it may affect us more profoundly. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Now we looked at the first couple of verses of this chapter last
week. We have this situation where
after, we assume it was after, I think we pointed out that a
couple of weeks ago, that the chronology of events is not necessarily
the order that the stories are told in the scriptures. that
the scripture writers were inspired to organize the
sequence of stories, not so much to give us a history in the way
that we think of a history, but to present to us a picture. Now, it's not dishonest. because the scriptures never
do say of these out of order stories that this is the order
in which they happened. But it gives these stories in
the order that the Holy Spirit thought was best for us to learn
these stories in some kind of sequence to make us aware of
the spiritual truth that these stories were designed to tell. I'm not saying the stories aren't
historical. They are. It's just that they're
not necessarily told in chronological order. But we have the defeat
of Jericho and Ai. Then it mentions the covenant
renewed at Mount Ebel. That's all in chapter 8. And
then in chapter 9, we have two stories showing two
different responses to the presence of Joshua in Israel in the promised
land. And we looked at the first of
those responses in the first two verses of chapter nine, where
the various kings of Canaan, that land, the ones that had
not yet been conquered, at least probably the more prominent ones,
they gathered together to make war against Joshua and Israel. And this just shows the natural
response of all men, all human beings. This is the natural response
to the presence of Christ and his church. Now, when I say the
presence of Christ, Christ is not here such that people can
see him, that's for sure. And you and I, we have not seen
him. Peter says, who having not seen,
yet you love. We love someone that we've never
seen. But we have seen him spiritually, and we know based upon his promise
that he is with us even to the end of the age. in some manner
or another. His presence is always with his
people. But when the church, whether as in individual Christians or
even when a church goes out and does something
as a church or whatever. Whenever the church goes out
preaching the gospel, Christ is present. And I said, when
they go out and preach the gospel. There's a lot of things churches
do that don't amount to preaching the gospel. But when the gospel
is being preached, what are we doing? We are setting Christ
before them. And the natural response, the
natural response of every human being to the presence of the
church and shall we say the presentation of Christ is always to come together
in opposition to it. It's remarkable how people who
would otherwise be enemies become friends in their common opposition
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is said on the day
that the Lord was crucified that Pilate and Herod, who had previously
been enemies, they didn't like one another, they became friends
that day. Isn't that something? What brought Pilate, proconsul
of Rome, and Herod a non-Jewish king of the Jews. What brought
them together? Common disregard, contempt, even
hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ. But the rest of the chapter is
taken up with the Gibeonites. Now, the Gibeonites,
were part of a group called the Hivites. And they're mentioned
up here in verse two. The Hivites, right along with
the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, not Perizzites, but
Perizzites. And the Jebusites, among them
was these Hivites. But a portion of the Hivites,
came from Gibeon. And it was this portion of the
Hivites that came to Joshua and the Israelites, and they had
dressed themselves up in old and tattered clothes. Their food
was made of dry and moldy bread. Even their provisions, they had
put them in old worn out sacks and wineskins that were cracked. Why? Well, they were going to
make it, they were going to, or their intention was to deceive
Joshua and the Israelites so that they would make a treaty.
And so they pretended like they were coming from far away. And they even said to them, when
we left, This bread was warm from the oven. And these sacks
were all in good shape. So you can see how far we've
come. Look, all our food's gone bad,
and even the containers that we have have been worn out. And with that deception, They
said they caused Joshua and the Israelites to enter into a treaty
with them. Now, the only thing that puzzles
me about this is if they were not from inside the stated boundaries
of Israel, why were they trying to make a treaty? After all,
Israel's warrant to destroy the people extended
only to the land that God had given them by promise through
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so forth. And so if they were from
that far away, why are they bothering to make a treaty? And actually,
the Israelites were not certain that they were from far away. When they asked Joshua and said,
make treaty with us, it says in verse 7, the men of Israel
said to the Hivites, perhaps you live near us. How then can
we make a treaty with you? After all, they came with the
purpose and command and warrant from God to destroy everyone
and everything in the land and take full possession of it."
And they said, how can we know that you're not from near here?
Well, the response in verse 8 is, we are your servants. And so
what these people did, they said that we're from far away. And
then they made a show of servitude. They said, we're your servants. And went on. Well, Joshua asked him, where
who are you? Where do you come from? And I
like this verse nine. It says your servants have come
from a very distant country because of the fame of the Lord, your
God. Well, that sounds really good, doesn't it? But you'll
notice they never named the country they came from. And once again, of course, the
Lord can arrange all of this. He is capable of hiding things. from people as revealing it to
them. And so maybe the reason that
Joshua and the rest of them didn't pick up on the deceptive nature
of these people was the Lord intended them to be deceived.
So he did not allow them, you know, to take note of the fact,
you know, these people claim to be from a distant country.
Well, if you're from a distant country, why are you trying to
make a treaty with us as though we're going to destroy you? And
nor did they press them to name the country they came from. They
just, we're from far away, far away. But we heard of the fame
of the Lord your God. And they had. They were telling
the truth at that point. They had heard about it because
the city of Gibeon was in what would later become the tribe
of Benjamin. And that was just north of the
tribe of Judah. And in the northern part of the
tribe of Judah is where Jerusalem was. So they were just a few
miles north of Jerusalem is where they came from. And so they had
heard about it and noticed the things they mentioned. He said,
we heard reports of him. Now, you know, even out of the
mouths of unbelievers, God is able to bring much truth. Notice
they did not say, boy, we have heard about what you all did
coming out of Egypt. They said we heard reports of
him. Now, should that not teach us that when we speak to the
world, when we go out and evangelize, that it's not supposed to be
a message about us? It's supposed to be a message
about our God, and in particular, our God as He is revealed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. People are converted not when
they hear about us, when they hear about Him. Even the unbelieving world can
be somewhat restrained in their rebellious activities when they
hear the testimony of the things of God, the things concerning
Him. When that demoniac, the one with legion
demons in him, when the Lord had set him free from all of
that. That demon-possessed man, and you can certainly understand
him, he says, I want to follow you. I want to be one of your
disciples. Wherever you go, I'm going to
be right there behind you. And the Lord said, no, you go
home. And you tell your family, your
neighbors, your friends, what great things the Lord has done
for you. Notice this, he didn't say, stand
up and give a testimony how that once you were a demon possessed,
but now you're not. That would be part of the story,
but the essential part of the story was how did he get from
being demon-possessed to not being demon-possessed? And that's
the testimony of what great things God had done for him. So, these
people said, we heard of the fame of the Lord your God. We heard reports of Him, all
that He did in Egypt, those ten plagues. All that he did to the
two kings of the Amorites, east of the Jordan, Sihon king of
Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. And our elders, the leaders of
our country said, wow, there's a people coming and they have
a mighty God. So let's go, you all go make
a treaty with them. So they said, we are your servants,
make a treaty with us. That's in verse 11. They repeat
it. Now, what are they saying? If we enter into treaty with
you or the treaty in which we are willing to enter in makes
us your servants. And. You know, if you're not
careful. That would sound real good. So we will be your servants.
But. If he there's. They were not
speaking just to Joshua. It was Joshua and all Israel.
What they're saying is we'll be in submission to the nation
of Israel. Well, you know, when we go out
and preach the Gospel, we're not looking for people to be
in submission to us, to be our servants. Why? Well, we can't have servants
because we're not the Lord. That's why. Lords have servants. Now, you look at a lot of churches,
they'll certainly set themselves up as though people who join
suddenly become servants of the leadership. Really? Paul didn't
talk that way. He said, we are your servants
for Christ's sake. So the leadership, if anybody
in the church is a servant within the church, it's the leadership.
They may be leaders. They may be given gifts and authority
or right, whatever word you want to use there, to manage the affairs
of the church. But Peter said, explicitly to
the elders, do not lord it over God's heritage. Wow. I've seen some ministries. I'm
wondering, did you all tear that page out of your Bible? Because I see them. I mean, the
most obvious, you know, is the Roman church. But the only difference
between the Roman church and many, many other churches is
that the Romans just flaunt it with their hierarchy and all
their, you know, the guys going around and the Pope with his,
Tim James calls it his fish head hat, you know, and the cardinals
with their little red beanies on, and all that, and they go
around, and everybody, and actually, it is that hierarchy that's considered
to be the church, and whatever they say, they claim the church
has said, and the membership, they're just servants of the
church, the leadership. And yet you can see that in many
other denominations, maybe not so grossly displayed or practiced,
but it's there. Anytime someone puts you in bondage,
they are assuming a position and authority that was never
given to them. The Apostle Paul, what did he
say? Do not allow yourself to be entangled again in a yoke
of bondage. Just don't. Now, I stand up here and I speak
with authority, but I do not speak with an authority that
comes from my own person. That's why I've always got a
Bible up here. Why? Because I don't have any
authority to say anything beyond what the Scriptures say. At least
I can't say it with any kind of ecclesiastical authority,
such as, you know, you must do it this way. No. I can only say
you must do it this way if I can find in the scriptures that it
says where God has said either himself or through one of his
prophets or apostles or whatever, you must do it this way. But they were willing to be servants
to Israel, but that's not what we're looking for. It says in verse 14, the men
of Israel sampled their provisions. Remember their old moldy bread?
They were kind of using that as proof how long it took them
to get there. They sampled their provisions,
but notice this, did not inquire of the Lord. Now, we're always supposed to
use common sense. However, anytime Well, at all
times, we should also inquire of the Lord. For that which seems
obvious to us, very reasonable, may prove to be entirely wrong.
Now, when we inquire of the Lord in our day, we do not expect
the Lord to, quote, give us a sign. So when we inquire of the Lord,
what we're asking him to do is guide our thinking so that it
will come to the right conclusion. And we not only inquire of the
Lord by prayer, we inquire of the Lord by scriptures, if the
scriptures have anything to bring to bear on the issue we're asking
him about. Well, because they didn't inquire
of the Lord, verse 15, Joshua made a treaty of peace with them
to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by
oath. Now, three days later, verse
16, the Israelites heard that they were neighbors. They found
out that these guys aren't from a far country, they're from just
over here. But, They had sworn an oath by
the Lord not to harm them, and so they never did. Now, how do
we take this story? What lessons are you and I supposed
to derive from this? Well, we can derive some of the
very plain lessons, you know, the right on the surface lessons
such as You know, don't believe everything
everybody says about their attitude toward God. Now, if someone tells
us they believe the gospel, we take them at their word. Unless
and until they prove rather positively, no, they don't believe. and can't
get into, can't take much time with the issue of how do you
determine that, but it takes some pretty remarkable conduct,
as the New Testament describes it, before you would ever consider
someone to be lost, even though they said they had believed. But, you know, people come here,
And I remember some 20 years ago or so, a couple came in here. And they claimed to believe what
we were teaching. And I got emails from the fella. The stuff he was saying was all
good. And we kind of have a policy. I say we. I do. I don't invite anybody to do
anything. in the church until they've been around probably
for at least a year or so. It's good for people, you know,
sit and make sure that this is what you believe. And it also
kind of gives opportunity for them to prove whether or not
this is really what they believe. And this fellow, I never asked
him to read scripture, never asked him to do anything. Always
treat him pleasantly. more or less took his word for
it. But about a year after they'd been here, they up and left. And it turns out it was because
we didn't use the King James Version. Now, I don't know why
he was perfectly happy without the King James Version for a
year. I said, I don't know why. I think what he did, he found
another church that would let him step right into a leadership
position, and that's what he'd been looking for all along. But
what I'm saying is, we're cautious. We don't want to subject the
church to someone who may trouble the church. Paul said, do not
lay hands on someone suddenly. Again, that's a King James version
of it. Quickly, probably a more modern word, but just because
somebody shows up and says this, that, or the other, you don't
say, oh, boy, then. Here, let's lay hands on you. You're going
to be an elder or whatever. No. He said, give it time. Give it time. There is this illustration, I believe,
and if you turn over to Matthew chapter 13, some take these people to be
true believers. These people from Gibeon represent
true believers. There are certainly some parallels
there, because when we approach God through Christ, we are in
a sense presenting ourselves as something other than what
we are. Just like Jacob presented himself to Isaac as Esau and
thus gained the blessing, we come to God in the name and person
of Christ. But of course it's not a deception
when we do it because we're up front You know, God knows what
we're doing. We're coming in the name and
person of Christ because that's the only name and person that
God accepts. And we are saying, bless us for
his sake. And, you know, you can make that
parallel. But I think this is my personal view of that particular
story back in Joshua, chapter nine. This is a picture of what
we might call false believers. That is, people who come within
an individual assembly, or you could say even the whole church
at large around the earth, but anyway, they come, they say they
believe, they claim they want to be servants, and all of this. They say they believe. What are
we to do about that? Well, again, as I mentioned,
there's a lesson there of wisdom. Be patient. We don't turn anybody
away from our door. And I don't know that we've ever
turned anyway. I can't recall anyone that asked
to be members who, you know, if they say, you know,
they've listened to this gospel, they understand it, and they
want to be members, okay. But we've always been cautious
about those to whom any leadership is committed to them. But in
Matthew, we have this parable. Verse 24 of Matthew 13, Jesus
told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like
a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone
was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat
and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed
heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to
him and said, Sir, didn't you sow good seed in the field? Where
then did the weeds come from? The enemy did this, he replied.
The servants asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them up?
No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you
may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. At that time, I will tell the
harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles
to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring
it into my barn. And then skip down to verse 36,
where the Lord explains the parable. He says,
then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples
came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds
in the field. He answered, the one who sowed the good seed is
the son of man. The field is the world, and the
good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are
the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the
devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters
are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and
burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The
son of man will send out his angels and they will weed out
of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the
fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their father. He who has ears, let him hear."
The other day a fellow One of my Facebook friends put a meme
out there and said, it's time that we, and he listed several
scriptural statements about the true and the phony. And one
of them was, he says, it's time to separate the wheat from the
tares. And I just wrote as a comment,
the Lord said that would be done at the end of the age. He would
do that. What's the lesson here? We open
these doors, we preach the gospel, someone comes in, says they believe
it. Fine. OK, we'll believe that you believe
it. And so long as people are willing to sit here in peace
and listen, we're not going to put a question mark on their
profession. The Apostle Paul, the only two things I find in
the New Testament which should cause the church to tell someone
that they can no longer be a part of the fellowship is immorality
so gross that not even the world would tolerate it. And that's the case of that man
in Corinth who evidently was carrying on with his stepmother.
World doesn't even tolerate that kind of stuff. And then the other
one was divisive people, those who will, the King James calls
them heretics, but we always associate heresy with false doctrine,
but the word simply means to divide. If someone tries to divide the
flock of God on any basis, who tries to disrupt the peace of
God's assembly, Actually, Paul doesn't say, put them out. He
just says, every one of you, just draw back from them. Just pull
away. If they want to pitch a fit,
just back up and say, OK, pitch a fit. We're going to go. We're
going to praise God over here. You do what you want. But those
are the only two things I see in the New Testament that would
require that the church take any kind of action at all with
regard to the people who show up for worship. He said, let
each, let them grow together, in time they will prove what
they are, and God will take care of it His way. See, for a long
time you might not be able to tell the difference between the
wheat and the weeds, because they can look a lot alike. And
if you go out there with the attitude, and I've heard people
say, we've got to be careful of the church's purity. Well, if you want a pure church,
you're going to have to kick me out. I realize I've been purified
by the blood of Christ, but you know what I mean. If you're going
to go around and investigate in everybody's life and say,
OK, you're not worthy to be here, then I'm the first one out the
door. No. Leave them be. Most of the time,
the preaching of the gospel will do all that is necessary to drive
away those who do not truly love the Lord Jesus Christ. And those
who the gospel preaching doesn't, you know, work in them to sort
of excommunicate themselves, says, you just leave them be
at the end of the age. The Lord who knows whose wheat
and whose weeds. He'll send his angels. He'll
separate them. Now, I think that's a very wise
way to do things. I used to have stronger opinions
about church purity or what the church ought to do to supposedly
maintain it. But I found it's a whole lot
easier as it is with everything else. Trust the Lord to take
care of it. He will. Just keep preaching that message,
which is the food of the sheep. They will come because they love
it. And if they are goats, they'll not be satisfied. They'll want
something more, something else, and they'll go elsewhere. And
those of the goats who do not go elsewhere, So long as they
are here in peace and common human decency, they're no trouble
to the church. And you know how those Gibeonites
said, we'll be your servants? Do you know that the Lord will
put people like that in the church? And he will use them to the benefit
of the church. What? There are people who do
not believe the Gospel, who give of their means to support the
preaching of the Gospel. The Lord brings them in. The
Lord uses everything for His glory and the good of His people.
And do you know what those Gibeonites became? Later on, when Solomon
built the temple, They were the ones who had to go down and cut
down the trees, make the timbers, do all the menial labor of building
the temple. And the whole time, they had
no real place in the temple, nor would they benefit from it.
And God will bring people within a local assembly, and spiritually
speaking, they may not believe what we believe, but He'll bring
them here, or, you know, and use them. And it's all under his watchful
care. All right, you're dismissed.