Okay, turn back with me to Joshua. I should say the gospel of Joshua
chapter 10. Again, verse one, I came to pass
when Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem had heard. had heard how Joshua
had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done
to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king.
And they'd also heard how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made
peace with Israel and were among them." We hear that word heard
a great deal in the writings of Joshua. In Joshua chapter
two, Rahab the harlot said, for we have heard, we've heard how
the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you
came out of Egypt. We heard what he did unto the
two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan,
Sihon and Hag. whom you utterly destroyed. And
as soon as we heard these things, our hearts didn't melt and neither
did there remain any more courage in any man because of you, because
of your God. For the Lord, your God, he's
God in heaven above. and in the earth beneath. And
then in Joshua chapter five, verse one, we're told that it
came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on
the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites,
which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the
waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel until
they passed over. and their heart melted and neither
was their spirit in them anymore because of the children of Israel. They heard, they heard about
Israel's God. In Joshua chapter nine, verse
three, the Gibeonites, they heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho
and Ai. And in verse nine, they said,
we've heard the fame of your God and all that he did in Egypt. And then we come here to chapter
10. And again, in verse one, we see
that God brought it to pass when Adonai Zedek, the king of Jerusalem,
heard how Joshua had taken Aiah and utterly destroyed it. when
he heard what Joshua did to Jericho and his king, when he heard how
the Gibeonites had made peace with Israel, had made a covenant
with them, and were among them joining forces with them. Verse
two says that Adonai Zedek feared greatly because Gibeon was a
great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater
than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. This would be a
good time for me to ask you, have you heard about the heavenly
Joshua? It's by the hearing of him that
faith comes. Paul tells us in Romans chapter
10, for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed, for there's no difference between the Jew and
the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto them that
call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? For Isaiah saith, Lord who hath
believed our report. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Friends, salvation depends upon
you hearing God's word from God above and God revealing it to
you. Faith, believing and trusting in Christ comes by hearing of
Christ, who he is, and what he's done for sinners. And the only
enemies in Canaan that believed and truly feared God were the
Gibeonites. And they bowed their knees instead
of picking up swords to fight. They came in peace instead of
joining themselves with others of their kind. And they sought
to be servants, servants rather than to die at the hand of Joshua's
God. Just a remnant, just a few, just
a small part of the whole. And in verse one, where it says
that Adonai Zedek heard that Gibeon had made peace with Israel
and was among them, that word among there is a precious word. In the Hebrew, it means of the
nearest part. Like a husband and a wife. One
flesh, one in the same. That's what the Gibeonites now
were. They were one with Israel and
their Joshua. That's what God's people are
with our heavenly Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our heavenly
husband. and we're his bride. May we never
forget that. The lying, deceitful Gibeonite
that I am and that you are has been made one with Joshua and
his people. And I think that we grossly underestimate
just how at one we are, how Christ's atonement or his at-one-ment
has made us with Him and His church. Every Gibeonite, everyone,
every Gibeonite is blessed, safe, secure, and saved in their Joshua,
the Lord Jesus, a part of Him in the nearest way. My, my. In verse two, we're told the
king Adonai Zedek was afraid because of Gibeon. It was a great
city. It was a royal city. It was greater
than Ai and all the men thereof were mighty. And what did they
do? Did they fight? No, they made
peace with Joshua. Israel had crossed the Jordan
River in flood season. God had caused the walls of Jericho
to fall down. And with only the sound of a
ram's horn and a shout, Jericho was destroyed, Ai was burned,
the mighty men of Gibeon surrendered in peace. So what does King Adonai
Zedek do? Does he humble himself as the
Gibeonites did? No, he sent the four other kings
to help him fight, to fight against Joshua, to fight against Joshua's
God. How futile. Why would he dare fight against
such an undefeatable foe? Well, his name actually gives
us a clue. In the Hebrew language, Adonai
means Lord. And the name Zedek means righteousness. Adonai Zedek means the Lord of
righteousness. And anyone is of the mind to
rise up against an undefeatable God must assume in his or her
mind that they're greater than God. Why else would they attempt
to do something so foolish? This king was a counterfeit.
Men and women who rebel against God always take to themselves
some self-imagined attributes of deity. They think that they're
righteous and holy. They believe to have made themselves
so. They give themselves the name
of Adonai Zedek. They imagine themselves to be
the Lord of their own righteousness. The only righteousness that any
sinner has is imputed righteousness. It was accredited. attributed,
assigned, described, given, and applied to a sinner when Christ
was made sin for them. How wonderful is it that Christ
himself was made sin, that he took our sin, that he paid the
debt of our sin, but is it not a double blessing that he also
gave us his perfect righteousness? When God looks at the Gibeonites
that we are, He sees His people at one with His Son. My, my. In the end, to fight against
God is to claim that you've produced your own perfect righteousness.
It's the claim that you did so by your own merit, and in doing
so, you claim yourself to be King Adonai Zedek, the Lord of
your own righteousness. But all who do such will fail. Impossible to accomplish. All
who war against God are ordained to failure. It's an assault on
the only way that God will accept the sinner, and that's by the
perfect righteousness and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Lord, our righteousness. He is Jehovah to Sid Canoe. And all who stand in their own
righteousness will fall and utter death. Like King Adonai Zedek,
we are neither Lord nor righteousness, only counterfeit kings. How beautiful
is the righteousness of Christ. The Holy Spirit through Isaiah
said this, Isaiah 32, 17, and the work of righteousness shall
be peace. My, that in itself, wonderful
thought. And then he said, and the effect
of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. Having
the perfect righteousness of Christ, the believer can have
peace and quietness and assurance. For how long? Forever, forever. Another quick but interesting
thought, Adonai Zedek was called the King of Jerusalem. At this
time, Jerusalem didn't even exist yet. It would not be Jerusalem
till it had been defeated and taken by Joshua. And I believe
it's referred here to Jerusalem in anticipation of it being taken. God's victory is always certain. It might as well already be Jerusalem. In the eyes of God, it was. Adonai
Zedek was a king of war, but soon King Joshua, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the King of kings, would be the King of Jerusalem. And
one of the names of Jerusalem means they shall have peace.
And in Christ, every child of God does. Oh, it's that peace
that passes all understanding. We can't understand it. We just
have peace. We have quietness of soul and
assurance because of what Christ has done for us. So Adonai Zedek,
according to verse three, sent unto these other kings and he
said in verse four, come up unto me and help me that we may smite
Gibeon. Now I want you to pay close attention
to that. He says, I want you to come that
we may smite Gibeon for that nation, for it hath made peace
with Joshua and with the children of Israel. And in verse five,
therefore the five kings of the Amorites went up and all their
host and encamped before Gibeon and made war against it. This brings up another interesting
fact. These kings didn't say that we're going up against Joshua,
but their desire was the destruction of Gibeon, verse four. And the
reason that they desired to destroy Gibeon was that the Gibeonites
had made peace with Joshua. And that's a lesson every believer
will experience if they haven't already. The believer's calm
assurance, that quietness that Isaiah talked about. And satisfaction
with Christ and His finished work. It's an absolute outrage. to those who are still laboring
to establish their own righteousness. Oh, it makes folks mad. The world
hates you because it hated Christ. You know, the Lord said, without
me, you can do nothing. And they hated him for that.
You can't do anything? Well, what do you think I am?
Just what you are. You're a worthless sinner. You
can't do anything. Men and women want to do something
to be saved. How useless. when everything
that is required has already been done for you. This religious
world believes that they're the Lord of their own righteousness. And they hate all who put all
their trust in the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. These
five kings would rather perish than to make peace with Joshua.
And we shake our heads, but that's the case today. Men would rather
shake their fist at God and continue on hating Him without a cause
than bowing to the Lordship of Christ. So what did the nation
of Gibeon do? They did what believers always
do, they called upon their mighty Joshua. Verse six, and the men
of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal saying, slack
not thy hand from thy servants, You remember the covenant that
we made? We're your servants, come up to us quickly and save
us and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites
that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.
And what did Joshua do? What the Lord Jesus always does.
Verse seven, so Joshua ascended from Gilgal. He and all the people
of war with him and all the mighty men of valor. You know, as I
read that verse again today, that thought just makes the hair
on the back of my neck stand up. Just like that passage of
Scripture in Revelation where there was no man found worthy
to open the book. John saw the Lord Jesus as a
lamb slain, a sin to the throne of God, and he took that book
out of the right hand of God. That just, I tell you, if that
doesn't move you, then you're yet dead. When a child of God
is in real trouble, they don't have to be coerced to cry for
help. They don't have to be pleaded
with. They will without reservation and without any hesitation call
on their Joshua and their Joshua will ascend every time, every
time. Oh, what a sight. This must have
been to the Gibeonites. I tried to picture myself in
their shoes. There they stand and they're
surrounded by all the nations, all the kings of the Amorites
and their warriors. And here comes Joshua and the
army of Israel to the rescue. What a thought, what a sight
that must have been. In appealing to Joshua for help,
they rejected their self-sufficiency. That's what a sinner has to do.
Lay down your works of righteousness, you don't have any. Trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness. They look
to Joshua alone for deliverance. That's what a sinner's gotta
do. Look to Christ alone. Though naturally speaking, all
the men of Gibeon, according to verse two, were mighty, they
didn't rely on their own skill and power. And a child of God
can't do that. We have none. We have no ability. No man will come. No man can
come. They humbled themselves by seeking
deliverance, the only place that it's found. And that's in our
Joshua. And if you and I would be victorious
in the fight of faith, may we quickly recognize that the forces
confronting us are too formable for us to deal with. Sin, wow,
we stand no chance against sin. We have no opportunity to defeat
sin. We cannot pay sin's wages. But
there was one who could, and there's one who did. Oh my, Lord
help us to take the place of dependence and look to the Lord
Jesus. It's in conscious weakness that
our strength lies. What an amazing story we have
here. These five kings were encamped west of Gibeon in a valley. And
Joshua, under the cover of darkness of night, he marched his men
somewhere between 12 to 20 miles, best I can tell on the map, and
camped east of where these five kings were. And as soon as the
sun rose that next morning, Joshua and the army of Israel, with
the sun to their back, in full force, attacked their enemy swiftly
and effectively. And the enemy was blinded by
the sun, so much so that it says they were disconfitted, they
were confused and disoriented, and was confounded, and they
ran for their lives. You know, there's a best-selling
book called The Art of War, and it's said to, when possible,
to always fight with the sun to your back. And the sun's an
integral part of the tactics of war, as it was most certainly
on this day. Then as the five kings fled,
as we read toward Beth Horn, the Lord performed two miracles. And I want to take the last few
minutes of tonight's time to talk about those two miracles
that very clearly picture God's miracle of grace to us. Beloved
salvation, reconciliation, and restoration to God involves a
great miracle. Don't ever think that it doesn't.
First, the Lord hailed down giant stones from heaven upon the armies
of these kings. What do these stones from heaven
picture? You ever thought about it? They picture Christ, who
is the rock. He's the rock from heaven. That
rock that provides freshing, refreshing, living water. That
rock was Christ. For a thirsty people in a dry
and weary land. In the scriptures, Christ is
referred to as the stone of Israel. The stone of stumbling. A precious
and tried stone. The cornerstone that was rejected. The foundational stone. The rock on which the church
is built. You know, that's very, very important. That rock on which Christ built
the church, that rock's not Peter. Peter's name means rock. But the rock is Christ, who was
his profession. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's not just a sovereign
grace saying, salvation's of the Lord. That's a scriptural
saying. That's the only way to be saved,
is by the Lord. In and by and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And one day the Lord asked that
very question. He asked, who do men say that
I am? And they answered and they said,
some say you're John the Baptist and some say you're Elijah or
Jeremiah or one of the other great prophets. And the Lord
looked right into his disciples' eyes and he said, who do you
say that I am? Dear sinner, your answer to that
question is a matter of life and death. Who do you say that
Christ is? Peter said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. And that was not revealed to
him by flesh and blood, the Lord told him, but by his father,
which was in heaven. And the Lord said to Peter, and
I say unto you that thou art Peter, And upon this rock will
I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. Now listen, Peter's not the rock. The church was not built
upon Peter. The church is not the rock. The
church is built upon the rock. The church is built upon Christ.
Jesus Christ is the rock. Peter said, thou art the Christ.
You're the rock. You're the rock of salvation,
the rock that the builders rejected. You're the solid rock. You're
the firm foundation on which we stand, upon which the church
of God is built. Christ is the rock. And the gates
of hell cannot prevail against that. Thou art the Son of the
living God, the one in whom all fullness dwells. Moses said,
Lord, show me your glory. And the Lord granted his request.
God said, I'll make all my goodness pass before you, and I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before you. And God said, I'll be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious, and I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. And God said, thou can't see my face, for there
shall no man see me and live. You see, God is too holy. And
the Lord said, behold, there's a place by me. "'And thou shalt
stand upon a rock.'" That rock is Christ. "'And it shall come
to pass while my glory passes by you. "'I'll put you in the
cliff of a rock.'" That's Christ. "'And will cover thee with my
hand while I pass by.'" Jesus Christ is that rock upon which
we stand. Christ is that cliff of the rock
in which we are here. Jesus Christ is a tried cornerstone
in which the builders rejected. Psalm 118, 22 says, the stone
which the builders refused to become the headstone of the corner. If I haven't said it already,
let me say it again. Christ is the rock and the only
one who can save. and all who reject him will be
crushed under the stone stumbling and the rock of offense. It's
just that simple. The second miracle is the miracle
of the sun and the moon standing still. You know, I've heard scientists
over the years try to explain that away, but they can't. You
can't explain God's word away with science. The Bible is not
a book of science and it can't be understood that way. The Bible
is a spiritual book. The sun and the moon really did
stand still. Until Joshua had avenged the
Gibeonites, until the work of Joshua was finished, the sun
stood still. Now to know the Bible scientifically
is just a waste of time. The Bible is a spiritual book. This miracle was physical, but
it pictures the spiritual. The Old Testament was written
for our learning. Isn't that what Paul said? To
give us comfort from the word of God. This will give you comfort.
This will give you comfort if God is pleased to show it to
you. You know, there's a light that's given off by both the
sun and the moon. And that's a great picture of
Christ and his church. The sun is the true light, that
being Christ, and the moonlight is reflected light from the sun. What a picture that is. The moon,
like the child of God, has no light of its own. We reflect
the light that comes from Christ. God the Father and the son are
referred to often in the scriptures as son, S-U-N, or light. After all, he created it all.
The sovereign of the universe can easily manipulate the natural
forces of nature. He can stop the sun from moving. When the Lord Jesus hung on the
cross, God shut down the sun for three hours while he poured
out his wrath on the Lord Jesus who's being made a curse for
his people. In the end of time, as we know
it, it's said that the sun will be turned to darkness and that
the moon shall be turned to blood. It's the Lord who does that.
It's within God's power to do whatever He wills. What we have
here is not a physical phenomenon, though it is. What we have here
is a picture of a spiritual one. It's a lesson full of grace and
mercy for sinners. You see, this battle, now if
you think about this, this battle between the five kings and the
Gibeonites is being fought over a covenant. Did you hear me? It's being fought over a covenant.
Joshua had made a covenant with the Gibeonites. What would stop
the sun in its course? What would make the sun stand
still? Well, I believe the answer is
found in Mark chapter 10. Go ahead and turn there with
me and I'll begin to finish this up. How beautiful is this? Mark chapter 10, look at verse
46. Yes, it's an amazing thing that
the son stood still, but here we have something even more amazing. Mark chapter 10, verse 46. And they came to Jericho, and
as he went out of Jericho, that being the Lord Jesus with his
disciples, and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still. And he commanded him to be called.
And they called the blind man, saying unto him, be of good comfort,
rise, he calleth thee. And he casting away his garment,
some say that was a beggar's coat, it identified beggars.
He threw that thing away, he didn't need it anymore. Casting away his garment, rose
and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man
said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. I remember
the day I asked the Lord for that same thing, Lord, that I
might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, verse
52, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now listen, as great a miracle
as the sun and the moon stopping in their tracks for the purpose
of God is, it does not even compare with the Lord Jesus Christ, the
sun, S-U-N, of righteousness, being stopped in his tracks to
hear a blind beggar. How glorious are those three
words, Jesus stood still. My, my. If you're the one that
he stood still for, they're awful precious to you. On his way to
Jerusalem out of Jericho, the Lord, his face is set like a
flint to go to the cross to die for his people. Nothing could
stop him. This is why he came. Christ came
in the world to save sinners. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. Nothing's gonna deter him from
his work. Not Herod, not Pilate, not Satan,
not the Pharisees, not the Jews, not even his own mother. Why,
he even told her, I must be about my father's business. But like
the people of Gibeon, old blind Bartimaeus had a covenant with
his God. And at the sound of his cry,
Jesus Christ, the Son, the Son of God, S-U-N, the true Adonai
Zedek, the Lord our righteousness, comes to a screeching halt, as
we say. And the sun stood still. This is the day when Christ comes
in his inextinguishable light of the gospel reflected upon
his church. And like on this day for Joshua,
the light will remain until the job is finished and complete.
That the light will shine until every sinner is saved by the
mercy and grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Gibeon will
be spared, spared by the light of the world, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'll take the words from
Tim James, who said, this is the day that the sun stood still
and God's people, his elect, were delivered from the false
Lord of righteousness by the true Lord of glory. And how true
that is. That's why the sun stood still.
Why? For the salvation of Gibeon,
for the salvation of God's people, God's elect. May God be pleased
to reveal this to sinners for His glory and His people's good
and for Christ's sake.