COVID hasn't been used as much.

I hate to even bring up the COVID word.

I kind of want to ask as your pastor, why, when's the last time

you went to the altar to pray and to cast your care upon the Lord

or to come here and die to self and the altar is a place to

come die on.

That's what altars were used for.

I'm glad I'm part of a church that's a soul winning church who

believes that the Great Commission is our mission, that winning

people to Jesus and giving them the gospel and seeing them baptized

and seeing them discipled is our main purpose.

That's the goal.

That's where and if it's our goal, then our budget should reflect

that.

And it does.

I'm so thankful for a church who gives the amount of finances

we have to missions and so many other things.

Somebody's asked me again here recently about why our church is

a little different.

And I always say, well, I think it's church like it used to

be.

It's not a bad thing now.

It's not old fashioned as in 50 years ago, but old fashioned as

in 2000 years ago.

The church should be timeless.

Help me out.

Amen.

I mean, I know our crowd here this morning, we like, we believe

this is it.

I said to somebody, the church I grew up until I was 11, the church

I grew up in until I was 11, Bible Baptist Church in Bowie.

God blessed that church.

It grew and it saw revival.

And lots of men were called to preach out of that church over about

a 20 year span.

About 20 or 30 men were called to preach.

It was just an amazing church as a kid.

And when I think of that church, that's the church I think

about that I want to see reproduced.

And that's what I see today.

Whether it's children's church or vbs or all the things we're involved

in, God uses those things.

Success as a church.

We've seen recently across the nation.

Record visitors to churches.

Record of visitors.

First time visitors.

You can go read about it.

Record.

Listen to this.

Record Bible sales in the last two or three weeks.

Record.

Not like, oh yeah, they sold a few Bibles.

Record Bible sales.

Why?

Well, Charlie Kirk, I think it just, it just slaps some people in

the face, especially Christians it just kind of, hey,

better wake up, better wake up.

Better see that what we've been saying and preaching that our

nation's headed the wrong way.

We see that in full focus when it comes to the assassination of

Charlie Kirk.

And.

But we do see the reaction, kind of like we had at 9, 11, the

reaction of people.

But listen, that has to be maintained in order to see success.

And that's what Israel had.

They had to maintain it.

They had to keep going.

They had to be steadfast.

I pray for America.

I hope you do too.

I know you.

I know you do pray for the Christians and churches that we have

revival.

The kings feared Israel.

I say the world needs to see God do a work in us and through us.

And they ought to recognize it.

They certainly recognized God.

Miraculous miracles he did for Israel.

And they ought to see those things in us.

We see number two, Joshua responds to the Gibeonites request.

We have the kings kind of getting together and marching against

Gibeon in verses one through five.

And then we have the response of Gibeon or response of Joshua to

Gibeon.

And they said to him, do not delay, come up.

They're already fighting against us.

They're already taking us down.

And Joshua did not delay.

The Bible says Joshua did all he could before God did all he did.

I know it's cliche, but it's also biblical principle.

You want God to do something for you, then you move forward.

You take the initiative.

Amen.

God, man worked a mighty miracle after Joshua.

The Bible says in verse seven, ascended from Gilgal, he and all

the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor.

And the Lord said to Joshua, fear not.

Listen, I'm going to take care of you.

God promised them a victory.

Go forward and I'll take care of you.

But go forward, don't wait.

Maybe there's someone in the auditorium this morning who's waiting

to get saved.

No.

Don't boast thyself of tomorrow.

The Bible says no man knows what tomorrow may bring forth.

You don't know what's going to happen.

I don't know what's going to happen.

The Bible says today is the day of salvation.

I hope today you know Jesus Christ as your savior, the greatest

decision you'll ever make.

We do have an invitation at the end of the service here.

In a few minutes, song will start playing and we invite you to

come forward and we'll show you from the Bible how you can have

Jesus Christ as your savior, how you can have a personal Relationship

with Jesus, how you can have your sins forgiven.

I hope that you know you're saved.

Fear not, he said, God said in verse eight, the Bible says Joshua

came down suddenly and went to Gilgal.

By the way, he did it all night.

It's not that.

He just said, alright, God magically make my enemies disappear.

No, no, no.

He put the effort in.

They marched all night.

They marched all night.

Imagine how tired they were when they got to Gibeon.

Marching all night, tired.

Well, it didn't matter because God was going to fight for them anyway.

I mean, God sent stones down.

I could just see God up in heaven.

I don't.

Nobody knows what I'm trying to do.

Yeah.

Instead of, you know, a bullet, it's big stones.

God's shooting them down.

That's what it says.

I'm illustrating it a little funny because that's just the way

that I am.

But he sent stones from heaven.

More were killed by the stones that God sent than all that Israel

slew.

So who won the battle?

Who actually won the battle?

God won the battle.

And he did so as he had already done at Jericho, to show

the children of Israel.

I will fight for you.

You, you can't do this on your own.

You can't defeat this alliance of these five kings and these five

nations.

You can't do it on your own.

You cannot accomplish that on your own.

And can I tell you, we cannot defeat the enemies in our life.

We cannot defeat the flesh, the world and the devil in our life.

God has to do it for us.

And we have to rely upon Him.

Do things God's way and he will fight for you.

Follow God's will and he will fight for you.

I don't have time to.

The illustration I want to give, but some of you will get it

without me having to give the whole thing.

Think about Elijah and the widow woman.

As Elijah approached the widow woman and God said, hey, tell this

widow lady to make you some food.

I'm summarizing.

And he approaches the widow woman.

The widow woman says, I only have enough for me and my son, and

we're going to eat this and die.

Elijah said, well, make me one first.

Now she knew he was the man of God.

She knew that God spoke through him.

And so she obeyed because she knew that that was what God wanted

her to do.

And she did that.

And guess what happened?

The oil that she had never ran out.

That barrel of meal never ran out.

She would go the next day and she would, you know, use all of it

and come back the next day.

And there would be more in it.

Oh, there's more in it.

And it's amazing.

It's a great miracle.

And because she did it God's way, because she followed the Lord,

because she was an obedient to the Lord, God fought for her, sent

Elijah.

God will fight for you, Number three.

God will do the impossible when you do it his way.

Love it.

Joshua prayed.

And the Bible says here he prayed before all of Israel.

So get that understanding now.

He's not just over in his closet in this instance, praying

to God.

Lord, no, no, no.

All of Israel heard him as he prayed in verse 12.

Stand still.

He prayed for the sun to stand still, the moon to stand still, for

the day to be longer in order that they might completely defeat

their enemies before the sun went down.

Oh, you say, oh, that can't.

That's not.

That's impossible, preacher.

And I'm not sure about all those miracles in the Bible.

I think it's more of a metaphor.

You know, it's an allegory.

No, it's not.

Say, what happened on that day?

The sun stood still.

What happened on that day?

The moon stood still.

Amen.

You say, well, you don't understand.

You know, the sun doesn't really.

The earth is going around.

I just.

That's what the Bible says.

The earth stopped rotating.

He said, well, if you do that, everybody falls off because there's

no gravity.

And.

Well, who made the natural laws and who made the earth and all

things therein?

God did.

God made it.

God created in the beginning.

God created the heavens and the earth.

All things were made by him.

Without him was not anything made that was made.

He who made the sun, moon and stars has authority over the sun,

moon and stars.

He who made the natural laws has authority over the natural laws.

I mean, even in the ship, he said, wind, be still.

The wind stopped, the wind ceased, the storm stopped.

He has his power over nature because he created it.

We don't have to balk.

We don't have to be skeptic of what God has and what he's written

in his book concerning miracles.

No, no, we accept it by faith.

Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

The Bible says Genesis 18.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Luke and I could go on Jeremiah, all reference that nothing's

too hard for God.

God can do the impossible.

By the way, just as a side note, you either believe in eternal

matter or eternal master.

The evolutionists believe in eternal matter.

Where did the speck of dust come from?

They have to believe in eternal Matters have to.

I also have to believe that inanimate produced animate.

That a rock came alive.

Takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does the creation

story of the Bible.

By the way.

Evolution is a belief system.

It's not a fact.

And it still bothers me that it's presented as a fact instead

of a theory.

It's not a fact.

It's preposterous.

Oh my goodness.

I wish I had time.

Have you ever studied, have you ever read about a gecko lizard?

Oh, my goodness.

I promise you, go home.

There's lots of YouTube videos, love the Internet.

Go home, type in gecko lizard and look at just that lizard alone.

What it can do.

It can.

Its little feet can stick on anything glass.

It can go upside down anywhere it wants to go.

Don't you wish you could do that?

Like spider man?

If gecko is a spider man, go read about it.

So cool.

How did that.

How did that evolve?

No, no, no, no, no.

Evolve.

We didn't come from monkeys.

We were created by a heavenly father who loves us, who, personally,

I'm thankful for a personal God.

Amen.

Verse 14 says, There was no day like it.

Well, yeah, apparently the day was much longer.

And it says verse 14 at the end of the verse.

What for?

The Lord fought for Israel.

God fought for them.

In verses 15 through 27, we have.

The enemy was defeated.

These kings were humiliated.

And I'm going to skip some of this, but the kings hid in a cave.

The Bible says these five kings hid in a cave and the battle

was still going on.

So Joshua said, hey, just put a stone over the cave.

We'll just keep them in there while we go finish the obliteration

of our enemies.

And they went and they finished defeating the enemy.

They came back, opened the cave up, he put the.

Got the five kings out and took five captains.

And John, you love this one.

And he put them in front of all of Israel and had the captains

put their foot on their neck.

John used to say that a lot.

Put my foot on your neck.

And then he killed them.

Then he hung them in a tree and he said, and all the people returned.

And there was none moved his tongue against any of the children

of Israel.

In other words, all of those enemies that fled, that escaped into

the walled cities, none of them talked bad about Israel anymore

because that would have an effect on you.

Verse 25, he says, and Joshua said unto them, fear not, be not

dismayed.

Be strong and of good courage.

Thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you Fight,

in other words, these kings and the killing of those kings.

God's going to do that to all your enemies.

By the way it says whom ye fight, I just always include.

The initial activation is that you initiate.

God provides.

That's what it says.

Just as Joshua ascended, God will fight for you.

A couple of things and we're done.

When God works in our lives, others take notice.

God working in my life and others take notice.

Remember, people are watching you.

Go forward.

Take the initiative.

Joshua.

Get up.

Go forward and God will do the rest.

Occupy till I come.

The Bible says, don't be weary in well doing.

For in due season you shall reap.

If you faint not.

Be steadfast, unmovable.

Always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Remind you this morning that God's still on the throne.

Amen.

Go forward.

Nothing is impossible to God.

No request too big or too hard for God.

The sun moon stood still.

And no matter what request you bring to God, remember that prayer

is powerful.

Why is praying powerful?

Because we have a powerful God.

The Lord will fight for you.

In verses 14, he says it and then verse 42, after they defeated

the rest of the kings of the south, he said the Lord fought for

them.

And he reminded of that over and over and over and over and over

and over and over again.

When we're just the same way, we need to be reminded over and over

and over and over and over and over and over that we cannot defeat

the enemy.

That God has to fight for us.

We had to rely upon him.

We had to depend upon him.

I'll mention again about the stepping on the neck.

What's the illustration there?

Well, many of us need to step on the neck of jealousy.

Those five kings were enemies.

Our enemy many times is us.

It's our flesh.

We need to step on the neck of pride in our life and the neck of

having a critical spirit or having a harsh tongue.

We need to step on the neck of our old nature.

Crucify it.

What happens?

Well, if they didn't kill those kings, they just kept popping

out of the cave.

That's what our old nature does.

It just kind of pops out of the cave every once in a while.

No, they utterly destroyed those kings.

And then lastly, Gilgal.

Gilgal is mentioned five times in this chapter in verse 7 and verse

15 and verse 43.

It talks of going back to Gilgal.

Back to Gilgal?

They went back to Gilgal.

Now what happened when they went back to Gilgal?

Well, they saw the stones.

They remembered what God had done for Them when they crossed over

Jordan, how he had dried up the Jordan River.

When they went back to Gilgal, they remembered how again that God

had done such great things for them and bringing them into the Jordan

river and then up out of the Jordan River.

When they went back to Gilgal, they remembered the renunciation.

In other words, they did perform again the Lord's Supper.

Not the Lord's Supper, but you know, the Passover.

That was terrible.

Wasn't took a while for that to click.

But they performed the Passover.

In other words, they came back to God.

They came back to the Lord.

The Passover had to do with their communication with the Lord.

And they wanted that personal relationship with Jesus and with

the Lord.

And then there's other things they did at Gilgal, all those things

to remind them of the importance of depending upon God,

of the relationship with the Lord.

It's where the captain of the Lord of hosts showed up.

And Joshua said to him, are you for us or are you against us?

Had his sword drawn, said, I'm neither.

I'm telling you we need to go to Calvary.

And we need to go to Calvary over and over and over and over and

over and over again.

In our life, we didn't remember the sacrifice that Christ

made on Calvary.

We need to be remembered that the relationship that we have with

the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, when the Amorites come opposed and come against you, it's

that we need to go to Calvary.

Well, I did that at salvation.

Yeah, at salvation we come to Calvary for again rescuing, being

saved from our sins, eternally saved.

But can I tell you, it's still we as Christians coming back to Calvary

over and over and over again as Christians to be reminded of the

life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For it is in that we have power again.

Faith in Jesus is not just to save us, but faith in Jesus is also

to help live the Christian life.

It empowers us to live the Christian life.

Amen.

Come to Jesus Christ.

Let's all stand, only trust him.

Come to Calvary over and over and over again.

I trust this morning that you know Jesus as your savior.

If you don't, I encourage you to step out of your chair and come

forward.

We'll show you from the Bible how you can have eternal life, how

you have your sins forgiven, coming, repenting of your sins and

trusting in his life, death and resurrection.

And Christian this morning, it's important that we remember that

God fought for them so many times again, we just rely upon our

flesh and in the flesh.

We cannot defeat the enemy.

We need Jesus.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love.