Back to Joshua chapter nine,
please. I believe it was three Sunday
mornings ago, we looked at Acts chapter 28, and in verse 23,
where Paul, when he preached, he expounded and testified the
kingdom of God persuading men and women concerning Christ.
And he did so, the scripture says, both out of the law of
Moses, And out of the prophets, meaning out of the Old Testament
scripture. And that's what I'm endeavoring
to do again tonight. Out of the Old Testament scriptures,
I desire greatly to expound and to testify the kingdom of God. And again, persuade sinners,
including myself. out of the book of Joshua. And
these things were written for time for our learning that we
may, through the comfort of the scriptures, aren't the scriptures
comforting? Nothing more comforting than
the scriptures, the word of God, that we through the comfort of
the scriptures might have hope. And as we see here in Joshua
chapter nine, it's the same as it was with Paul in Acts chapter
28, verse 24. It says, and some believed and
some believe not. That's always been the case. And I suppose that's how it always
be. Some believe, some trust, some
find comfort, and some don't. Before us tonight in Joshua chapter
nine, we see the story of two responses. are only two responses that men
and women have when hearing of the heavenly Joshua, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Sinners will either believe or
they won't believe. Sinners will either bow or they'll
rebel. Religion today has worked overtime,
it seems, to reduce and diminish God, His Christ, and His gospel
to something that can be accepted or rejected by the will of man. Well, that's not so. When God
reveals through the preaching of the gospel that God does as
He pleases with whom He pleases, when God's word declares that
God has mercy on whom He'll have mercy, and compassion on whom
he'll have compassion. When the word of God without
apology expounds and testifies that salvation is not accomplished
by the will of man, but by God for his chosen people without
possibility of failure, men and women will react in one of two
ways. They'll believe and bow, or they
will not believe and rebel. They'll gather their weapons
and fight, they'll make their alliances with the world, they'll
fight against God and his servants, or they will come as paupers to the king and they'll beg for
their lives in the service of Christ. But one thing's for certain,
it's all according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Isaiah said, so shall my word be, or I should say the
Lord through Isaiah said, so shall my word be that goeth forth
out of my mouth. It shall not, it shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. That sounds pretty
hopeful for me, pretty definite to me. Let therefore all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God had made that same Jesus
whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they
heard this, they were pricked in their heart. Some were and
some weren't. And they said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? When some men and women hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, God, Sovereignly gets their attention. They see what
they are. They see that they're in great
need. They see that they're paupers in the hands of an angry God
and they cry out for mercy and they've got to have it. They
won't settle for anything less. Yet some will refuse and rebel. As we saw in the reading of this
chapter, verses one and two, some are pictured here for us
with the natural response that men and women have of the sovereign
Christ. When sinners rebel against the
truth of Christ's gospel, they join themselves with numbers
who are like-minded, even if they're enemies. and they fight
together for the same common cause. Reminds me very much of
Herod and Pilate. They made friends together, Luke
23, 12 says, for before they were at enmity between themselves. They didn't like one another
at all. Yet in the common cause of the
crucifixion of Christ, they became friends. And just like Herod
and Pilate, who were enemies of Christ, came together in that
cause against him, so did the enemies of Joshua, and so do
men and women today. They come together against God, but they come together against us
because we're the only ones that they can hurt. When men and women
of the world, those who hate a sovereign God, hear the truth
of who God is and who and what they themselves are, they immediately
develop a righteous and moral indignation against the sinners
that God saves. I'm sure you've experienced it
and so have I. In believing themselves to have
had a hand in their own salvation, men and women by nature become
holier than thou. Christ himself said, yea, the
time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that they doeth
God's service. And this is the reason. They
become jealous of God's glory. Believing that by work of righteousness
that they have saved themselves, they're unwilling to bow to the
truth that salvation's of the Lord, and they will not share
their glory with another, not even with God. But you see, it's
really just the opposite. It's the other way around. In
the matter of salvation, God will not share his glory with
another. And God says, I'm the Lord, that's
my name and my glory, I will not give to another. Religion
has this thing backwards. Modern day religion does. Why
do they feel that way? Well, David tells us that men
may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the most
high over all the earth. Men don't mind God creating the
world. They don't mind Him being the
Savior, but they sure have a problem with Him being Lord, especially
Lord over them. But when godly divinely interrupts
and when God divinely intervenes and reveals the gospel to one
of his elect people, their indignation is against themselves. And they beg for mercy from him
to whom mercy belongs. And I'm gonna say it again. They
take sides with God against themselves. That's what a believer does.
They say, yay, Lord, a dog is what I am. They say, yea, Lord,
I am a wretched man. They say, yea, Lord, I'm less
than the least. They say, I'm not worthy to be
called a son, a child, a believer, a Christian. They say, help thou
mine unbelief. I look close at verse one here. It says the Hittites, the Amorites,
the Perizzites, Hivites and the Jebusites heard, heard thereof. What did they hear? They heard
what God had done to Jericho. They heard what God had done
to Ai. And what did they do? Verse two
tells us, they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua,
who pictures the Lord Jesus Christ, and with Israel, who pictures
his church. And they did so with one accord.
So why are we surprised that it's the same today? The margin
in my Bible defines that phrase with one accord as with one mouth. As I thought about that today,
and was thinking about how futile it is to fight against the sovereign
God, what do they do? They can't get
their hands on God, so they begin to run their mouth against Him. with one accord, with one mouth.
Very appropriate. They say your God's not fair.
You ever had anybody tell you that? Well, if that's true, your
God's not fair. Your God is my devil. I had a
man tell me that one time. Your God is unrighteous. That's
what Paul said they would say. He said, is there unrighteousness
with God? That's what you're gonna say.
He said, God forbid. For God said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
It's futile to fight the sovereign. Psalm 2.1, why do the heathen
rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together with one
accord, with one mouth against the Lord and against His anointed
saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords
from us. How does that affect God? He
that sitteth in the heaven shall have. The Lord shall have them
in derision. But there's also a second response. a response to the heavenly Joshua's
presence and power. And that's the real story in
the picture before us in chapter nine, the inhabitants of Gibeon
and their approach to Joshua. And what we have here is an Old
Testament type of a New Testament principle. All the miracles that
our Lord did in the New Testament for those who were physically
afflicted We're a picture of some aspect to the spiritual
healing and salvation of God's elect people. Christ's healing
of that leper. That shows us something that
the healing of our flesh from this body's flesh-eating disease
of sin. Sin eats us from the inside out. Christ's healing of that woman
with the issue of blood, that shows us something of our blood
disease of sin, which forever flows in corruption unless Christ
intervenes. Christ's healing of the blind
shows us something of our need of spiritual sight that only
He can give. And Christ's healing of the lame
reveals our inability to work and to walk or to come to Christ
on our own to receive a life. And Christ's healing and restoration
of the possessed man among the tombs, remember him, clearly
shows us our spiritual state as madmen living among the dead
and doing hurt to ourselves. All these physical affirmaties
and afflictions picture our spiritual afflictions. Christ's healing
of the dead pictures how faith can only come by hearing. He
that hath ears, let him hear. And Christ got to give us those
ears to hear. And what about the raising of
the dead? No clearer picture that life can only be accomplished
by an act. of sovereign power. Unless God
gives life, we'll remain dead. God speaks to our natural inability
and our spiritual deadness, and he saves and he delivers us by
his spirit and power and the giving of faith, 100%. Not 50-50, not if we do our part,
God does His, but the giving of faith, 100% of it requires
a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit of God, and it's
through the preaching of the gospel. That's God's ordained
means. And why people who profess to
be believers don't have more of an interest in the gospel,
I'll never understand. Those who come to Christ for
help picture the awakened sinner who's made aware of their need.
And hearing and healing of Christ by his power, they come to Christ
out of desperation. Those who are whole have no need.
We don't go to the doctor when we're not sick. But those who
are sick most definitely do. And they seek the Lord for their
life. And it's in this light that we
consider what the people of Gibeon did. They picture awakened sinners,
those in fear of their lives, those in desperate need, those
who are taking desperate measures. Look at verse three. And when
the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho
and to Ai, they did work wildly. The men of giving and those from
surrounding cities had heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho
and Ai, but they knew it was God that did it. And they did
work wily. That word means deceitful. It
means being skilled at gaining advantages. There's some folks
that are very skilled at that. It means with trickery or with
guile. But something interesting is
that the root of that word is subtlety, and it can mean with
prudence and wisdom. Say what you will about the Gibeonites. They worked wildly. They worked
with shrewdness and craftiness, yet with some wisdom. They didn't
want to die. They didn't want any part of
the God of Israel. They heard some things, just
like Rahab did. Verse four, they did work wildly
and went and made as if they had been ambassadors. And they
took old sacks upon their asses and wine bottles old and rent
and bound up. They were that way before they
put them on their donkeys. in old shoes and cladded upon
their feet. They got their worst wore out
shoes and put them on, their old garments and put them on,
and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. What did they do? They made as
if they were ambassadors from a far country, as if they had
been traveling for a very long time. Truth of the matter is
they may have just come from over the other hill. They wore old, worn-out clothes
and shoes. Their clothes were mended with,
I can just picture, different colored patches. They put in their food sack old,
dry, moldy bread. Their wine bottles, I'm sure
skins of some sort, had been repaired and patched as they
pretended to be hungry, weary travelers. And in several ways,
they pictured the child of God. They were deceptive in their
actions. And are our hearts not deceitful and desperately wicked? Deceitful above all things, the
scripture says. And like the child of God, they
were made fearful. They saw their impending doom
and they'd do anything to be spared. They came in their worn
out shoes and clothes. The submitting sinner comes with
no pretension whatsoever of any righteousness of their own. The
believing sinner comes hungry and thirsting after righteousness
and their water's dried up and their bread is moldy. Verse six
says, and they went to Joshua into the camp at Gilgal, and
they said unto him and to the men of Israel, we become from
a far country, now therefore make a league with us. Now the
people of Gibeon came pretentiously, and that's the way a sinner comes
because that is truly their condition, to always be pretentious. And
when they said make a league with us, that wasn't a demand
by them, it was a plea. They didn't come bearing gifts.
They offered nothing in exchange for mercy. They didn't have anything
to offer and neither do we. They had no weapons to fight
in Israel's cause. They came with nothing at all,
just with hope that Joshua would have mercy on them. As you know,
garments very often in scripture or picture are symbolic of righteousness. The only righteousness that these
men had was a righteousness of filthy rags. That's the way every
sinner comes to Christ. These men understood that if
a league with Joshua and Israel was to be formed and peace was
to be made, that it would be solely upon Joshua's terms. Are you following me? Like all
who come to Christ for mercy, the Gibeonites were and we ourselves
are nothing but aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise. Scripture says, having no hope,
none. And without God in this world,
our only hope is that our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ might have
mercy on us. That's what this is a picture
of. coming to Christ for mercy. Verse seven says, and the men
of Israel said unto the Hivites, Israel didn't know them to be
Hivites. The Hivites are mentioned, as I said, along with the nations
that hated and heard of Israel's God in verse one. And what a
great grace we find here in verse seven. Undoubtedly, the Hivites,
or at least some of them, the men of Gibeon anyway, who were
Hivites, did not want to fight. They didn't want to fight against
the God of Israel because they'd heard some things. Have you heard
some things about the Lord God of Israel? They heard some things. And undoubtedly,
Israel was a bit suspicious of them. They ask in verse seven,
peradventure you dwell among us and how can we make a league
with you? If you're one of the nations
that dwell among us as enemies, God declares that we cannot be
at peace with you. On what basis can we make a league
or a covenant of peace with you if you're one of our enemies?
They were suspicious. But the Gibeonites' reply is
very important. It's very valuable. It's a very
valuable lesson to us. They've cast their lives and
future entirely upon the goodwill of Joshua. They did not say,
we will be your slaves or your servants. They didn't insinuate
that they would exchange servitude for mercy or for salvation. If we'll do this, if you'll do
this for us, no. In verse eight, they said very
specifically to Joshua, we are your servants. Do with us as you see fit. throwing
ourselves upon your mercy. Isn't that the way every broken
child of God comes to the Lord Jesus? What's the reasoning for this?
Well, even dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table. They're saying, you're our master.
We're dogs, your servants. And verse eight, Joshua again
asked, who are you? Who are you? And where, from
where did you come from? And they give him the same answer.
Yes, they're still lying. Yes, they're still being deceiving,
but they didn't say we've decided to follow you. That's what people
did say today. I've decided to follow Jesus.
They didn't say, we'll let you save us. That's what people today
say. Oh, I've made Jesus my Lord. I let him have my heart. What did they do? They fell at
mercy's door and waited for the master Joshua to speak. And they
ascribed all power and all glory to Israel's God. Look at this,
verse nine. They said, from a very far country
thy servants are come because, because of the name of the Lord
thy God. For we have heard the fame of
him and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the two
kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king
of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtoreth. That's why we've come. We've
heard about your God. We believe what we heard. And
that's what Rahab told us about. We've heard about your God. We've
heard about his fame. We've heard about his power.
We've heard about all that he's done. In verse 11. Wherefore our elders and all
the inhabitants of our country spake to us saying, take food
with you for the journey and go to meet them, that is Israel
and Joshua, the army of Israel, and saying to them, we are your
servants, therefore now make a league with us. In other words,
have mercy on us. We're your servants, we're not
here to fight, we're here to bow. Verse 12, this is our bread we
took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came
forth to go unto you. But now behold, it's dry and
it's moldy. That's a lie. And these bottles of wine which
were filled were new and behold, they'd be rent and these are
garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long
journey. That wasn't true. But friends,
what I want you to see here is these people were desperate.
If God didn't have mercy on them, Israel was gonna kill them anyway.
What did they have to lose? Now, I'm not advocating that
we should lie or anything else. I'm just saying that when God
shows you your need and your desperate condition, you won't
take no for an answer. You'll do whatever you can that
he might have mercy and grace upon you. We come with nothing
to offer or give. Our wine bottles are rent. Our
bread is moldy. Our garments are old. We have
no righteousness. And this is what they're really
saying. This is what and how every child
of God reasons. But we've heard that you have
the garments of salvation and the robes of righteousness without
spot and blemish or any such thing. And that's what we want.
Our shoes are in tatters, but we've heard of men's feet being
shod with the gospel of peace. That's what we want. We come
from a far country and we don't wish to return. We came because
we've heard that your city has one whose maker and builder is
God. That's what we desire. And dear sinner, rejoice with
me in verse 15. And Joshua, made peace with them. He made a league with them to
let them live. And the princes of the congregation
swear unto them. Lord willing, we'll see in the
next study just how gracious Joshua and the men of Israel
were unto them. But that is exactly what Christ
has done for us, the believer, the child of God. It seems here
that Joshua was blinded by their condition and need. And with
a full heart of mercy and compassion and grace, he made a covenant
of grace and peace with the Gibeonite. When Christ told that Syrophoenician
woman, it's not meet, it's not well, it's not right, to take
the children's bread and to cast it at dogs, remember what she
said? Truth, that's the truth if I
ever heard it. Truth, Lord, I know it's right.
Yet even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their
master's table. You know, I was thinking about
that today. We've got a little dog and I know several folks
that do have little dogs. And I've seen a lot of dogs eat
from the crumbs that fall from their master's table. And many
of the times those crumbs fell, they were on purpose by the dog's
owner or master. Not me, I've never done that. When a sinner approaches God
and the truth of what God says, they are agreeing with God's
true assessment of them. And because of that, they shall
never hunger. God's gonna see to it that those
crumbs get pushed off his table. And a crumb from the Lord is
sufficient for a hungry sinner. Christ told that woman, He said,
O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And that's what Joshua said to
these Gibeonites. Christ did the same for us. God
said, the wages of sin is death. God said, the soul that sins,
it shall die. Christ our Joshua showed mercy. And even though we're lying,
cheating, deceiving dogs, Christ did what God prohibited and gave
them life, gave us life. But the difference is, is that
his mercy was granted to us by God according to holy justice. And that's what makes the gospel
so beautiful. That's the only way it could
be. Christ took the chosen sinner's place and He saved them by taking
their sin upon Himself and dying the just for the unjust to bring
them to God. That's the only way He could.
God remains just and He justifies the ungodly. That's what the
Gospel is. Substitution was the only way
He could do that. You and I, sinners, don't have
anything to offer God, just like the Gibeonites, not a thing.
We're liars, we're deceivers. But when such a one as we sees
what we deserve and understand that everything about us is worthy
and deserving of death, and it is, in suing for mercy we fear
for our souls. A true child of God does. And
by divine revelation, we know that God's glory is the only
hope of mercy that we have. While the sentence of death is
already upon us, we're born condemned. We're going to die anyway. We're going to remain in the
camp? We're going to just lay there and die? The Gibeonites knew that. Let
me show you that in closing. Turn back to Deuteronomy chapter
seven with me. Let me show you this. This is
the word of God. Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse
one. Deuteronomy seven, verse one.
When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou
goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before
thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites,
and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations
greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord, verse two,
and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, Thou
shalt smite them and utterly destroy them, and thou shalt
make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. That's
pretty cut and dry, isn't it? But Joshua had mercy in spite
of their lying and their deception. Every single sinner in scripture
that begged for mercy at the Savior's feet found mercy. Every one. Every single one. And every saved sinner rejoices
to hear the words of the Apostle Paul written in 2 Corinthians
5, verses 20 and 21. Listen to them one more time. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. For he hath made him Christ. God hath made Christ to be sin. For us there is italicized, meaning
the words were added. He made him, he made Christ to
be sin. Your sin, my sin was put upon
him. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Best news I ever
heard. Best news any sinner ever heard.
If you're a sinner, you'll agree. Oh, may God be pleased to make
it so for His own glory and our good and for Christ's sake.