Don't we thank God for mercy?
Don't we thank God for mercy? Turn with me, if you would, to
Joshua 8. Joshua chapter 8, there is so
much in the details of what we're going to look at. I kind of want
to skip to the end. I would really like for this
to be about a five-minute message, but I want us to see something
very specific this morning, and I pray the Lord would not cause
this to be a history lesson. I pray the Lord would make this
real to our hearts, fervent to us right now. I want to show you the only hope
for God's enemy. God's enemy has one hope. One hope. I was reading through
these chapters and Something stood out to me and I want to
begin this message by showing it to you here in Joshua chapter
8. Now as we look at this, Joshua throughout this entire book represents
the Lord Jesus Christ. Show me Christ. We want to see
Christ, don't we? Well, he built an altar and if
you look at Joshua 8 verse 34, it says, and afterward He read all the words of the
law, the blessings and cursings according to all that is written
in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that
Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation
of Israel." He declared it all. He declared it all. The blessings
and the cursing, he declared it all. And Joshua, again, as
a type of Christ, our Lord declared it all, didn't he? He declared
it all. Verse 35 goes on to say, with
the women, Well, I think these things ought to be for the men
only. Nope. With the women. Well, I do think
these things are a little too intense for our children. I don't
think we ought to be talking about this in front of our children.
Nope. It says with the little ones.
Well, now when visitors come, you're going to run them off.
They won't come back. You really shouldn't Be that
truthful when visitors come. No, he said, and the strangers
that were conversant among them, those that were visiting with
him. Joshua declared every word of
the truth of this book. Every word. Now, the Old Testament
was not written to tell us how God used to be. And the New Testament
written to tell us how He is now. Don't turn, but in Malachi
3 verse 6, matter of fact, we're not turning anywhere this morning,
so whatever I quote, don't turn. Malachi 3 verse 6 says, God Himself
said, I change not. Hebrews 13 verse 8 says, He is
the same yesterday, Today and forever. So the way we read and
understand him to be in the Old Testament, that is exactly the
way he is today. Same way. He has not changed. He will not ever change. That's why we declare all the
words of the book. That's why our Bibles are not
the New Testament and the Psalms only. We declare all the word
of God, all the word of God, the blessings and the cursings. Now his message to us in both
the New Testament and the Old Testament is he will destroy
all of his enemies. New Testament says the same thing.
How does it say he's coming back? When he comes back, how does
it say he's going to deal with this world? In judgment. Isn't that right? It says the
exact same thing. And it says he will punish all
sin. And I'll tell you, the heart
of the gospel, the gospel means good news. The heart of the gospel
is in the fact that he will punish all sin. All sin. He said in Isaiah, which
is the Old Testament, and he repeated it in Romans, which
is the New Testament, vengeance is mine. Now, as we've seen going through
this book here, God, through Joshua, is giving them victory
after victory after victory. Isn't that right? But if you
look with me at chapter 7, Joshua chapter 7, Verse 1 says, But the children of Israel committed
a trespass in the accursed thing. For a man named Achan, the son
of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of
Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was
kindled against the children of Israel. The Lord gave them
victory over Jericho. And he told them, after you take
that city, do not physically take any of the spoils of the
city. Don't take anything out of that
city. And this one man, Achan, he disobeyed
God and he saw a Babylonish garment, a robe. And he took it. And he took 200 shekels of silver,
and he took a wedge of gold, and he went and hid them in his
tent. That represents man's sinful rebellion against God. God said
salvation is of the Lord, didn't he? Why is that so hard for us
to understand? Why is that? Why is it that God
said salvation is of the Lord and man cannot understand that
unless God reveals it to him. Cannot get it. Salvation is of
the Lord. Don't mix anything with my victory. The only robe of righteousness
that will stand in God's presence is the robe of Christ's righteousness. But man says I don't want that
robe. I want my own robe. I like that one right there,
so he takes it. He took that silver, he took that gold. Man
wants to make his own payment before God. He doesn't want the
payment Christ made. Well, because of that, verse
1 does not say, but one of the children of Israel committed
a trespass. It says the children of Israel
committed a trespass. All of them. The end of verse
one says, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against one
man out of the children of Israel. It says the children of Israel,
all of them. You know what Romans five says? By one man, sin entered the world
and death by sin. So death passed upon all men
for all have sinned. By one man, because of the sin
of one man, Adam, the entire human race lost God's favor. In Adam all die. Somebody will
say that's not fair. Whether we see it to be fair
or not, it's just so. It's just so, it's how it is.
Well, because of his sin, the children of Israel lost God's
favor. And the next city they were supposed
to take after Jericho was called AI. And because of man's sin,
because of their own sin, they became lifted up with pride,
arrogance. And, and, uh, don't we all, don't
we all. But they were to go take this
city, so Joshua sent spies and said, go check it out. And the
men came back and they said, oh, we got this. You don't need
to send everybody. Just send about 2,000 or 3,000
of us. Let everybody else just rest. We'll go take them, and
we'll come right back. And they went out without seeking
the Spirit of the Lord. And I'm going to tell you this,
may a man never get up behind a pulpit without seeking the
Spirit of the Lord. Oh, we got this. How fearful it is to do anything
without seeking the Spirit of the Lord. They were not looking
to the ark of God's covenant and they were defeated. AI came
out and defeated them. And as they turned and started
running back, 36 of them died. Verse 6, right here in chapter
7, And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his
face before the ark of the LORD, until the even tide, he and the
elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua
said, Alas, O LORD God, wherefore? Why? Why? Our Lord hung on the cross of
Calvary and he cried, My God, my God, why? Why hast thou forsaken me? And God answered him in verse
11. He said, It's because Israel hath sinned. Christ hung there
absolutely forsaken of God Almighty because of our sin. It's because Israel has sinned. And God said to Joshua, sin is
now in the camp. And he said, you're not going
to have my favor until it's removed. You must get it out. So Joshua
called all the 12 tribes together. And tribe by tribe, by the Spirit
of the Lord, the lot fell on the tribe of Judah. And then
they looked at all the men inside the tribe of Judah, all the different
family names that were inside that tribe, and the lot fell
on the family called Zarhite. And then Joshua looked on that
entire family, all the men of that family, and the lot fell
on a man named Zabdi, the grandfather, and he had sons and grandsons.
So Joshua looked at all the men inside his family, and the lot
fell on Achan. And Joshua said, confess what
you've done. Confess what you've done. Tell
me what you've done. And Achan said, I have sinned. I have sinned against God. And
that's what every single one of us will say. And that's what every single
one of us must say before God Almighty. I've sinned. If we go meet God without Christ, All we can say before him is,
I have sinned. I have sinned. Our Lord said,
every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess.
And he said, I saw that garment. I saw that gold. I coveted it.
And I took it. I took it for myself. Look at
verse 22 here in Joshua 7. So Joshua sent messengers, and
they ran unto the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the
silver under it. And they took them out of the
midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all
the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord." In
Isaiah 40, our Lord said, every mountain and hill is going to
be made low. The pride of man is going to
be brought down. And he said, every valley is
going to be exalted. Every hidden thing, every hidden
sin, the things that men think they've gotten away with. Nobody else knows about it. Every
single one of them are going to be brought up and laid before
the Lord. Every single one of them. And
that's what's happening right here. Verse 24, Joshua and all
Israel with him, they took Achan. And not only did they take him,
they took the son of Zerah, they took the silver and they took
the garment and they took that gold wedge. And not only the
things he stole, they took his sons, they took his daughters. They took his oxen, they took
his asses, they took his sheep, they took his tent, and all that
he had, and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And
Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee
this day. And all Israel stoned him with
stones and burned them with fire after they stoned them with stones.
And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day.
So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore, the
name of that place was called the Valley of Achor unto this
day. What God demanded back then,
He still demands today. God has not changed. God has not changed. Men and
women don't fear the Lord. Oh, dear Lord, cause me to fear
Him. Cause me to fear Him. I worry
so much about the human race. I think that's part of the calling
of being a preacher. I love people. I love poor sinners,
poor ignorant sinners who are going through this life, doing
everything they're doing, and they just don't know. And God has revealed to us through
His Word exactly what's coming. And I fear for them. And there's
only one message to stand up and preach. We become broken
records in this one message, this one message. Consuming fire. That is what is waiting for every
sinner when he goes to meet God. Chapter 8 says, And the Lord
said unto Joshua, God said to Christ, Fear not, neither be
thou dismayed. Take all the people of war with
thee, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand
the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land. God
said to Joshua, Go kill them all. Go kill them all. So Joshua sent a small number
back to Ai, just like they went before. And he sent the rest
of them around the back to ambush Ai. And when they saw those soldiers
coming, they thought, well, we whipped them last time. We'll
whip them again. So Ai came out to meet Israel. The ambush came
in. They burned the city. They came
out, killed the men of Ai, went back into the city and killed
everybody else. That's terrible, isn't it? That
is terrible. Second Corinthians five says,
knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. Knowing the terror
of the Lord. Knowing the terror of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10 says, it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Who is the
living God? Jesus Christ. Fearful, fearful. Well, this does not sound at
all like the Jesus Christ I've been told about. I know. This is the exact opposite of
what I was told about Jesus Christ. I know. I know. Why have I never heard this before? It's because men won't stand
up and preach every word that is written in the book. Both
the blessings and the cursings. Men and women are hearing half
of the truth. And that's being generous. But
half the truth is still a lie. Men and women are being lied
to. And I want to cry at the top of my lungs, you're being
lied to. You're being lied to. I like
this preaching better though. It just sounds better. It's not. The gospel is so much better
than anything false religion has ever drummed up. But it's
lies. It's lies. Men stand up and they
say, God just wants you to be happy. Isn't that what they say?
God just wants you to be happy. Oh, God just wants you to be
happy. God wants you to be happy. You know what God wants? God
wants you to be happy. You know what the book says?
If I have one ounce of sin on me, God wants me to be dead. Did not He say, the wages of
sin is death? Didn't He say that? Didn't He
say He will by no means clear the guilty? Well, man, I'm glad
I'm not a sinner. All have sinned. Well, then I'm
glad I'm not His enemy. If we have one spot on us, we
are the absolute enemy of God Almighty. His vengeance will not stop. The fierceness of his anger will
not be appeased until the stones of his judgment are cast down
on us. And until we burn in the fire
of his wrath, it will not stop. Can't you cut us a little slack? Isn't it time for you to cut
us a little bit of slack? How I'm going to. But let me
ask you this. How serious should we take God? He cannot lie. We are not promised
tomorrow. It does not matter how healthy
we think we are. It does not matter. Nothing matters.
We're not promised tomorrow. We're not promised today. How
serious should we take God? I've thought the same thing before
that that rich man thought in Luke 16. God put this rich man
in hell and it was so horrible. He begged God, would you please
let Lazarus dip his finger in some water and come down here
and touch my tongue? And God said, no, Lazarus can't
come down there. There is a great gulf fixed between
us. He can't go there. No one from
there can come here. And he said, well, then would
you please send Lazarus back to earth and tell him to warn
my brothers of this place and tell them they do not want to
come to this torment. I have five brothers, he said.
Would you please go warn them?" And God said, they have Moses
and the prophets. He said, let them hear them. That rich man said, no, if one
would come back from the dead, they would believe. I have thought the same thing.
I've thought the exact same thing. If it could be proven, if God
would just show a revelation and prove to men, if it could
be proven to them what is waiting for a sinner who leaves this
world outside of the blood of Jesus Christ, they would bow. They would believe. But this
is what God said, and I believe him. If He said it, I believe
Him. God said if they won't hear Moses
and the prophets, then they won't believe even if one rose from
the dead. Won't believe. You know why that
is? It's because faith to believe God, faith to bow before God,
must be given from God. It must be given from God. We
are not here to beg anybody to be saved. I'm here to announce
to everyone you can't be saved. If God does not end mercy, I
mean mercy, choose a vile wicked sinner like me and purpose to
show mercy to that sinner, and purpose to put faith in that
sinner, and cause that sinner to all of a sudden, wherein he
never did before, all of a sudden cry, I believe God, I hear what
Moses and the prophets are saying, and I'm afraid, and I bow. If God does not do that for a
sinner, there is no hope for a sinner. There is no hope. Faith that believes what it reads,
faith that fears what it reads is a present from God. It's a
present from God. Faith that truly sees there is
no hope for me. All my hope has been removed.
My sin has me in a condition that I can't get out of. That's
a gift. That's a gift and God must give
it. If God gives it to us, this is
what he's going to show us. There's only one hope. There's
only one hope. I don't know if this is my last
message. I don't have any idea. I don't know if I'm going to
stand here for 40 more years or if this is my last message. I don't know what's going to
happen once this is over and I go back out there. But if this
is my last message, I don't know how to be more serious and I
don't know how to be more fervent and I don't know how to be more.
There is one hope for a sinner who is about to go meet God.
We are all the enemy of God. We can't help it. All have sinned. There's one hope. There's one
hope. As sinners are flying across,
flying across, may we stand there and cry, there's one hope. There's
one hope. You got one hope. You got one,
one hope. Chapter 9. It begins by telling
us that this word spread throughout the nations of this terror of
the Lord. The vengeance of the Lord, he's
slaying everybody. Verse 3 says, and I will tell
you, we're going to be brief, I'm not going to take forever.
Verse 3, Joshua arose and all the people of war to go against
Ai, I'm sorry, chapter 9, verse 3. And when the inhabitants of
Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,
they did work wily and went and made as if they had been ambassadors,
and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old
and rent and bound up, and old shoes and clouded upon their
feet, and old garments upon them, and all the bread of their provision
was dry and moldy." This city, Gibeon. Oh, may we all move to
Gibeon. May God teach us what God taught
them. This city right here, when they
heard the truth about God. They did something wildly. That means trickery. It means
craftiness with wisdom and prudence. They did something very wise. I need to listen to this. They
did something very wise. They made everything they had
old, rent, dry, and moldy. Everything with them, everything
on them, everything in them. Verse six, and they went to Joshua
unto the camp of Gilgal and said unto him and to the men of Israel,
we become from a far country Now therefore make ye a league
with us. Would you please make a covenant
with us? That's what league means. We
beg of you to have mercy on us and make a covenant with us. Achan confessed his sins, but
he never begged for mercy. Unwise. Unwise. God given faith begs for mercy. So these men from Gibeon, they
came to Joshua and they said, please have mercy on us through
a covenant. Verse seven. And the men of Israel
said unto the Hivites. Now, the Hivites were only a
few miles away. Gibeon was of the Hivites. They
were right there. But Israel didn't know that right
now, they didn't know they were of the Hivites. Verse seven,
the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, peradventure you dwell
among us, how shall we make a league with you? What if you're our
enemy? How shall we make a covenant
with you? And what are you asking in this covenant? Verse eight,
and they said unto Joshua, we are thy servants. And Joshua
said unto them, who are you and from which whence come ye? And they said unto him, From
a very far country thy servants are come because of the name
of the Lord thy God. We are coming because of the
name of the Lord your 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 Sion king of
Heshbon. And to Og king of Bashan, which
was at Ashteroth, wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants
of our country spake to us saying, take victuals with you for the
journey and go to meet them and say unto them, we are your servants. Therefore now make ye a league
with us. This 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 is dry and
it is moldy. And these bottles of wine which
we filled were new, and behold, they be rent. And these our garments
and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey."
They're liars. They're lying. That's not what
happened. They live right there. They rounded
up all that stuff. They're hypocrites. They don't
deserve God's favor. Neither do we. Not one thing better can be said
about us. Yeah, but their exterior is the
exact opposite of the truth. What about ours? We see each other. What's on
the inside? We see how good we look and how
kind we are on the outside. What's on the inside? Spiritually speaking, this is
what they said. They came to Joshua and they
said, our garments can't cover us. All we have are filthy rags. Our provisions cannot satisfy
us. Dry and moldy. You see these
shoes right here? Our walk is not right. In our hands, no price we bring.
We have nothing good to offer you. Nothing. Verse 14, and the
men took their victuals and asked not counsel at the mouth of the
Lord. They saw their rags, they saw
their dry, moldy, ruined victuals, and they had compassion on them. And they took them in. Verse
15 says, and Joshua made peace with them and made a league with
them to let them live. And the princes of the congregation
swear unto them. That's what Christ did for us. I started this message by saying
that the heart of the gospel is in the fact that God will
punish sin. Do we know how Christ made peace
for his people? God took their sin and laid it
on him. And then the stones of God's
wrath came down on him. The fire of his vengeance burned
down on him until he died. God did not make an exception
for his people. God won't punish sin, I mean,
God won't forgive sin except for his people. That's not how
it works. He did not make an exception for his people. He
punished his people in the person of his own son. And it's all
because of covenant. was made, a covenant that he
made, a promise to let us live. Verse 16 says, and it came to
pass at the end of three days. That's how long it took for our
covenant to be finished. From the time God nailed him
on that tree till the time God raised him from that grave, three
days. Came to pass at the end of three
days after they'd made a league with them that they heard that
they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them. They
lied to us. They lied to us. They are actually
our enemy. They don't deserve our favor.
They don't deserve our kindness. All they deserve and what they
truly are is to be killed and burned with the rest of them.
Verse 17, And the children of Israel journeyed and came unto
their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon,
and Kephira, and Beoroth, and Kirjath, Jearim, and the children
of Israel smote them. Because the princes of the congregation
had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel and all the congregation
murmured against the princes. They don't deserve this. But
all the princes said unto the congregation, we have sworn unto
them by the Lord God of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch
them. This is the only hope that God's
enemy has. Verse 20, they said, this we
will do to them. This right here is exactly what
we're going to do to them. We will even let them live. lest wrath be upon us because
of the oath which we swear unto them. And the princes said unto
them, let them live, but let them be hewers of wood and drawers
of water unto all the congregation as the princes had promised them."
This is what we're going to do to them. We're going to let them
live and we're going to give them exactly what they asked
for. They said, let us be your servants. Please let us be your
servants. Isn't that all we want to be?
David said, I honestly just want to be the doorkeeper. That job
would be fine with me here. I'd like to be the man who tips
the hat and says, let me get that for you. Verse 22 and Joshua called for
them and he spake unto them saying, wherefore have you beguiled us
saying we are very far from you when you dwell among us now,
therefore you are a curse. Sentenced to captivity. And there
shall none of you be freed from being bondmen and hewers of wood
and drawers of water for the house of my God, Joshua said,
for the covenant's sake, you're sentenced to captivity. Captivity
has been led captive, and this is your sentence. You're never
going to leave the house of my God. Never. He said, you're going to be servants
in God's house. You're going to draw water for
it and you're going to cut wood for it. And verse 27 is about
to tell us that the wood was for the altar. This is your job. You're just going to keep cutting
wood and throwing it on that altar. That's what you're going
to do from here on out. You're going to keep the altar
of sacrifice burning. You are never going to stop pleading
that sacrifice. Never. That sweet smelling savor
to God. But Joshua asked him, why did
you come to me like this? Verse 24. And they answered Joshua
and said, because it was certainly told by servants how that the
Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land
and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you.
Therefore, we were sore afraid of our lives because of you and
have done this thing." They said, a man certainly told us. This is why we came this way. A man was emphatic about it. No ifs, ands or buts. He didn't try to please us. He
came through and told us the truth about God and it scared
us to death. And we feared for our lives and
we came the only way we could as beggars. This is the only
way we could come. We knew you were going to kill
us. We knew we were your enemy. Verse 25, And now, behold, we
are in thine hand. as it seemeth good and right
unto thee to do unto us, do." Isn't that what we say? Lord,
we are in your hands. We're at your mercy. We're at
your mercy. We're just begging mercy. Thy will be done. No matter what
it is, I will be done. Verse 26, and so did he unto
them and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel
that they slew them not. And Joshua made them that day
hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and
for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day in the place where
he should choose. That's what we're doing right
now. In the place where God has chosen to put his name and his
truth there, we are drawing water from the well. We are stocking
the fire of God's sacrifice. And this right here is the only
hope for God's enemy. The only hope. This is the only
hope for every single one of us. This is the only hope. I
don't know who's next. I don't know who's next, but
whoever it is, this is what I have to say. This is the only hope
for every one of us. Let's all come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. I mean, go to Joshua, go straight
to Joshua and beg him for mercy through a covenant. Do it. Do
it. Beg him for mercy through a covenant. Every soul that does that, every
soul that is drawn by God to do that is going to live. Every soul, we have God's word
on it. All right, let's all stand together.