Interpreting Joshua

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Saturday, October nineteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently six fifty pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well. It's Saturday evening, so we all know what that means, right, It means tomorrow morning, people all across the United States of America. I'll focus on America and I'm not going to get into all the other countries in your time zones, but here in the United States of America, tomorrow morning, people all across this country will wake up. They will get ready, they will have a breakfast. They will have breakfast.

0:55 They will have a breakfast. They will have breakfast. They will grab their Bible, hopefully a notebook, something to write with. They'll get everyone in the car and they will drive to a church. They will drive to a place of worship, a church, and they will drive to churches that will say and that will believe something like this. The Bible is the an errant inspired Word of God. It is the sole authority we believe in sola scriptorrah scripture alone. The Word of God is the authority, not us. It is the Bible that is the authority. Then they will open the Bible and someone will preach from it. They will tell you that they are exegeating the text. They will tell you they're interpreting the text. They will tell you they're rightly dividing the word of truth. They will tell you that they are handling the Word of God the correct way, and that they and they may even criticize the way other people handle the Word of God.

1:54 But they're going to preach and they're going to teach, and they're going to tell you that what they're preaching and teaching, they're going it's they're going to do it in a very dogmatic way, a very authoritative way, as if what they are saying is true, as if their interpretation is right. But they're going to keep telling you that the Bible is the authority. The Bible is the authority. Now, that's going to be happening in churches all across the United States of America. But what will be utterly fascinating if you just step you know, if you step back and look at it, all these people going to all these different churches, all claiming that the Bible is the final authority, that the Bible is the inerrit word of God, claiming that they're interpreting it correctly, rightly, dividing it correctly.

2:35 If you take all of these interpretations, it's going to be this one contradicts that one, that one contradicts that one, that one contradicts that one, that one contradicts that one, that one contradicts that one. And they may even be saying those people do it wrong and those people do it wrong. And then those people are going to be saying, no, those people do it wrong, and those people do it wrong. And it's going to be just a you know, one two hours of Bible teaching tomorrow morning, all across the United States of America, and the totality of that, all of that teaching, the totality of all of that preaching is simply going to be no one agrees on anything, everyone contradicts the other, and everyone thinks they are right and everyone else is wrong. That'll be the totality of what's going to happen tomorrow. Everyone's going to go to church, everyone's going to hear the Word of God preached and everyone's going to think that what they hear preach is right.

3:27 And if you're going to another church, you're hearing it wrong. Because we have it right and they have it wrong. We interpret it right, and everyone will claim the Bible is the final authority. Well, if the Bible's the final authority, you think there would be some agreement on what it actually says. Right. My hypothesis is, my theory is that the reality is the Bible is not the final authority. Oh, we want to claim that it is, but it isn't. Our interpretation is the authority. We interpret it. We believe we are right, and then we believe that our interpretation is authoritative on everyone else, and anyone who disagrees with our interpretation. We may go so far as to say they are a heretic. We may simply say they are wrong.

4:16 We may say they're misguided. We may say something like if they would just learn how to read the Bible. I mean, it's so plain, it's so clear. But the point is we are the final authority. We're gonna claim the Bible's the final authority, but the reality is it's our interpretation. There's just literally no consistency. And if you just take one Sunday, just a one Sunday across the United States of America, and just go listen. Just wait till all the sermons are posted from tomorrow. You can just pick one platform. You can look all across the internet and go, Okay, here's this church. They've uploaded their sermon. This church is uploaded their sir, and just listen to all the different interpretations. If you'll really do that, you'll be like, wow, does anyone agree on anything? Radical different approaches to the text making the text say who knows what?

5:08 But everyone thinking that they are right. Everyone thinks that they are right in their own eyes, and they think everyone else is wrong in their own eyes. Everyone believes that they interpret the Bible correctly, and anyone who disagrees with them interprets it incorrectly. It's just utter spiritual anarchy and confusion. And that's just if you step back and look at one Sunday, look at two thousand years of church history, the number of interpretations, it's innumerable. It's immeasurable to even be able to try to figure out how many interpretations there have been, how many contradict the other. That it's just in it's just crazy. You can go from commentary to commentary to commentary, and I mean just say, if we break it down to simple things, there's no agreement on baptism. There's no agreement on the Lord's Supper, there's no agreement on the church structure, there's no agreement on the word repentance. And when you sit back, you just sometimes just be like, I just don't know anymore. What, how do I even process? This is a reality. Look, this is not even debatable. It's a reality. It's a reality.

6:19 It's not even debatable. Let me state it again, it's not even debatable. The number of interpretations are immeasurable. It's innumerable, and they just continue and continue and continue and continue. That's not even we can't even there's nothing to debate there. There's nothing to argue there. That's just the reality. Look at all the different denominations, look at all the different confessions of faith, look at all the and you said, but there's agreement on these things. But as soon as you say there's agreement on these things, there's agreement. If you keep it very vague, the more you dig in, the more you go, well, is there really agreement? Is there really agreement. Now, maybe on some things, but the point is the amount of disagreement. It's insane. And what some Christians say, well, we agree on the main things and all these other things are not really that important. Well, if all these other things are not important, then why do we yell and fight and scream and divide and leave churches?

7:12 Over right? Okay, come on, Obviously it matters, because if the Bible's an errant, an eternal, an errant and fallible word of God, well then what it says matters. Correct. The point is we can't seem to agree on it. Now. Why am I discussing this because I've been sitting here almost all day just so frustrated, and it's really been building all week. It started when we went to Second King's chapter six. Remember, we're going to just review a sermon a Second King's chapter six about the axehead that floated, the floating axehead, And what did we found find out almost immediately in reviewing that sermon, Well, it's not really an accent. I mean, it's an axe head, but it's not really an axhead because the axeid actually represents it, actually pictures. So we're not going to really talk about a floating axe head. No, no, no, no. What we're really going to talk about is the axe head represents our effectiveness in the work of God. It pictures our zeal and passion for God, It pictures our fellowship, and it just depending on how I mean. There were so many things offered in one sermon, and then well, how does this work here? And how does this work with this?

8:35 And there was no justification for what it means. It's just this picture's this, And everyone's sitting in the congregation was like, amen, Amen, Amen, what are you amening? You're amening someone just making up what the axe head represents. There is no scriptural defining what the axeid represents other than an axent Okay, But that they went all in. They went all in. And then we looked at a sermon that took it in a much more literal way. So are already we have a contradiction. Then we looked at a way that I learned in one of the schools I attended, where the taking the axe and chopping down the tree. That's us trying to keep the law. We cannot keep the law. So the axe head flies off, falls into the water. The water represents judgment the wrath of God, and we sink to the bottom because we're dead in our trespasses and sin because nobody can keep the law. And the stick being put in the water that's the cross, and it raises the axe head to the top because we've been resurrected. Oh sounds great, preaches good, everyone will be amen. I've never seen anything like that, Yeah, because the Bible and no way, shape or form would ever tell you that's what any of that represents, other than I don't know, maybe it's a literal axe head that literally came off and literally fell in water, and then there was a miracle performed, and then we can try to see what we can learn from that. But it pictures this, or pictures this, or pictures this, that's just wild speculation. So that was crazy. And I told you to listen to just random sermons on Second Kings chapter six and tell me what you find. And you know,

10:05 I don't know what you found, but I guarantee it's going to be lots of craziness. And so then we ended up in Proverbs chapter thirty thinking, okay, well, this will be simple, right, this will be fun because that talks about there is a generation there is a generation. Okay, this could be we could really take this apart and we could probably Next thing, you know, we're listening to a sermon about Proverbs chapter thirty versus eleven through what was it seventeen, where we read there is a generation, there is a generation. There is a generation. There is a generation, right, and I'm like, okay, this will be fun, this will be interesting. And next thing, what did we find out? That this sermon spent about twenty minutes saying that there's coming a time where people will eat poor people.

10:52 There's coming a time and I'm going to get graphic where they're going to chop off their heads, trank their blood, and eat their flesh. You think I'm making that up, but that's exactly literally what just what happened? And I'm like Proverbs thirty and the next thing, you know, it's some prophecy about people eating people. What in the name of bubblegum is going on? And then I just started thinking about about it. Well so so then so Proverbs thirty is talking about literally eating people. But then we found out in John six where Jesus says, if you eat, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. That's not literal. So then we had the weird inconsistency within one sermon. And then I just started thinking about other passages, right where pastors do crazy things. Right when David kills Goliath in what first Samuel chapter seventeen, I think is verse forty to fifty four. Next thing, you know, giant Goliath represents the giants in our life. He can represent fear, he can represent temptation. And then the stones, Oh, they represent this and this, and we need stones and our slingshot so we can take down the giant. And it all becomes some figurative, allegorical metaphorical who knows what.

12:08 Or in Matthew eight, where Jesus is in the boat and there's a storm and he calms the storm. Oh, the storms are the storms and troubles in our life, and Jesus can come, what in the world are you talking about? Oh? And then we have never ending the Book of Joshua, the Book of Joshua, because the Book of Joshua once again becomes a picture, becomes a type and you can just make it basically mean whatever you want. And I'm just like, what is going on? So we've been working a lot on a lot of this. We've addressed a lot of this. I have literally, I'm not even using hyperbole.

12:53 I'm not using a metaphor, I'm not using allegory. Literally, I have probably close to one hundred pages of notes on issues pertaining to the allegorical method, metaphorical language, picture assimiles. How do we handle it? What are some common errors and hermoneuticts? What are the hermoneutical principles we should abide by? Just all of these kinds of things, and at some point I've got to bring them all together to address this, because we can't. The reality of what is happening within Christianity and what's been happening for two thousand years, is a reality that, yes, you can just put on blinders and just pretend it's not a problem, just say, well, we interpret the Bible right, everyone else interprets it wrong, and I don't need to worry about it. But the reality is it's just entire, complete and utter. It's a free for all. It's people read the Bible and just say what make it and just make up whatever they want.

13:49 And you say, no, that's not true. Yes it is. It's a never ending series of contradictory interpretations, because this one contradicts that. When that contradicts that, when everyone thinks that they're right, everyone condemns everyone else's interpretation. At the same time, we claim the Bible's the authority, but no, we're the authority and we won't admit it. How do we get back to the text? I don't know how put it this way. There is no getting back to the text. And we can argue. I mean, it's October the nineteenth, We're fast approaching October the thirty first Reformation Day, and whatever your thoughts are on the Reformation, we have to at least acknowledge the unintended consequences.

14:42 Right. You can talk about the Reformation being about you know, indulgences, or the Reformation about this issue or this issue. It really comes down to it. It was an issue about the authority of the church, and Luther said, the church is wrong. The church doesn't have the corner of the the truth, the church doesn't have the authority. I'm going to question the authority, challenge the authority. And then when he got basically ended up being removed from the Catholic Church, right, basically excommunicated and put out well then guess what he Now, Luther would have tried to argue, Okay, it's not the church, it's the Bible. It's the Bible. It's the Bible. It's the Bible. But once you remove the church is authority and you say it's the Bible. At the unintended consequence is it went from the church, not to the Bible.

15:29 It went from the church to the individual. Now every individual can pick up a Bible and say this is what it says, Thus saith the Lord. This is what it means, this is what it teaches. And if a church says you're wrong, no no, no, no no no no no no no no, you can't tell me I'm wrong. The church could not tell Luther he was wrong, so you can't tell me I am wrong. Now it comes down to the individual. And so every individual can interpret the Bible, and their interpretation may contradict their interpretation. So what you do. You find a church of people who agree with your interpretation or you agree with theirs, and then all we're all good, and then we tell everyone else that they're wrong. They say, that's a very simplistic view, and you're being very cynical. But it's very very very true.

16:16 And I guess what happens if someone in the church starts a disagreeing with the church's interpretation. They either start causing trouble, tries to cause a church split, or they just leave and go somewhere else where do they go? They go to a church that agrees with their interpretation. So who really is the authority in the whole thing? The individual? Oh, you can create all the right language. You can say we have elders, and we have a plurality of elders, and we have a presbytery, and we have this, and we have this, we have chicks and balances, and any individual can walk in and go you're all wrong, and walk right out and go to another church. And in fact they can go start a church. And you really can't say they're wrong like you say Luther was wrong.

16:58 Luther set the press it and he wasn't the only one. There are others who said the church is wrong. The authority doesn't belong to the church. We say it belongs to the Bible, but really the unintended consequence, it belongs to the individual. Because the individual now is supposed to study the Bible, and then the individual is the one who's supposed to determine what has preached is rather true or false. Meaning their interpretation now is how they're going to judge what the church is teaching. Well, now it's the individual's interpretation that judges the teaching of the church. But guess what nobody in the church can agree on what the right interpretation is. This church of disagrees with that church, this individual disagrees with that individual. Just go on any Christian website where there are is comments section, and just look at the Christians argue over interpretation. You'll get everything and everyone thinks they're right, and everyone will condemn the other. It's just it's I don't even know what to do with it anymore. And you say, well, why is it? I mean, this has been true for two thousand years. Why is it bothering you so much?

18:09 On October the nineteenth because just think about the absurdity. I listened to a sermon on Proverbs thirty and I ended up hearing a sermon telling me that there's coming a time where people are going to eat poor people based off some language and Proverbs chep to thirty, verse fourteen, and then they go to other scripture and the next thing. You know, there's coming a time they're going to chop off the head, drink the blood, and eat the flesh, because the Bible says it, even though it completely ignores the even the possibility of metaphorical language. Well, it acknowledges that it's possible metaphor. But then they would said it dogmatic. But then they said in John six, where Jesus says, eat my flesh and drink my blood. No, no, no, that's not literal. So it's literal. Sometimes it's literally not time according to what the flip of a coin, or just because some individual decides so, just because some individual decides so, oh, an acid, it represents this in this this well, this role represents this, land represents this, This represents this, and this represents this, and this represents this, and this represents this.

19:08 You can just make it represent whatever you want. Oh, but if you disagree with what I say it represents, then I'm wrong and you're right. Of course, it's subjective, it's arbitrary in some ways, it's meaningless. So while I was sitting here just trying to figure all this out, just kept compiling more and more notes and more and more notes, not even really knowing if I can even come close to a solution. It's kind of just the same frustration I had with the whole You know, we talked about Christians and sin. We still haven't even really resolved all of those issues, but we looked at a lot of that just how subjective and contradictory it all is. Well, now we stumbled upon this. I was not looking for any of this. We stumbled on again. When you listen to a sermon on Proverbs thirty, the last thing you think you're going to be talking about people eating people.

20:09 But I was sitting here going, okay, so what do I do? What do I do? I don't know, I don't know. I got to figure out what I'm going to do tomorrow. You know, how does this impact what I'm supposed to do tomorrow? How much of this do I teach? Do I only teach about this on the first hour maybe, and then the second hour go to Romans four? Well, we're supposed to be talking about the next there four? Because I really need to get to that. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I'm like, well, let me just open up my you know feed tab or I think I clicked under new sermons on the Sermons two point zero app and I'm like, well, this looks interesting. Victory when you can't see it, victory when you can't see it.

20:51 So I start listening to it. That's a long intro, just talking about a lot of stuff, and then all of a sudden it says, turn the book to the Book of Joshua, to the Book of Joshua. I'm like, okay, we have what literary genre would be the Book of Joshua. Everyone, Oh, it's a historical narrative. Well, let's see what happens now. Already I already have an idea where it's going because I listen to a little bit of it and was like, Oh, you've got to be kidding me. So we can add this. So if we take all the passages right now, that's kind of just led to a lot of this. We have Psalm thirty fourteen. There's the whole supposedly eating people Psalm fourteen four, which is a cross reference to the Well, which they said is a cross reference to some to Proverbs thirty fourteen. So Proverbs thirty fourteen, Psalm fourteen four, Micah three one through four, Second King six one through seven, John six five thirty three, Matthew eight twenty three through twenty seven, and First Samuel seventeen forty through fifty four.

21:49 If we take all of those passages, I'll go through them again Proverbs thirty fourteen, Psalm fourteen four, Micah three one through four, Second King six one through seven, John chapter six, verse fifty three, following Matthew chapter eight, verses twenty three through twenty seven, and First Samuel chapter seventeen, verses forty through fifty four. All of those passages leads to this never ending discussion about well does this picture this? Do we use metaphor allegory, literal? And we just see that there's no Look, there's not even an agreement on what Well. What drives me crazy is even churches that say no, we hold to the grammatical literal method of interpretation, they violate it constantly when they will say, well, we're gonna look at this and this represents this, and this picture is this, and this picture's this, and this picture is this, and this picture is this.

22:37 Whoaoa. I thought we were talking about the literal, grammatical, historical means of interpretation. Well, but we can't forget this well, you just start violating it. So then people's hermeneutical system really is just a hybrid of just all kinds of concepts and ideas that they're at their theological team agrees with. Because you can pick and choose which hermaeneutical principles you want to follow depending on what your team will or will not allow. There's no there's nothing in the Bible that says this is the way you must interpret it. So we have to come up with principles and then apply those principles to scripture. But anyone can use any principle they want whenever they want it. If they want to go full blown typology, they can. If they want to say typology is wrong, they can't. I mean, there's no one governing it. And again, the people in the pew, according to the non Catholic system, are the ones who're supposed to be reading and studying the Bible to determine if what is preached is true or false. So then it's really up to the hermoneutical method that the people in the pew are utilizing, because they're the ones judging the preaching.

23:48 It's just. What well to this and see what happens. Let's just listen to this to see what happens. All right, right, let's just listen. Joshua, chapter number six. If you don't know anything about your Bible, this is the walls of Jericho come crashing down, and it's their first victory in the new Land under Joshua, the leadership of Joshua after Moses has passed away. There, this is Joshua leading the nation of Israel. And our text will be found there. In verse two, the Bible says, now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said, unto Joshua. See, look, I'm trying to show you something. See I have given into thine hand Jericho, the king thereof, and the mighty men of Valor. And then the Lord goes on to all these instructions. Will not go and read them all. I'll encourage you to read it all, just for sake of time. Here, the Bible says, there they went around marched around that city there, and they march in a specific pattern. They march specific instructions, And we'll look at those through the message. But I just want our attention. We called their verse number two.

25:13 The Lord tells Joshua, he said, look over here, Jericho. Now now you're in the Promised Land. You donet cross the river, and now you're here in the promised land. He said, Now look see I have given into thine hand, Jericho. You know what that's telling me. The Lord's saying, you know what, there's victory right here for you. And I like how the Lord started out. He said, see, but. That's what the Lord is telling you? Or is that what the Lord was telling Joshua? Now do I run at this text and go, oh, I can just look. Oh there's my Jericho, there's my problem. Oh but look, but look there's victory. Wait wait, wait, wait, I'm supposed to look at my problems and see victory because Joshua was told to look at a situation and see victory.

26:06 Is this in any way transferable? Now, I'm not saying he was being explicitly saying that you can feel where it's going, because that's what preacher after preacher after preacher after preacher after preacher does. Meaning that. But then they will tell you we hold to the literal, grammatical, harmoneutical method. We only take it literal. Well, then next thing, you know, what are they doing here? They're spiritualizing it, They're turning it into some kind of and they say, no, we're just applying it. Is there anything in the text that says I can apply the victory God gave Joshua to us? Remember the victories God gave Israel, and most cases were absolutely connected to a covenant which he made them, which was very specific about giving them land, about doing this, and about doing this. I cannot go take those promises and smack them into my you know, slap them onto my chest and go, God's go to do the same for me. Here's my Jericho, and God's going to bring down the walls. What are you talking about? It preaches good just it's not biblical hermeneutics.

27:12 It's just it's it's. Now. Maybe he's not going to go that direction. Maybe maybe not. So I don't want to assume that's the direction he's going, because that won't make me end up looking foolish. But you can tell my where I'm you can tell where I think it's going. Just because of how this week has gone and listening to sermons, it just seems like we just cannot get anything that resembles a nose other than that one sermon that at least attempted to give a more you know, literal understanding of the act head. But everything else has just been literal insentive yet literally insane. So maybe this is just going to be much more nuanced. And maybe so let's I'm jumping the gun a little bit, so take a deep breath, let's see where it goes.

28:07 See it. The idea was that you're not seeing it, and for whatever reason, Joshua and maybe in some of the nation Visia, they're kind of like, man, this is our first battle. Man when need to get ready. But now they're kind of like, well, I ain't seeing it. Lord, I don't know what you're trying to do here. Lord, we ain't got no wimping, we ain't got nothing. Lord says no, just look see it. There's victory. Get ready. But they're like, I don't know, Amen. So from that verse number two, there I got this title here tonight and hopefully be a blessing to you. There's victory even when you don't see it. Hey man, there's victory even when you don't see it. Tonight. It's available for you tonight.

28:53 Ay man, I believe that. Okay, now, all right, So immediately he's taking this tech and telling you there's victory even when you don't see it. Victory is available to you. That may seem that I have to do something to get the victory there maybe some steps? Are there seven steps I've got? Do I have to march around the problem a certain amount of time? Do I blow a trumpet? Is that what I have to do? Are we going to take all of this and just turn this into one metaphor one? And is that what we're going to do here? And see? This is so acceptable in almost every church in the United States of America for me to turn on a microphone on a Saturday evening and say, hey, if your church is doing this, I think it's completely abandon anything resembling biblical hermeneutics. I'll be the odd one out. I understand that, I understand that I know no one's going to agree with me. But does it really matter if you disagree with me because your interpretation, my interpretation, who's right and who's wrong. It just shows you once again the subjectivity of it all. Everything is subjective. Everything is just do what is right in your own eyes. You think you're right. I think I'm right. You can tell me I'm wrong. Who cares? I can tell you you're wrong.

30:03 Everyone thinks they're right. For every one interpretation, there's thirty others right. So he clearly is going, hey, guys, guys, based on we're reading Joshua six and what does he want you to know? What's his basic hypotheses? There is victory for you, even when you cannot see it. It is available to you based off Joshua six two. Joshua six two tells me nothing about victory being available to me has nothing to do with me having victory or not having victory. It literally has nothing to do about me.

30:46 This Bible says that you know, and Baba says, there's thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. A wonderful book, man to read. Man is from the Book of Joshua. Of outside the Book of Joshua, good commentary. Alan Redpath wrote a lot of good stuff and wrote a lot of correlation. Alan Redpath is that is? That? Was that the name Alan Redpath? Let me look here, Let me look here. I've got to see if I can find this name Okay, hang on, Here we go, Alan, hang on, go to Google? Was it Alan Redpath? Is that was that the name?

31:32 Alan? Read? Hang on? If I can spell? Right on? Joshua victorious, Yeah, Victorious Christian Living studies in the Book of Joshua, Alan Redpath. All right, hang on, I'm going to do something here. I'm going to see here. All right, here we go. I'm going to do a little work here. Hang on, I'm doing a little I'm doing a little research live on the air. Hang on, give me one second. Interpretive approach to Joshua.

32:36 All right, here we go. All right, and this is what I found. Summary of Alan Redpath's interpretive approach to Joshua and Victorious Christian Living and Victorious Christian Living. Alan Redpath explores the Book of Joshua as a spiritual allegory oh for the Christian life, particularly in terms of victory over sin and living a life of faith. He presents the conquest of Canaan as a symbolic journey for spiritual warfare and growth, where each battle, obstacle, and victory experienced by the Israelites parallels the Christian's journey towards sanctification. Red Path emphasizes the idea that the Book of Joshua was not merely a historical account, but serves as a guide for overcoming spiritual challenges, gaining personal victory over sin, and enjoying the promises of God. His interpretive method is deeply devotional, focusing on how the events and Joshua mirror of the struggles, victories, and faith required and believer's daily life. Possessing God's promise, just as Israel had to take possessing possession of the promised land, Christians may must take hold of the spiritual inheritance promised to them and christ victory through faith. A Red Path underscores that victory is not achieved by human effort alone, but through dependence on God's power and promises. Defeating spiritual strongholds. The battle Israel faces in Canaan symbolizes the believer's battle against sin, temptation, and spiritual strongholds. All right, yeah, well, he goes, I mean, this is a long list of everything that goes on here, but you can immediately see this is the book he's recommending to everyone. So immediately, what did I find again?

34:10 This whole week, I pick a random sermon, and what do I find another example of someone just taking a book in the Bible and just boom, just going to turn it into whatever we want to turn it into. Now, what he's doing, he's relying on someone else who just took the Book of Joshua and turned it into whatever he wanted to turn it into. So let's back this up just a little bit. Here we go. This Bible says that you know, when Bible says, there's thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ a wonderful. Now before he mentions the name of the book again, yes, the Bible does talk about victory in Jesus. Now, some people say, well, the Bible speaks about victory in Jesus, so that I can take that victory in Jesus and take it to the Book of Joshua and somehow find a parallel according to what Now, if the New Testament re differences Joshua and one of these battles and relates it to the Christian life, then you would have spiritual and scriptural justification for doing so. But if you don't have anything in the New Testament that does that, then you are just running and just making things up, you said, But there's a similarity. You are drawing that conclusion. We can read Joshua and say this is what God did for Israel based off the Covenant promises he made to them.

35:30 This is what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. Now if you want to do it that way, but don't immediately say well, this represents this, and this represents this. It's how you handle it. It's how you approach it. Let's see what he does. Well. Book Men to read Man is from the Book of Joshua. Of outside the Book of Joshua. Good commentary. Alan Redpat wrote a lot of good stuff and wrote a lot of correlation between the New Testament Christian life and life of warfare and man match it up over here with the Book of Joshua. And I like the Book of Joshua. One reason there. Man, it's just a lot of warfare. Amen. That's what a blessing. And that to me is a man that just appeals to me.

36:13 And I like warfare, Amen. I like fighting, Amen, And I just like watching fights. When I grew up in school, man as a kid, I remember, Man, they go here to get in a fight, and everybody fire fight where where man, we would be. We want to go over there. Here's a fighting seawing man. We run over there, man, and we might be late for class, but we're gonna see it. Amen. And something about that just appeals to me. And this passage here the Lord's telling Joshua, he said, see I have given him there. And the idea here is that Joshua nation isray kind of I don't know, Lord, what are you talking about. We're not seeing it yet, but the Lord's honey, help them here tonight, lead them to victory. And that's what I don't preach you not for a little while. Here there's victory even when you don't see it. I think to not you know what we need? We need some people to get some victory.

37:01 One of the things about a good revival, you know, a good revival, do it help you get some victory. There ought to be some things in your life that you can point to and say, the Lord help me win that, the Lord helped me overcome, that the Lord helped me get through that like the preacher, Preacher and the Lord helped us get through Ben to see right there, Yeah, we made a mistake, we got we got there. Man in the middle of that thing. We took too long, man, We got in the storm, but the Lord helped us get through it. What I would wind is, I don't know, God, just help us never sin again, wouldn't I just. Right? I mean?

37:42 So God? So does he allow the problems to come? And then he helps us through the problems? And what happens when he doesn't help us through the problems? And if God is the one who decreed the problem, why would help us get out of the problem he decreed? Well, then we get into all kinds of questions there. But if God is the one doing the helping, then just help us be holy as he is holy, because it's literally what he calls us to be. So then why we know, well, he doesn't help us do that practically? So does God? Is God still doing the help? Why doesn't he help us like he? I mean? Does he help like? I mean? Do we understand that he's going to do the same miracles that he did here, well he brings down the entire walls of a city? Or are we just gonna say no, he doesn't do those miracles. He does miracles now in a different kind of way. Now some will say no, he will do the exact same miracles, you know, And so you've got some charismatics to say that they can, you know, raise the dead, hill the sick, they can run out and stop a tornado and stop a hurricane.

38:41 Of course, over and over all these claims are proven to be fraudulent, fraudulent, fraudulent, fraudulent, fraudulent, fraudulent. So I think what others do is say, well, God need these great miracles, but now he does the miracles, and kind of a you know, it's it's there. You just have to say, if it goes well, it was God doing it, and if it doesn't go well, it's just because God didn't want it to go well. I don't know. But again, I don't know how you're getting any of this from Joshua, because it's not about us. But okay, let's see where this goes. That's a victory. It may it may not have been looked like at the beginning, but it ended up turning out to be a victory. And a lot of times in our life here we need victory. I think there's something about every time you win something, it kind of just man fires you up, makes you want to keep going at it. When you hit the ball, you get a man, you get a hit there in baseball softball, when you get that hit, you know what it does.

39:36 It makes you want to take another swing again. Now you run down the bases like, man, that was good. Man. When you're playing football, man you throw the ball, man, you catch it, or you make a good tackle. You know, just say, man, that was good. That was a victory there. It may not have been a complete but man, there was just a little victory that makes you want to go on. I think a lot of times there's a lot of Christians they don't have them little victories and the result they just don't want to go on. Yeah, they're like, well, having no good I've heard you that. Man, if you had had any victory and whow I pray this week God give you some? Yes, Well, why wouldn't you have the victory? If God is the one who gives you the victory, then why have you been going so long without the victory? So because you didn't follow fourteen steps thirteen steps, You didn't crush your fingers, you didn't throw salt over your shoulder.

40:27 A black cat crossed your path, you walked under a ladder, you broke a mirror. If God is the one who gives you the victory, then why haven't you had the victory because you didn't do the right steps to get the victory? Well, does anyone have the Book of the Right Steps? So then we can all say, here are the twelve steps you have to have, and if you'll do these twelve steps, then you'll be in victory. And if we're always in victory, wouldn't that didn't imply we would never sin? Because if you're constantly sinning, are you in victory? God says, be you holy as He is holy? You're never holy as He is holy? So are you ever in victory? Wouldn't you be perpetually in defeat at least practically speaking? Or is victory a positional thing? Oh? See, well, and once again I'm asking all these hard questions. But these are the problems that arises when you go to the Book of Joshua and tell me that somehow this is about my victory when it has nothing to do with my victory at all, It has zero none unless you can find me something in the New Testament that specifically applies it to us. If you can, then all right, we can talk about that. Let's see if he connects it to anything in the New Testament. So far there hasn't been.

41:30 There's victory for you, even if you don't see it. You said, picture, you just started that. My problem, My problem is this big that's what the way, the way, the way Jericho look to the thanks of Israel, the giant walls. Lord, how nor are we gonna get up there? Lord? We ain't got no rope. Lord, we ain't got a sealed team six to go in and the men insert. We ain't got no copters that go in, dropping the team and open the doors. Isn't we ain't got that? Lord? Oh, I see there'll be something there. There'll be a victory for you. You may not see it now, but there's victory waiting for you. And I want to encourage not Christian ton.

42:11 There's victory waiting for you. Now. Let me just make sure I understand. I just go through things I have seen in my Christian life. There's victory waiting for you. You, young person being molested year after year after year by maybe someone in a church, maybe by pastor, by youth leader, or by a relative. Oh, but there's victory. Oh, A young mother with two small children gets cancer. Oh she died. Oh I've seen that multiple times now, even while other Christians said God was going to heal her or held them.

42:53 You see, was that victory? Was that victory? Or a fan family whose daughter was murdered? Was that victory? Children born with terminal illnesses who live for a couple of years suffering and then they die? Is that victory? Now? What do you mean by victory? Now? If you mean eternally, if you mean positionally, I'm all day with you. Does God promise victory in this life? Because he's seeming to need to, implying that, Hey, you need victory, victory is available to you. Well, victory is available to you. Then I just named the problem. And hey, if the problem looks big, don't forget the walls of Jericho.

43:40 Well what does the wall Jericho have to do with my problems? If you're saved and not, I want to encourage you. Now there's victory even if you don't see it. And now I'll tell you what that's. If there's any reason to get saved. Nine man, that's a good one, right there. Man, Just get so you can have some victory. The world talks about victories with with their men made programs and all the things that they do out here in this world. They got all their little man made programs, their self help, their psychology, their philosophies, and they get temporary victories. But I'll tell you what, man, there's lasting victory in the Lord. Denied again, positionally or practically. Because Christianity looks just like the world. Marriages fall apart, problems, this happens, This happens in church splits, this, this, this, this, this, look at all the sexual abuse that's happened with inside churches, on and on and on. Where's the victory? Where's the victory?

44:42 Oh? Because they didn't do the right steps? That is that the issue. I don't know if you can be saying get saved and you'll have victory. You can get saved and what now Positionally, yes, eternally, yes, Spiritually yes, you can't make any promises about practical victory. Amen. I'm glad that there's not only lasting victory, but man, there's satisfying victories in the Lord. I mean, there's some things that God has helped me win, helped me overcome that. Man, I tell you what, It just satisfied my heart. And I'm so grateful. I'm thinking, Lord, Man, thank you for helping me get through that. Thank you Lord for helping me overcome that. Lord, thank you Lord God that you did that. Lord and man did that in my life. Lord, what a blessing it is to have victories from the Lord. Man?

45:30 And I'm like I said, I think they're law folks. They just hadn't had victory in a long while. Now, don't answer out loud, just answer in your heart. When was the last time you had some victory? When was the last time you had some victory over something in your own personal life that no one knows about? Amen? When was the last time you had some victory over maybe some of the things in your thoughts and your heart, your spirit, some of them sins of the spirit. Where the last time you had some victory? Man? In your personal line? Man, when the last time you experienced some victory? Collectively? As a church? Again, if God will give us victory over these things, then one, don't he just give us victory? Like it's such a weird definition of victory. God gave me victory over this thing. But I'm in a perpetual status sin.

46:22 But God gave me victory over this thing. But I'm in a perpetual status sin. Unless God gives me victory over all sin, I'm still in sin even if I have victory over one sin. And how do I measure victory over one sin? When the Bible says if I'm guilty of one point in the law, I'm guilty of all of it. So I'm in a perpetual status end, So how do I How am I even measuring victory? Well, I stop doing this. Well, congratulations, but you're still in sin. From a philological perspective, are you any better off? You may be better off, I guess from a practical way, because you're not doing that anymore. But are you not doing that anymore external? But you're still doing it internally. Are you saying you stop doing it internally? It seems like a very subjective way to measure any form of victory.

47:12 I said, Man, God really did something for our church. Well, I'm going to tell you something tonight. There's victory. You don't see it. Tonight, praychuard our problems. This big man. The walls of Jericho were huge, but God gave them some victory. Now I pray that God do that for us this week. Amen, let's pray and we'll get your message here. Lord. I pray now you bless what's being said here, Lord God, to help your people that I see, Lord God, some victory. Lord God. I want people to see victory. Lord. I'm thankful to the things you've done for me. Now I want your people to see some of that. May you God in direct now, Lord help us. Now. We love you, and I pray the blood of jests would cover this place, sanctify it, Lord God, rebuke, runoff, restrain anything they will try to hurt our harm Lord, to service or steal away from you. May your word have a free course, Lord God, and may your spirit have liberty. Lord help us. Now we pray in Jesus name. Amen, Amen, Amen, you know there's victory even when you don't see it.

48:05 I think you know. Joshua them, you know, what were they? What were they seeing? Joshua and his people, And when they looked at the Jericho, what they saw was walls, large walls, imposing walls, walls that justlike, we can't get in there. I don't know how we're gonna do that. When when what they saw, they saw other warriors. They saw the warriors of the Canaan. The giants, they saw the warriors, men of of of Jericho, they saw everyone else out there had shields and spears and arrows, and you know what they had, They just had rams horns in an arc aymen. The Lord didn't say, man, gird you're sword upon your thigh? He know what he said? He said, all right, I want you all get some ram horns and were Lord, they got they got sword, they got shield, they got spears, and you know you want to take ram horns? I think that was that word to show fard what were you wanted to get?

48:58 To get one of them and just go out there? That? Are you kidding me? Lord? Well, they see walls, they saw warriors, they saw weapons, man weapons men that man. They felt like, man, I never seen something like that. How in the world we're gonna do deal with that right there? How are we gonna defend against that man? The siege warfare? Have you ever studying about want warfare? Siege warfare is a little different than warfare out in the field. Siege warfare you come upon a place, surround it. Man, it's a war of attrition. You try to break down, cut off all their supplies, make sure the people in there not getting reinforced. I mean, you demorrowize. I mean it's it's different warfare. But this warfare for them right there, just war You're gonna march around in front of everybody.

49:38 Everybody's gonna laugh, and you know you're marching out there different. Amen, their weapons, they saw men that their warfare was unconventional to them. Everything they saw about it didn't look good. I think a lot of times, as Christians, men are life, when we look at this world, it don't look good. Amen, here, remind me this story. This old Indian man, Indian man had a horse there, real nice, a good horse. You know. By the way, if you don't know, I'm Nablo Indian. Amen, in case you don't know, In case you haven't figured it out yet. They been there was this old Navil man standing by the road there selling the horse. As he's selling that horse there, man, this guy man looked at it. He saw it. Man, this this white trader.

50:19 He looked. He said, man, that's a beautiful horse. He turned around and went back he's head and then he said, uh, I said, a real nice horse. In innocent. My wife's been a good week out there in the resist now so she can testify to this. And they don't say much. She's always like you all, don't communicate them. He said, oh, you know, I'll give you. I'll give you. I'll give you five hundred dollars for that horse. And then said, you know, it looks so good. He said, are you kidding me? Look at me, Look at the haunches on the thing. Man, Look at look at the man. I think at least fifteen sixteen hands on that thing. He said, Man, the man is beautiful. He's a matter of fact. He said, I can give you two thousand dollars for that horse.

51:03 And then he said he no, looks so good. He said, I don't know. You're driving a hardbarg ending five thousand, bought the horse, took it. Left. A week later, here come that ending, that white trader coming down fine, trying to find that now I'm man. Finally found him beside the road, mad at him, I mean, just fired up, and he said, I'm on the wall and walk the world. You just you show me a blind horse. He said, he do look so good. When I was, when I was, when I when this election coming up, you know, it looks so good. Society and the economy. Right now, you do look so good.

51:56 But you know what the Lord says, there's victory. I don't even know what to say. A funny story, Joshua six has nothing to do with any of this, Ladies and gentlemen. Nothing. Now, you could go to some of the New Testament passages about the victory. But the victory that God is talking about is our spiritual victory in Christ Jesus. It's our positional victory. But if you don't see it, even if you by yours, well, I'm virtual. I just ain't seeing it. Bro Walkey, I just ain't saying it. You want to have a meet and do this, I just ain't seeing it. There's still victory, the Lord told Joshua. He said, I know you ain't seen it, and I know your people might not be completely convinced. But see here's victory.

52:55 Again. I know, preachers, it's easy to do. When you start telling these stories. You start putting words in God's mouth that God said this, or that the people said this, or that Joshua said this, when the text does not record any such dialogue. How high is there gonna be victory? I'll say number one here. Now, you want to have victory like this, I want to say it here, there's victory because our hope is in him. You know why there's victory when we don't see it, because our hope is in him. I like that verse in Romans chap Number four when it gets to talk about Abraham, men who believed God and it was counting him for righteousness, and by Able said, I like that phrase. Who against hope? And I mean believing in hope. I mean he just man, he was just trust that God regardless. Aben. You know why we got victory because our hope tonight is in Him. Our hope is in the Creator. Our hope is in God Almighty.

53:52 Our hope man is in there the Lord Jesus Christ. My hope ain't in the government. See, I I gonna tell you all long time ago, don't trust the government. I could have told you that long time ago. Some of you just now realizing it. You know, I'm worried about to go I could have told you that. Our people couldn't told you long time you go home. That's not where your hope should be. Hey, man, you know where your hope ought to be. Your hope ought to be in him. Din. Now I see This is one of the things that can make this difficult when we're dealing with this is a lot of the points are good, a lot of the points are great. Our hope should be in Him, absolutely great. I got no problem with the point here.

54:41 So you if you took the story here and you did it this way. In this text, they were faced with an insurmountable problem which there was no hope for them. There was no way to overcome it. It was beyond their ability. That was beyond anything well we face. I mean again, you can't apply it to every day life because God may not intervene. You have no idea what God's going to do, so you really can't apply it to that. You could say, I guess you could do it this way. Well, our problem, we have problems in life, but we can't take these promises applying to our problems in life. But we have insurmountable spiritual problems, which is our inability to keep God's law and our hope is only in Christ Jesus. I guess you could draw a correlation that way. Now you're not saying that this is picturing that, because it's not picturing that. It's a historical narrative about what God did for them, that he was faithful to Israel to do what he said he was going to do. But so you got to And again it's dangerous to say, see, whatever problem you face, we have hope. But now we do have hope in God, but our hope is not that God's going to do something in the here and now, because there's no guarantee he's going to do anything in the here and now.

55:57 So this becomes a very mixed message in depending on the way you articulate it. Now, I could say we face insurmountable spiritual issue, which is the law of God which we cannot overcome and we cannot defeat, and we can't do anything. We can only trust in God. But that's really not the point of Joshua anyway, right, that's still not the point of the text. If I want to try to draw some kind of application, maybe that would be at least much more philologically consistent, and philologically it's much more biblically and theologically consistent to say, their insurmountable opposition is us facing the law of God which we cannot overcome, and God has to be the one to take care of it.

56:38 For us. That's at least more philologically consistent. If I take this and say, when you see your problems, just trust in God. Well implying somehow God's going to intervene in your behald, there's no guarantee God's going to do anything for you. You can have a terminal disease. He's not going to make the terminal disease go away. You can have this problem, this problem, this problem. There is no guarantee God's going to intervene in any way, shape. Or form, and not just in any person out there. I hope out of being God of this Bible right here, man, I hope we have great hope in him. Deny, you know what are hoping him? Because of his personality? Do you know the personality of God. There's no reason why you and I should not know the personality of God.

57:24 You know why the personality of God is interwoven in the pages of this King James Bible. The more time you spend reading it, the more you learn his personality. You never find out, man, what he likes and what he don't like. Matter of fact, not even that he don't like it, he says he hates it. You find out what he loves. Find out what he blesses, find out what he enjoys. Find out what brings him pleasure and what thrills him. Amen, how he operates, and why he does things, and how he does I tell you what, Man, we have hope tonight because of him and his personality that we find in this book right here, tells me he's man. Even though he's a god of wrath and a god of judgment. The Bible also says that he's a god of great mercies. He's a god that has compassions fail, not a man. Bible says he's faithful. Man, they knew every morning. Man, we got a great god tonne.

58:24 You know why there's victory and we can't see it because of who we're trusted. My hopes in him. The song says, my hope has been on nothing less but Jesus blood and his righteousness on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. There's no one better. He has not failed in the past, and he was not gonna fail now. He came through for the nation of Israel. He met their need before man, He's gonna meet our need. He's gonna gone forward for us. Man, I tell you we serve a great God. Today. Our God has not been defeated. Our God is not dead it, man, Our God is alive and well he's on the throne tonight. Our God ain't worried about the election. He's not sitting up there like, oh what they're gonna do now? Oh man, they're gonna steal it again.

59:16 Oh man, ah man, the Lord ain't it. They're gonna steal it again. Man, Okay, I'm just I'm just gonna let it go. We're almost at sixty minutes. This not gonna get into all this. I just don't even know. All right, here we go. They're worried by any conspiracy theory whatsoever. None of that bothers him. A man, Why he's un control tonight. There's victory tonight and the Lord tonight. Because our hope is in him. My hope is not just in our money system.

1:00:05 Our hope in today is not just because I'm an American and live in this great country. My hope is not just because I got good friends and I got a good church. My hope is in Him tonight. I'm glad I'm saved, and not I'm glad. I know I'm going to heaven. My dad is a Baptist night, he's a Baptist preacher, king jan Bible believing Baptist preacher. He's missionary to our people, the Navijo folk. Man. He just started another when one church out there in the New Mexico side of the reservation. This church he's got going out there, man, I mean he's there. He is about seventy but sixty nine, and he's out there just trying to do another work for God out there. And you know what, because of who he is, I'm not going to heaven because of that. My hope is not because of my dad. My hope Tony isn't because I'm trusting Jesus Christ as my savior or not. If you gonna make it, you know how, you're gonna make it through Jesus Christ.

1:01:02 You can see. This is just I mean, I mean, this is just I don't really, I don't know what you what is this doing to the Book of Joshua. It's not going as bad as I thought it was going to go, right because now he alluded to a book that goes all all this direction. Just turning this all the entire Book of Joshua into some kind of picture and type, and it's just you know, the subjective craziness. He's not going all there. But all he's doing is like, see, I've given into thine hand, Jericho, and then from that he just extrapolates it and then says, Okay, guys, this is all for us. So whatever we face, God's going to give us the victory, which implying that's in a practical way, then then it begins to fall apart if you take it and say God gives us spiritual victory when we see no spiritual victory. And what would cause us from not seeing spiritual victory the inevitable reality that we live in perpetual state of sin. Because God is holy calls us to be holy, We're never going to be holy as God is holy. Therefore we're always falling short, We're always in sin. So what is our hope in Christ? Jesus? Now, if I go there, I can see I may not be able to see the victory, but there's a victory even when I can't see it. Okay, now if you want to apply it there. Now, again, this is not what Joshua is about in any way, shape or form.

1:02:22 That's not what Joshua's telling it's not what it's showing, and I don't even know if it's you. It's an application that is really it's separated from the Book of Joshua, but at least it's somewhat philologically consistent. Once you take this and try to apply this that you know we can have Hey, whatever we face, don't worry about it, because we can have victory. But he's not really telling me how we can have it. He's just telling me that we have it in God. Okay, so he's still yet to tell me. And if we can have it, then why isn't every Christian just one hundred percent victorious? I mean, I mean like it just raises more and more questions and becomes more and more problematic. So I don't think this is going to go anywhere. We'll just listen to another minute or two. You know, maybe it'll turn into something later. But as far as you can kind of see how it's handling the Book of Joshua, and a lot of preaching handles it this way.

1:03:21 Our hope isn't him The Lord said Joshua, see the victory, And Joshua probably kind of thought, well, reason why I'm going have victory because of you, Lord. It ain't because of our armies, it ain't because of our abilities, ain't because of anything. Our hope is in you, Lord, And if you don't come through it ain't nothing gonna happen. And really, today, I mean, that's the way our life should hang upon him. We hang our soul and our eternal destination upon him. And said, Lord, I'm going to have him because of you, what you've done on Calvary. I'm going because I'm trusting you, Lord, God, nothing else but they're in our daddy life. Lord. Well, I don't know, Lord, I don't know. I know you're taking me to heaven.

1:04:05 You're getting me out of hell. Lord, and you're gonna give me eternal you're giving me eternal life. But Lord, today I just don't know if you can help me. There's victory tonight. You can get deliverance tonight. You can get some help tonight. You can overcome something tonight, you can get through it tonight, you can endure tonight. You know why now what our hope is in him? Amen number two here now you know you know why. There's hope, yes good and not hope, but there's victory there's victory tonight. Man, there's victory, and when we don't see it, when we just heed these instructions that he gives, just heed his instructions.

1:04:46 The Lord told specifically to Joshua, how they were gonna take down Jericho. All right, the way you get victory is you just keep the instructions and then you have victory. So then is that God giving me the victory? Or am I earning the victory? If the way I get victory is just follow the instructions, so that would be every law. So I got to keep the law perfectly. If I keep the law perfectly, I have victory. Well, if it's God giving me the victory, well, then for God to give me the victory, then I would keep all the instructions. I don't even understand. Hey, you want victory, just keep the instructions. If you keep the instructions, you have victory.

1:05:32 So I can keep the instructions perfectly. So is it God giving me the ability to keep the victory to keep the instructions? And if God's the one giving me the ability to keep the instructions, then I should be able to keep up perfectly. So why don't we keep it perfectly. Okay, then this just becomes But now once again he's just going now through the chapter and just making this all about us and making it somehow instructions for us. This is this is not. He said. You know how you're gonna be Jericho. He says, gonna take you a week. It's gonna take you seven days. You're not gonna do them on in the first day, and each day, you know what, You're gonna get up. You're gonna have these men march. You gonna have these priests go forward with rams horns, You're gonna have the arc, you gonna have these guys man, these wars in the bank, and you're gonna march around this thing. And man, he said, Matthew, march on just one time, he said, And you can go back to the camp and do nothing else. Then that next day you're gonna get up. You're gonna do that again the next day. I mean, he gave detail instructions, he said. Then on that seventh day, you know what you can do, he said, May You're gonna get up there and you can go march around that thing. Man on that day only you can march around seven times. There.

1:06:47 You can go all around, not just once. Then on that final day, he said, Man, after you've done that final march, you that you're gonna shout to the victory, He said, then them are gonna fall down flat. The Lord gave them exactly how to get victory. He laid it out for them. Now you know there were some people in there that thought you kidding me. Lord, there's probably some men in there, probably like myself. Now, Lord, give us some ar fifteens. Amen, give us some ar fifteens. Man, some grenade launchers. Man, we'll take this wall down. Give us some nods. We'll go in at night. Man, we'll go there and infiltrate man, an attackt and man, we'll take all everything out. Man, we'll sneak up there. Lord's a no. You know how it's gonna be done, the way I tell you to do it. You wanna get a victory night, You gotta heed his instructions. Amen, you know I'll go step further. You gotta heed God's men in this thing. Joshua is the one that told him how to do it, and you gotta follow Joshua. God gives I believe this now. God gives every every church or pastor I'm thankful I got a pastor tonight, Brother Tim Spades, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church, pel City, Alabama.

1:08:08 It's my pastor. Amen. He calls checks on us, helps us with things, man, And when I need advice, I call him. Ask him. I worried about people who don't have a pastor. He said, why, because, man, who do you follow him? I have not arrived. I've got saved nineteen eighty three. I surrendered preach in nineteen ninety three. But you know what, that doesn't mean I arrived anything. I appreciate a pastor and now and then I saidro Terrence, you need to do this. You need to do that way, Amen, you want a lot of people don't like it, don't like to do that.

1:08:48 So he's just taking don't I don't even know how it would. Yeah, they don't even know what to do with any of this. I didn't even get to my notes. I actually have notes on the on the on some of the issues with this and the way this is typically handled and the way this is typically approached. When a pastor takes the Book of Joshua and interprets it as picturing the Christian life for spiritual warfare. This approach is subjective and represents a mix a mix of allegorical and topological hermeneutics. This approach is typically inconsistent with a literal, grammatical, and historical hermeneutic and relies heavily on interpretive methods that can be problematic if not applied carefully. Now he didn't.

1:09:46 He's not going it as bad as I have heard, but it's he's walking through it, saying this is for us, This is for us, this for us, and and and and and and. The issue is when you start doing this, the philological problems it creates, the fil logical problem it creates. So you want victory, just follow the instructions. So the instructions is God's work. All right, I want victory. I just obey the word. So that means I can obey it perfectly. Well no you can't. Well, then I'll never have victory because I can never can keep the instructions. Well you can have some victory. Well again, how do you measure victory? If we're measuring are we measuring victory in the most practical way? Are we measuring it in a spiritual philological way? If I'm measuring it in a philological way, victory is being holy as He is holy, because that's the standard. I'm never going to do that.

1:10:31 Therefore I'm never truly victorious. But in Christ Jesus, I'm victorious because in my position, I am holy as He is holy. All right, So then that's the victory we should refer to. If we're referring to practical victory, it becomes very very very very very very very very subjective. You can look at one area say well, you're victorious, but you're not ultimately victorious. And now he's saying that we have to listen to the pastor, well, how much do we listen to the pastor? Because of the same time, in the non Catholic world, the people are supposed to be judging whether the pastor is preaching that which is true or false. So are you really listening to the pastor? You're listening to yourself because you're the one making the determination whether the pastor is right or wrong. So then who's really the authority, the pastor or you? I want to keep going, but yeah, I mean, yeah, it's more of the just this. I mean, I don't even know anymore. Literally, I just think we can just make the text do whatever we want it to do. We literally can't. And there's really very I mean, everyone can say you're wrong, but who really can say anyone is wrong. It's just it's just chaos. And so yeah, now this is much

1:12:01 more reasonable than I have heard, making some good spiritual points. I'm not disagreeing with all the points. It's just like, but how are you using Joshua six for this? And you're just raising other theilological issues. But again, in most Christians' mind, they don't care about the philological issues. They don't. They don't, they're not worried about it. They don't even care. If it's consistent, if it just sounds good, if it just preaches good, if it and if it doesn't appear to go against your your system of theology, then it's all good. And how it's being interpreted, how the text is being handled, nobody cares. And tomorrow, all across the United States of America, people will go to church, and who knows how the text is going to be handled.

1:12:47 I know this, it's going to be handled differently than it's handled somewhere else, and it may be contradicting how it's being held somewhere else. And you will think your church is right, and they will think their church is right, and they will and you will think your church studied the Bibble correctly, and they will think think their church study the Bible correctly. You will judge them, they will judge you, and everyone will go home thinking that they're right in their own eyes. But both can't be right. And it's been going on for two thousand years. The number of interpretations, the number of ways of handling the text are innumerable, and it's you can't even measure how much contradiction has been put forth. All right, I'll stop there.

1:13:42 I mean, I don't know what to do. It's seventy three minutes. I don't know. I mean, I could just keep pressing forward. But when we're getting the idea of how the text is being handled, most likely if we keep listening. Most likely, if we keep listening, it will become almost like this, this represent I mean, he's already made it very clear. Our problems are the walls of Jericho, and God gives us victory even when we can't see it, and our hope is in him, almost implying that he can make the walls come down. Well, how do you get the victory. Well, you've just got to follow the instructions. So why because God gave them specific instructions, so well, then what would be our instructions would be the law. So if we just keep so, then this seems to imply, is this taking it from a Pelagious a Pelagian view that we have the ability to keep there's just one theological problem after another theological problem after another theological problem, and that's that's the never ending issue. And you're not supposed to ever ask those questions though in preaching. All right, this did not help everyone have a great evening. Hopefully it's better than the way I feel right now because I'm just like I just I just I don't know, I just don't know. Thanks for listening, God bless