This recording is provided by Times Square Church
in New York City.
You're welcome to make additional copies for free
distribution to friends.
All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is
a violation of copyright and other applicable laws.
This recording cannot be posted on any website.
However, written permission to link to the Times
Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing
info at timessquarechurch.org.
Other recordings are available by calling 1-800
-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square
Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New
York, 10019.
I want to talk to you this afternoon
on the topic, A Covenant That Covers.
A Covenant That Covers.
And we are going to begin our survey
in the book of Joshua.
And we will consider the ninth and the
tenth chapters of that book.
And now as you turn into the book
of Joshua, the ninth chapter, I would remind
you of a certain word from the Apostle
Paul in the book of Galatians around the
fifth chapter.
He talks to us about a particular war
that every Christian person is aware of.
The war between the spirit and the flesh.
And he says very clearly that this is
a perpetual war.
We will always be required to wage this
kind of warfare, not by our strength but
according to the spirit of the Lord.
And I want to consider these chapters in
the book of Joshua so that we might,
by way of illustration, consider the nature of
this warfare and how we as Christian persons
are given the grace of God to always
overcome, to always win.
Now, the Bible speaks of the people of
Israel, after having waited forty years to enter
into the land of promise because of their
unbelief, they finally began to move into the
promise of God.
And as they began to move into that
promise, the Bible says that they took some
wonderful victories.
They took wonderful victories on the one side
of the Jordan and then they saw a
miracle of God, the Jordan River open and
they passed through dryshod as they had passed
through the Red Sea.
And they came to this side of the
Jordan and they began to take victories again.
And after having taken a significant victory over
the city that was called Ai, there was
a people of the Hivites called the people
of Gibeon who had heard that God was
on the move.
They heard that God was choosing to glorify
His name once again.
That after forty years of what seemed to
be a slumber, after an entire generation of
what seemed to be a lull in the
move of God, they heard that God was
on the move again.
And the Bible says that fear began to
come upon them and they counseled among each
other and decided this is what we're going
to do.
We are going to disguise ourselves.
We're going to put on some old clothes,
some old shoes.
We're going to bring some tattered and torn
wine bottles and some moldy bread.
And we're going to go to these people
and we're going to say, we are a
people who are from a foreign land.
You don't have to worry about us.
I understand that God has told you when
you come into the land of promise that
you are supposed to take victory over every
nation in that land.
I understand that you are not supposed to
let anything in that land live because the
Lord has chosen to judge you.
But we are from a foreign land.
We're not from right here in the land
of Canaan.
And we have come to enter into a
covenant with you.
We have come to join forces with you.
We have come to, on some level or
another, give you a certain amount of international
prestige.
You see, because the Bible said very clearly
that Gibeah was not a small land at
all.
But it was one of the mighty lands,
one of the lands of the kings.
And the people heard this petition and they
heard this particular proposal and they decided that
it sounds good to me.
They are not from where I live.
They are from a foreign land.
So, yes, why not enter into covenant with
them.
And of course, the Bible says that after
three days they found out that these were
the Hivites.
One of the seven nations of the Canaanites.
And they were one of the seven peoples
of the Canaanites.
And they were supposed to have destroyed them.
But now, they have already entered into a
covenant with them, even in the sight of
the Lord.
Now, some people said, oh, well, you entered
into this covenant through false pretenses.
They lied to you.
So, you don't really need to honor that.
Just destroy them.
But they said, the elders said, but we
have entered into this covenant with them before
the Lord.
We can't just act like it never happened.
But here's what we will do.
We will bring them under subjection.
We will make them hewers of wood and
drawers of water.
And they will serve us all the days
of their life.
Now, this is a picture, an illustration of
what we experience when we as Christian people
make some bad decisions that become on some
level or another a part of our life.
They are not the things that we can
just shake off.
But they are things that we can bring
under subjection.
Now, going back to the beginning of the
story, we see a people who have decided
on their own that this thing that's trying
to come into my life is far from
me.
Oftentimes, whenever the flesh begins to try and
rise up, as God brings His people into
a place of victory, as God begins to
bring them into a promise, as God begins
to try and manifest His glory in their
life, there is a thing that tries to
rise up.
And what it says is, you know, I'm
going to be honest with you.
I am something that is not to be
considered a part of you.
I am not near to you.
I'm not dear to you.
I'm way out here somewhere.
And so, you don't have to worry about
the commandment that God gave you that suggests
that anything and everything that the Lord has
already determined to destroy must be destroyed from
within your provinces.
In other words, it's that kind of a
thing that says, this is far from you.
There are things, for instance, that we might
see on television.
And we say, you know what, I can
somehow entertain myself with that because that's far
from me.
Far be it from me to ever do
that kind of a thing.
Far be it from me to ever live
that kind of way.
This thing is far from me.
And maybe we, you know, at the office
just listen to a little bit of gossip.
We hear, you know, the juicy tidbits about
what so and so is doing and what
such and such is engaging in.
But we say, that's far from me.
Far be it from me to ever engage
in this kind of lifestyle or in that
kind of lifestyle.
It's not that bad for me to be
remotely entertained by it.
Because it's so far from me that I'll
never actually do it.
Sometimes somebody might be in an office situation
and they're kind of, you know, giving, you
know, an eye to somebody of the opposite
sex.
Of course, they're married, I'm married.
But far be it from me, it's never
going to go beyond that.
You see, they live so far out there.
Now, I've dealt with all of the deep
issues of my heart.
I've destroyed, you know, the seven nations of
the Canaanites.
But this is a far people.
You see, they came and they had their
tattered garments and they had their molded bread.
They're not a part of my life, they're
just out there somewhere.
It's alright for me to be remotely entertained
by it.
Because it's far from me.
But the Bible suggests that after three days,
they realize that this thing is not as
far from me as I thought.
It's right here in my heart.
I want to suggest to you that in
this particular instance, these godly people made a
covenant with covetousness.
You see, the Bible says that they made
three very particular errors.
The first one was that they looked at
the surface of the thing that was being
offered to them and never really considered the
substance of it.
They simply looked at their clothes.
They looked at their wine bottles.
They looked at their bread.
Instead of really looking into their faces, instead
of really listening to their words, if they
had listened to them long enough, they might
have found out that they had an accent
that gave them away.
But instead, all they did was look at
the very superficial elements, the same way we
do when we look at the world.
That's what the psalmist says, I think in
the 73rd Psalm, where he said, I looked
at the world and everybody seemed to be
prospering.
I almost stumbled, he said, in my walk
to the house of the Lord.
Because I looked at all of these people
and they all seemed to be doing better
than me.
I looked at the advertisements and everybody seems
to be better looking than me.
Everybody seems to have whiter teeth and a
brighter smile.
Everybody's driving a bigger car.
And I feel like I need that.
The Bible says, for instance, when the Lord
began to stretch forth His hands against the
world, the context of that situation was that
the children of God began to look on
the children of the world and they just
looked and they saw that this woman was
pretty or whatever and without even considering the
substance, they simply looked on the face or
they looked at the superficial elements, the surface
elements and just took wives of anyone that
they wanted.
The lust of the eyes.
And then the Bible says that they took
of their provisions.
Now, I'm going to tell you, brother and
sister, it wasn't the moldy bread that we're
talking about here.
The Bible says that they came from a
mighty nation.
I'm sure it was sort of like the
case where Isaac is trying to figure out
which one of his sons is which.
Remember, he was blind and Jacob is talking
to him and trying to act like Esau
and Isaac is saying, you sound a little
bit like Jacob to me.
And then Jacob whips out the stool.
And all of a sudden, all of his
discernment is out the window.
You know what I mean?
So while they were holding that moldy bread,
they were probably saying, I don't know, you
sound like the highbites to me.
And then they pull out this big chunk
of gold.
Boom!
And all of a sudden, they said, but
then again, you know what I mean?
The British sound a lot like the ones
from Wales, like the ones from Ireland.
I don't know, maybe you are from this
place.
And they took of their provision.
The lust of the flesh.
Far be it from me to ever live
like those people in the world who say
greed is good.
But if they got a couple of extra
dollars, I'm not going to say no.
Far be it from me to ever engage
in the way of the world.
I'm never going to kiss anybody else's wife
and nobody else's wife is going to kiss
me.
But I don't mind being entertained by cutting
on my television.
And watching this married man kiss this married
woman and weeping because it's so romantic.
Far be it from me.
The lust of the flesh.
And then the Bible says that they never
inquired of the Lord.
Because when people are pulling out fancy clothes
and large wedges of gold and so on
and so forth, sometimes we don't want to
hear what God has to say.
Somebody is telling you, if you just cook
the books a little bit, you'll have the
biggest car you ever wanted.
Nobody else in the office is saying anything.
If you don't say anything, if you just
kind of get along and get on board,
you'll have as big a car as we
do.
Far be it from me to ever be
a thief or a liar, but I just
ain't going to say anything.
I'm just not going to do anything.
Far be it from me.
But then they come with the car and
there it is, right there, boom.
Right there in your heart.
That's where the Hittites were, or rather the
Hivites were.
They were right there in the land of
promise.
Right here in our heart.
Now, because they chose not to inquire of
the Lord, it manifests the pride of life.
And this is the nature of the flesh.
This is the nature of that kind of
thing that tries to come against the Christian
person.
As we are entering into this wonderful promise
of God.
And it's something that we must always be
careful of.
They said that we're far from you, somewhere
out there on the periphery.
You never really have to worry about us.
Every now and again we might stop by.
We might ask, you know, for you to
come and visit us once a year or
twice a year or whatever the case might
be.
Just so that we can acknowledge that we
have covenant relationship, but we're way out there
somewhere.
And so we say that to issues of
the heart.
Far be it from me that I should
ever do this.
Far be it from me that I should
ever do that.
And then all of a sudden, boom, there
it is.
There it is.
In this case it was the issue of
covetousness.
They wanted their provision.
They wanted the prestige.
They wanted the protection.
All of those things that appertain to covenant
relationship.
They wanted that from the world.
And so their flesh began to manifest itself
on that area.
When they realized what they had done.
Some people said, well, we were lied to.
They came to us under false pretenses.
And we don't have to even acknowledge that
there is such a thing as this covenant.
There is no relationship between me and the
flesh.
They might have even said, I'll tell you
what I'll do.
The next time there's an altar call, I'm
just going to run to the altar.
I'm going to say a prayer and act
like nothing ever happened.
Act like I didn't develop this habit.
Act like I haven't interacted with the way
of the world on such a level that
I haven't interacted covenant with some habit or
another.
Act like it just never existed.
I'll never have to deal with this again,
thank you very much.
Which is why so many people think that
God is unfaithful.
Because they for some reason believe that they
can enter into some kind of an agreement
with the flesh even in the sight of
God.
And then when they realize how close that
thing is to their bosom.
That thing that they thought was so far
away.
They say, well, let me run to the
altar somewhere and boom, let's just act like
it never happened.
That's what they wanted to do.
Saul did that and God judged them for
it.
He waged war against the Gibeonites when God
said not to.
And God judged them for it.
But Joshua was a penitent man.
And a broken man.
And he said, I'm not going to lie
to God and I'm not going to lie
to myself.
This is an element of my existence.
And now I have to deal with it.
The Lord spoke to Cain one day and
he said, Cain, sin is crouching at your
door but you must overpower it.
Paul said at a certain point that I
beat my body, I buffet my body and
make it my slave.
So that I won't be one of those
people who preach to a whole bunch of
other people and then find myself a castaway.
Because Paul was saying, I go wherever God
sends me.
As we heard earlier today, he said, when
I'm among the Jews, then I live like
a Jew.
In other words, what he was saying, he
was talking specifically in that particular context about
his diet and so on and so forth.
But what it manifested was the fact that
God was using him to meet the needs
of a lot of people.
To win a lot of people.
He said, when I was among the Jews,
I didn't eat pork.
When I was among the Gentiles, you know,
I ate whatever they laid in front of
me.
When I was among the weak, speaking about
those people who were vegetarians, then I didn't
eat any meat at all.
You know, search the scriptures and understand the
context in the book of 1 Corinthians.
He said, in essence, God is using me
to win many souls.
I am moving into the wonderful promise of
God.
God is being glorified in my life but
I realize something.
I still have a flesh.
There is still an element of my being
that must be beaten down every day.
Jesus said, take up your cross daily and
follow me.
And so, we see Joshua saying, here's what
we're going to do with the Gibeonites.
We are going to bring them under subjection.
And we are going to make them our
servants.
And in essence, what you have now is
a person who is engaging in this war
that Paul talked about when he speaks of
the Galatians.
This war against the flesh that is a
regular war.
It is a continual war.
You see, the flesh is, when God's grace
is manifesting Himself in us, the flesh is
subject to the individual.
God allows us to bring it under subjection
but it is always there.
I'll give you an illustration.
In the days of old, whenever a Roman
general would take a mighty victory, there would
be this parade that was made for him.
This procession, this victorious procession.
And he would march along in all of
the pomp and ceremony that appertains to great
victory.
But there was a slave, a servant, who
was actually taken in the battle.
One who was subdued, who had no real
power.
But he was a sign of the battle
that had just taken place.
And while all of the people were cheering
and acknowledging the great victory of this general,
this servant, this slave, would get up really
close to his ear.
That was his responsibility.
And he would whisper in a voice that
shouted, if you will, louder than all of
the applause of the people's roundabout.
And would say, remember, you are just a
man.
Remember, you are just a man.
You see, when the flesh is brought under
subjection, when we buffet our bodies or our
flesh and bring it under subjection or make
it our slave, then it serves a purpose.
It says to you and it says to
me, remember, you are just a man.
You are just a woman.
There's just so much of this stuff that
you can watch before what you think is
far from you is right here.
There's just so many things you can turn
a blind eye to before you find blindness
setting in.
There's just so many times you can refuse
and I can refuse to inquire at the
Lord before we lose, as we heard this
morning, our capacity to discern.
You see what the flesh says as it
whispers into our ear, when it is brought
under subjection, because it lies when it's not.
But when it's brought under subjection, it says,
remember, you're just a man.
That flesh starts rising up in you and
you know how much you need a Savior.
You know how much you and I need
to cry out to God.
And that's why I wanted to talk to
you this afternoon about a covenant that covers.
Because even though they made a foolish covenant
with the flesh, they very, very, very fortunately,
and by the blessing of God, they were
under a much greater covenant.
You see, God had covenanted that He would
bring them into the land of promise and
He would bring them to a place of
stability.
And thank God, even though we make some
foolish decisions sometimes, God has made a promise
that He would bring us into a place
of stability and to an established place.
Now, if they had decided to act like
the issue with the Gibeons never existed and
they had tried to kill the Gibeons in
their own strength, they would have had some
hard times ahead.
But now they came and they acknowledged, God,
we did this in Your sight.
We are not going to try and hide
from You.
We are not going to try and lie
to You and say, Lord, I never did
it.
No, Lord, I did it.
And I did it in Your sight.
And now I have to depend upon the
fact that Your covenant with me through the
Son is more powerful than any foolish covenant
that I made with the world or with
the flesh.
And God's covenant is more powerful.
You see, the only way we can bring
these Gibeonites under subjugation is by virtue of
the covenant that God has made with us
through the Son.
Firstly, it is a covenant of communion.
God opens the door and says, I covenant
to commune with You on the deepest levels
conceivable.
In other words, when you've made a covenant
with something that you thought was so far
from you and you realize it was so
close to you, so dear to your heart,
you can come to me and acknowledge your
sin.
The Bible says that if we confess our
sin, that He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sin and also to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
The Bible says that we have an advocate
with the Father, even Jesus Christ, the Righteous
One.
So we go to Him and we say,
by virtue of the great covenant that You
have with me, I need the covenant that
You have with me to be able to
supersede and surpass whatever covenant I made with
the flesh.
Remember, my brothers and sisters, what happened in
the days of Esther, where the king had
made a certain statement.
He sent out a certain decree because somebody
had lied to him.
And he sent out a decree that all
of the Israelites should be destroyed.
And when he found out the truth, he
said, you know, I can't simply undo this
decree.
But what I can do is I can
send out a decree that's even more powerful
than that decree.
A decree that can nullify that decree.
Now we have the covenant with God that
enables us to commune with Him no matter
what our circumstance, no matter how foolish a
decision we made.
We can come to Him in brokenness and
repentance as we heard this morning.
We can come and we can turn and
we can say, God, this is what I
have done.
But I bring it to You now.
I acknowledge my fault.
I acknowledge my sin.
I'm not going to act like I can
wish it away or will it away or
destroy it in my own strength.
I say, by the power of the covenant
of God and the capacity that I have
to communicate with God, the devil cannot shut
my mouth.
He cannot shut me off from God.
As long as I can go to God
and bring my petition to Him, then He
can subdue my flesh.
He can bring it under.
But this is also a covenant of commitment
where we commit, for instance, to communicate with
God.
Where we say, Lord, while I have the
opportunity to be entertained on this level or
that level or communicate on this level or
that level, I commit to communing with You.
Do you remember their big problem was that
they did not commune with the Lord.
Now, I don't think for one minute that
they did not go through their ordinary rituals.
They probably offered whatever offering they offer in
the morning and they probably said whatever prayers
they pray.
Throughout the course of the day, they were
just going through their ordinary business.
But they did not communicate with God.
You see, brother and sister Christian, we must
commit to communing with God.
That's much more important than having a habit
of going to church or having a habit
of reading our Bibles or having a habit
of praying.
But a commitment to communion where we say,
God, You tell me where to go.
You tell me what to do.
You tell me how to live.
So that every conversation that I have is
based upon the fact that I am also
in direct communion with God.
So if I'm having a gossip session here
and there's me and there's my neighbor, I'm
going to have to look at it with
my mind's eye as though God is also
a member of that party.
You know, as I'm sipping my Starbucks and
dipping my donut, you know, I'm going to
also think to myself that God is also
in the midst.
And is this the kind of communication that
He enjoys?
Everything I see with my eyes, now I
have to see through the cross of Christ.
You ever see one of those pieces of
paper that have a watermark on it or
something like that?
I mean, you have it on dollar bills
and everything.
You know, you have to look through it
to see whatever else is under it.
There should be that kind of a watermark
in our vision.
So that everything that we look at, we
look at through the cross of Jesus and
reminding ourselves of what price He paid so
that we might be alive today.
Communion with God, but a commitment to communion.
And then I want to say that it
is also a covenant that involves the idea
of consistency.
You see, it's not God today, the world
tomorrow, God today, the world tomorrow and so
on and so forth.
It's God every day.
God all day, every day.
Hallelujah.
And we're always asking God, Lord, what do
you want me to understand in this generation?
What do you want me to see?
Even when I think about the news, not
everything that they want to show you on
the news is worth seeing.
You don't have to see everything that they
want to show you.
There are certain things, brother and sister, that
you just don't need to know.
I know that sounds a little bit strange
in our over-inflated information data and, you
know, society where everybody's got a little bit
of this and everybody's got a factoid here
and a thought there and so on and
so forth.
But the truth of the matter is, brothers
and sisters, you and I don't have to
know everything that's going on in the world.
And we don't have to see pictures of
every dead and bloated body.
You don't have to know everything that's going
on.
There must be this kind of prayer that
says, God, what do I need to read
and what do I need to avoid?
Just because a thing says this news or
that news doesn't mean that the Christian person
has to engage it.
So we have to ask ourselves, God, am
I consistent in my communion with you if
I read this thing?
Am I consistent in my communion with you
if I read that thing and so on
and so forth?
And, of course, when we're talking about things
like watching television or going to the movies,
we're talking about complete inconsistency for the most
part.
I mean, you can barely even watch a
zoological program anymore without people telling you that
there's no God.
When I was a kid, I used to
love watching shows about lions and tigers and
bears and stuff, because that really made me
happy, you know, but now you can't even
watch it.
Without people just cramming this evolution down your
throat, telling you that there's no God, there's
no hope.
Be careful, my brothers and sisters.
Things that you think, far be it from
me.
I don't care how many times somebody tells
me that there's no God on some sitcom.
I know that there's a God.
See, I have a Bible.
The idea is if they say it long
enough, and you listen long enough, you will
begin to doubt the Lord.
Remember that servant.
Remember the flesh.
You are but a man.
There's just so many times you can listen
to some situation comedy tell you that there
is no reason to fear the Lord, before
the fear of the Lord begins to dwindle
in your own soul.
There's just so many times.
Let the flesh serve you.
Let it tell you as it begins to
rise up.
When you find yourself laughing at some joke
that you know you shouldn't be laughing at,
at the office or whatever.
As it begins to rise up, let it
say to you, there's just so many times
you can listen to this joke, before you
start telling it.
Before you start losing that sense of holiness,
consistency.
And it's a covenant of condition.
A covenant that says, if you try and
act like you never made any covenant with
Gibeah, you try and act like this is
just not a part of you, you and
I can engage in anything we want and
everything is going to be okay.
Then you're going to find yourself in a
rather difficult situation.
We're going to find ourselves in a place
where God, who wants to override this decision,
is not able to.
Because we won't acknowledge it.
We won't admit it.
We won't come to God and say, Lord,
I made a stupid mistake.
I sinned against the Lord.
I engaged in a covenant with covetousness.
Instead we say, well, let's kill it before
God sees it.
Let's just sweep it under the rug before
God notices.
But David said, where can I go?
Where can I hide from God?
Where can I hide from His gaze?
It's like a little child who thinks that
they can hide something from you, you know,
behind their back.
The thing is twice their size.
And they got it behind their back and
they're hoping, you know, like my little daughter
trying to hide a surfboard back there.
You know what I mean?
You and I cannot hide from the Lord.
Everything is transparent.
Another thing I notice that children tend to
do is when they try to hide from
you by closing their own eyes.
You know what I mean?
And we do that.
We allow our discernment to completely dissipate so
that we can't even tell that we are
committing sin, thinking that somehow if I don't
know it, God doesn't know it.
If I can't discern it, God can't discern
it.
But now the Lord says to His church,
bring it to me.
That's the condition.
Don't hide from me.
Don't lie to me.
Now I want to suggest to you, my
brothers and sisters, that when we allow the
fullness of God's covenant to manifest Himself in
our life, then God will subdue our flesh
under us.
And it will serve us in the sense
that it will always remind us, remember, you
need God.
Every time we find ourselves beginning to rise
up in the flesh, it will say, remember,
you need God.
You better go and pray now.
There are times when your flesh has served
you in that way.
You know what I mean?
It begins to rise up.
You're in a situation, you know, you're about
to argue and you're like, I got all
my points.
I got my ducks in a row.
I know I can win this one.
And right about the time the flesh is
about to rise up, there is this reminder.
Remember, you need God.
It says, shut up and pray.
It says, you can't handle this on your
own.
Now, I want to suggest to you, my
brothers and sisters, as you go into the
tenth chapter, that Gibeah used to be a
friend of five other nations in that immediate
community.
And those nations got a bit upset.
In fact, one of the kings of that
nation found out that Gibeah was now a
servant of Joshua and the people of Gom.
And I'm imagining that they probably had a
conversation that went a little like this.
You know, you and I have always had
a relationship.
It was a timorous relationship.
We didn't trust each other.
We didn't like each other very much.
But we dealt.
We engaged.
Then we got along just fine.
Just like the devil would say to our
flesh.
It'll say, you know how we used to
do.
We didn't like each other very much.
We had a very timorous relationship, but we
had a covenant.
We had a friendship.
And now you mean to tell me you're
allowing yourself to be brought under by this?
This people of Israel, just because they believe
that they're coming into some promise.
You're allowing yourself to be brought under?
No.
No, I will bring you under.
I am not going to sit by.
This is what the enemy says to our
flesh.
When God, by His grace, begins to allow
us to subdue the flesh.
The enemy says, no, we used to be
partners.
Have you ever read that book, The Holy
War, by John Bunyan?
It talks about Mansoul.
This is like this fortress, Mansoul.
And it's kind of like this spy inside
Mansoul.
There's this idea of the flesh as a
spy.
Almost a double agent, you know what I
mean?
Because it's telling us, it's giving us everything
that we want.
And it's allowing us to have all kinds
of fun.
Meantime, it's interacting with the devil.
Now, when we, by the grace of God,
begin to subdue the flesh.
The enemy says, oh no, no, no, no,
no.
We have a covenant.
We had a deal.
And I am going to bring you under
subjection.
He says to the flesh, I'm going to
use you again.
I don't care how this person has begun
to believe God for the promise.
I don't care how this person has begun
to subdue the flesh.
I don't care how this person has begun
to fully benefit from their covenant relationship with
God.
I am going to bring you back under
subjection.
Now, the person, of course, is living a
wonderful life now.
They're in this wonderful promise.
They believe in God.
They're fully benefiting from all of the benefits
of covenant.
And not only that, but because the flesh
has been brought under subjection, they are no
longer, as we heard today, they're no longer
sweating and toiling.
Remember, the Gibeonites were now the ones who
were the hewers of wood and the bearers
of water.
So, the Israelites no longer...
See, the thing about it is when we
allow the flesh to have its run in
our lives, then life is toilsome and burdensome.
And we're sweating every day.
And you walk up to the Christian person
and say, How are you doing?
And they say, Oh man, I tell you,
I'm just making it and so on and
so forth.
I know, you know, we're physical people.
We get tired sometimes.
But when I hear that coming from the
soul, I am so tired.
I am so burdened.
I am so overwrought.
My thought is one of two things.
Either they're allowing Gibeon to just have its
run so that Gibeon is not serving the
way it should.
Or they're trying to kill Gibeon in their
own strength.
In other words, they're allowing the flesh to
do whatever it wants or they're trying to
destroy the flesh in their own strength, by
their own religion, whatever the case might be.
And they're constantly tired.
But now, they have brought the flesh under
subjection.
And they are acknowledging the wonderful works of
God.
And the devil says, No, no, no, no,
no.
Yeah, you might have had a victory today,
but I'm going to get you tomorrow.
I'm going to get you, he said.
But Joshua was smart.
Joshua said, as I mentioned this on Friday,
it's been on my heart for a long
time.
But Joshua said, Oh, I know how to
defeat that.
Sometimes the devil will tell you, Oh yeah,
you're having a good time in church today,
but I'll get you tomorrow.
Joshua said, I know, I got a good
remedy for that.
So, he simply looks up to the sun.
And he says, Sun, stand still.
He said, Why should I worry about tomorrow?
This is the day of the Lord.
Why should I worry?
This is the Sabbath of God.
This is the day in which the Lord
has chosen that we should rest in Him.
Why should I worry about tomorrow?
I'm not going to hear any lie from
the devil telling me he's going to do
this tomorrow, he's going to do that tomorrow.
No, I'm going to say, Sun, stand still.
Until God gives me complete victory over every
one of these kings that set themselves in
array against me.
By the covenant of God, by the grace
of the Most High, I have brought my
flesh under subjection.
And the devil has no say-so in
the matter.
The Bible says that he said in the
presence of the Lord, Sun, stand still.
And when he did, he began to wage
war.
He said, I've already waged war against my
flesh by the grace of God and I
have brought it under subjection.
Now it's your turn, devil.
I'm going to fight against you too.
Because I will not fall to sin again.
I will not be a slave to sin
one more day.
Never again I will no longer be a
slave to sin.
That's what the Bible says, that's what Paul
says to us in the sixth chapter of
Romans.
You will no longer be a slave to
sin.
Does that mean that you don't have a
sinful nature that will try to rise up
every now and again?
And every now and again try to bring
some rebellion?
No, what it means is that it will
never win.
It will never win.
And when it peeps its head up every
now and again, if you see it manifest
itself in some way, you go to God
and you say, God, I was foolish.
I did not inquire of the Lord, but
I come before you right now.
And I say in Jesus' name, God, let
there be victory in my life, complete and
utter victory.
And I say in the name of Jesus,
Son, stand still until we defeat every lie
of Satan that says to us that we
must be slaves to sin again.
You and I will never be slaves to
sin again.
Because we daily crucify the flesh by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
We buffet our body and make it our
slave.
See, that's the thing about the flesh.
If you don't make it your slave, it
will try to make you its.
Now, the devil comes with his lie.
And says, let's buddy up again to the
flesh.
He says, you know you want to.
It's gonna happen tomorrow or the next day
or the next day.
And you say, no, no, you don't seem
to understand.
I've prayed to the Lord.
And I've said, Son, stand still.
Don't you see this is just one day.
God's day.
This is the day of the Lord.
This is the final day.
This is the Sabbath day.
This is the Lord's day.
And I will not be a slave to
sin.
I will not give my members over to
folly.
I will walk in victory.
And I in the name of the Lord
Jesus and by the grace of God.
And according to the covenant that covers, I
will defeat every lie of the devil.
Because God has said it.
I want you to say a thing in
your heart right now as we go to
prayer.
I want you to look into the heavens.
And see the awesome power of God.
And I want you to say along with
Joshua.
Son, stand still.
I'm not worried about tomorrow now.
I'm not worried about the lie of the
devil and all of the things that he
says he's gonna do when I leave the
church.
And how tomorrow's gonna be.
How when I get on the job, it's
gonna be like this.
Or how when I get home to my
husband or my wife, it's gonna be like
that.
No, no, no, no, no.
Son, stand still.
This is the Lord's day.
And the devil doesn't have any right in
it.
In one day, they decimated the kings that
came against them.
And the sun did not go down until
they had victory.
Now I want you to say in your
heart, my brother and sister.
Son, stand still.
This is the Lord's day.
I will not be a slave to sin.
I will not be a servant to my
flesh.
But by the grace of God, I will
bring it under subjection.
I will not lie about its existence.
It will serve me in that it will
always say to me in my ear, no
matter what kind of victory I take.
Remember, you're just a man.
Remember, you're just a woman.
And you need your God every single day.
Would you stand with me, please, my brothers
and my sisters?
Hallelujah.
Glory to His holy name.
Glory to the name of Jesus, our Savior.
We want to pray today.
We're gonna ask you to come up.
Very simple altar call.
You are coming up to make a statement.
Sin will not have dominion over me.
Very plain, very simple.
I will not allow sin to have dominion
over me.
I will present my flesh before the Lord
and say, God, I need your covenant to
cover all of my weakness.
I need your covenant to cover every bad
decision I've made in the past or any
bad decision I might make.
I need your covenant to cover me, O
God.
I want to take victory over the lie
of the devil, over the influence of the
flesh, until Jesus be glorified in my life.
If you want to pray that prayer today,
on the ground floor, in the balcony, the
annex, begin to come to the front.
We're gonna pray.
And we're gonna see a victory in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
The Lord bless you, my brothers and sisters.
I want to remind you as we pray
that we don't come to an altar like
this to say, oh, what I'll do right
now is I'll completely divest myself of my
sinful nature.
And now I don't ever have to deal
with any of the issues of my life
again.
What we're saying is, no, Lord, I'm bringing
my reality to you.
And I'm asking you, by your grace, to
cause me to bring it under subjection.
This is what the Lord has promised.
And not only that, but he's going to
defeat the devil in your sight.
And he's going to rob the devil of
every one of his lies.
And you're gonna know, and I'm gonna know,
a life where God's truth is so prominent
that every time the devil tries to lie,
it is just completely obliterated by the awesome
power of God's truth.
Spirit of Jesus, we thank you so much
for your goodness toward us.
We thank you that we are able to
come before you and to say, Lord, we've
made some decisions that have affected us on
some level or another.
And try as we might, we can't shake
certain propensities in us, but we can bring
them under subjection.
We will no longer be slaves to sin.
We are a born-again people.
A people who have entered into the promise
of God.
And so we say, Lord, in Jesus' name.
We pray along with Joshua and say, Son,
stand still.
And let every lie of the devil be
utterly brought down.
Let it be cast into the ground.
Lord, when Joshua took that wonderful victory, he
brought those kings before him and he put
his foot on their neck.
And he told his people to put your
foot on their neck.
Because this is what God is going to
do to your enemy.
Your foot will be upon his neck.
You will no longer hear his lies.
You will no longer believe his deception.
And your flesh will be brought under subjection
because of the great covenant of God.
And the grace of the great king.
Father, we thank you that we are your
people.
That we have entered into the land of
promise.
And that we receive everything that appertains to
the great covenant that we have with you.
We love you, Lord Jesus.
And we bless your holy name.
Amen.
God bless you, my brothers and sisters.
This is the conclusion of the message.