In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that godly men are often targeted by Satan's attacks. He also highlights that the families of godly men, particularly their children, are also targets of Satan's attacks. The preacher advises against criticizing or judging the trials and sufferings faced by godly families, as they may be a result of Satan's attacks. The sermon also touches on the importance of worship and praise, emphasizing that different forms of expression are acceptable as long as they come from a genuine heart. The preacher encourages believers to have wisdom and discernment, and to not focus on minor defects in the lives of leaders, as even the greatest leaders can have imperfections.

They were human beings. In one way, they were types of Christ, but they were human and they had their limitations and they had sin, whereas Jesus is absolutely pure and sinless. But other than that, Joshua is a picture of Christ. But what I want to show you here is not Joshua as a picture of Christ, but Joshua as a picture of a leader. He was the leader, one of the leaders, one of these four blacksmiths, and the four leaders who was leading the people into building God's temple in Jerusalem. And this leader has got sin in his life, not deliberate known sin. If it was deliberate known sin, it would be a very serious thing. Paul could only say in 1 Corinthians 4, 4, I don't know anything against myself. My conscience is clear. But the one who judges me is the Lord. And there are many things that he sees which I cannot see. And as and when God shows it to me, I confess it and cleanse it. There is conscious sin in our life and unconscious. And even in leaders, there will be unconscious sin. There is no leader anywhere in the world who is Christ-like. Not even the apostle Paul. When they slapped Jesus, he did not threaten the high priest. When they slapped Paul, he said, God will smite you in your whitewashed wall. You know, there's a difference between Christ and even Paul. Paul fell into sin at that time. He was a bit upset. But then he immediately confessed it and asked forgiveness and set it right. So let me tell you this, you'll never find a leader anywhere in the world who is Christ-like. We become like Jesus only when he comes again. We will never be sinlessly perfect on this earth. Not even the greatest leader. And that is why sometimes you may look at a leader and you may see some defect in him. There are defects in the greatest leaders. Nobody is perfect. You'll find defects in the greatest prophet in the world when he speaks. There will be defects in his speech. Don't worry about those defects. Some of those defects may be very minor. So here it teaches us that the greatest of leaders on earth can still have some deficiency in their life. And what should you do when you see that defect? I'm not talking about, now you should not misunderstand this to apply to a leader living in adultery or leader running after money. I'm not talking about these things. I'm talking about, you know, little defects which are not serious, but which are still un-Christ-likenesses. That's the theme here. Joshua the high priest was standing before the Lord and Satan was there to accuse him. Satan targets leaders. He's always looking for leaders, targeting them, targeting their wives, targeting their children. Remember this, don't be harsh to judge a leader because he's a bigger target of Satan than you are. His children are bigger targets of Satan than your children are. His wife is a bigger target of Satan than your wife is. And he's there to accuse Joshua to the Lord. And here is the great encouragement that the Lord said, I the Lord, verse 2, reject your accusations. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We don't only have an accuser, Satan accusing us, we have an advocate. Sometimes we are so taken up with the accuser that we forget the advocate who is praying for us. There are two ministries going on in heaven right now. One is Satan's, like in the book of Job you read, accusing. Look at Job, he's like this, this, this, this, this. Look at Joshua, he's like this. Accusing and accusing you, accusing me. And there's another ministry going on in heaven at the same time and it says in Hebrews 7.25, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. A ministry of accusation and a ministry of intercession. And those who are in fellowship with Satan will accuse believers on earth also. Those who are in fellowship with Satan will accuse believers on earth also. Every time you gossip against another believer, speak evil against another believer, whether you know it or not, you're holding hands with Satan there, you're holding hands with Satan there. I agree with you, Satan, he's like that. And every time you pray for somebody, you pray for some brother, maybe who's weak, you're holding hands with Jesus and saying, Lord, I agree with you, we've got to pray for that brother and deliver him from that problem. How many times have you held hands with Satan and how many times have you held hands with Jesus? How many times have you held hands with Satan and how many times have you held hands with Jesus? You know, at least it can be different in the future. There we see Joshua was standing there, the Lord says, I reject your accusations and that is what I also say when people come to me with accusations. I will not speak against the person behind his back. I will tell him straight to his face. Be like that. The Lord says, I reject your accusations. I'm sorry, maybe what you say is right, but this man is a child of God. He's a burning stick snatched from the fire. Now Joshua was having filthy garments. And so the angel said, take away his filthy clothes. This is Jesus pleading for us. Take away his filthy clothes, put on new clothes on him. And he stands there clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That is the way we must see God's children, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And then Zechariah, this is the best part. See it and follow the example of Zechariah. He says, Lord, this is wonderful. Put a good turban on his head also. He cooperates with Jesus in making his filthy brother glorious. Do you want this ministry? To cooperate with Jesus that when Jesus puts a robe of righteousness on that brother, you cooperate with him and say, Lord, not only a robe, put a turban on his head, make him really glorious. What does this mean in practical terms? Somebody comes and tells me something bad about a brother and I say, but you know, he's got some good qualities. And suddenly the fellow's mouth is shut. Yeah, it's wonderful to have this ministry, particularly in prayer. When you go before God, I never forget what I read about John Hyde, that great missionary who came to North India, was known as Praying Hyde. He says how one day he was kneeling down and praying and Lord, he was saying, Lord, you know that pastor, he is like this. And suddenly he felt as if he was being choked, as the Holy Spirit was choking him. He said, don't get into a ministry of accusation, pray for him. And he learned something that day, not to accuse even in prayer, but to pray. So that's what Zachariah did. And that's the, and then we read Joshua's crowned and he continues in his ministry. I want to say to you, pray for God's leaders. Don't join the devil in criticizing them. They've got enough people who criticize them. Whenever you think of them, offer a brief prayer. Whenever the Lord reminds you of a true servant of God, please spend one minute or half a minute or 15 seconds praying for him. Lord, you reminded me of that person. I don't know what he's going through. I don't know how the devil's attacking him. I want to pray for him. Hold him up, protect his family, bless his ministry. There are many servants of God today whose children are not following in the ways of the Lord. I want to tell you, be very careful not to judge them. You do not know the pressures under which many of God's servants live and work and how much they are the targets of Satan's attack. I would not judge them. I would not judge people whose children have gone astray because I say, I don't know. The Bible says, don't judge. If you want to do something for them, pray for them. If you can't pray for them, at least don't judge them. Do you criticize other people's children? You're like Bildad, no different. And if you're going to be a godly man, you're going to be the target of Satan's attacks. And the other thing we see in the very first book of the Bible is that a godly man's family is the target of Satan's attacks. His children are the targets of Satan's attacks. That is why I say, don't criticize when you see trials and sufferings in the family of a godly man, because he is probably more a target of Satan's attacks than you are. His children are greater targets of Satan's attacks than your children. Do you criticize other people's children? You're like Bildad, no different. So full of happiness, chapter 6, verse 14, he was dancing before the Lord with all his might. That was the way they expressed their worship and praise to God. They clapped, they raised their hands, they shouted, they danced, they used musical instruments and they praised God with all their heart. David was a worshipper. But it says here that as he was coming, his wife, verse 16, the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw David dancing like this and was very upset. And she despised him in her heart, despised an anointed servant of God who was worshipping in a way that she did not like. There may be people worshipping God in a way that you don't like. You don't have to imitate them, but don't despise them. The Bible never says that Michal also should start jumping and dancing. No. But she was not to despise another. Don't think that the way you do it is right. You see, this is the trouble with a lot of Christian groups. The way we do it is right. Everybody must do it the way we do it. You have some groups, when they have Sunday worship meeting, everybody sits quiet like in a funeral service and they worship the Lord. Okay? I don't want to do it that way. So I don't despise them. If they want to do it that way, let them do it. Then there are other people who are the other extreme who, they say, you shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout, and then the Holy Spirit comes. Only then the Holy Spirit comes. See, the Holy Spirit doesn't come when you raise the volume on your amplifier. I wish it were so easy, but it's not so easy. You've got to have a clear conscience. Whether the amplifier inside your sound system inside or outside, the Holy Spirit's not dependent on these things. But I don't despise them. I say, brother, if you want to do it that way, do it. But leave me free to do it the way I want to do it. I say, if you want to raise your hands, raise your hands. I do it. If you want to clap, clap, I do it. But I'm not going to force you to do it. That's the lesson we learn from here. Don't despise the way another person worships and don't think the way you worship is the only right way. Give freedom. God looks at the heart. And so David wanted to dance, I say, fine. Don't despise the person who does it and don't compel a person to do it. And the Lord judged Michal, verse 23, that she never had any children. And you young people can ask God to give you wisdom and discernment, not just knowledge, wisdom and breadth of mind or largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore, which means a large heart that could take in all of God's people. I believe that's the great need in our time. Here is a brother who belongs to another denomination who disagrees with me on the form of baptism or disagrees with me on speaking in tongues. Never mind. God has accepted him. Lord, give me the largeness of heart to accept that brother as my brother, even though he doesn't work with me, even though he doesn't agree with me in certain doctrines. I want largeness of heart to accept all of God's people. In other words, I want to accept those whom God accepts. Sometimes you can reject a person because they have a certain conviction on something which is different from yours. Can you accept that person? I remember once when a sister came to me for baptism and she was wearing ornaments. I have a conviction that ornaments should not be worn. That's God's teaching in 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 3. But here was this sister with ornaments and the Lord said one word to my heart, have I accepted her? And I said, yes, Lord, you have accepted her. I know that she's really born again because I had spoken to her. And the Lord said to me, how can you reject one whom I accepted? I will not reject her. I baptized her with ornaments and everything. And she still wears it today. And I said, that's not my business to judge. I will accept people whom God has accepted, even if their convictions are different from mine on small things or big things. Are they born again? Has God accepted them? If God has not accepted them, it's different. Then I still love them as a neighbor, as a friend, but I cannot accept them into the fellowship of the church. But once God has accepted them, I cannot cut them off just because in some area they don't have light, where I may have light. I remember once in one matter the Lord said to me, how long did you take to come to this understanding? So many years. Why can't you be patient with that person? Give them also a little time to come to that understanding. We all need largeness of heart. When we are young, we are narrow minded, narrow hearted. We accept only people who agree with us in every little detail. I was like that when I was young. I'm ashamed to say that, but I was like that. It's one of the many foolish things I did. But as I've grown older and gone to know the Lord better, I've discovered that I need to have largeness of heart to accept everyone. When we are young, we are narrow minded, narrow hearted. We accept only people who agree with us in every little detail. I was like that when I was young. I'm ashamed to say that, but I was like that. It's one of the many foolish things I did. Those who are in fellowship with Satan will accuse believers on earth also. Every time you gossip against another believer, speak evil against another believer, whether you know it or not, you're holding hands with Satan there. You're holding hands with Satan there. I agree with you, Satan. He's like that. How many times have you held hands with Satan? And how many times have you held hands with Jesus? How many times have you held hands with Satan? And how many times have you held hands with Jesus? You know. At least it can be different in the future. At least it can be different in the future. At least it can be different in the future.