Well, it's certainly my honor
and pleasure to be here. Hey, Cody. I need to look around
more often, won't be so surprised. Thank you for having me. Brother
Don used to say, preach that which blesses you, blesses your
heart, and you'll bless needy sinners who are just like you.
And I hope that God enables me this morning to do just that.
This bless my heart. I pray that it will bless yours.
Turn back with me to the book of Joshua, chapter 9, if you
would please. We're studying through this book
at home on Wednesday evenings. And I called or texted Rex earlier
and asked him if he would read Joshua 9. And he said, all of
it? And I said, 27 verses if you
don't mind, and I sure appreciate him doing that. The book of Joshua,
what marvelous stories are found in its contents. Especially marvelous
because they're true. How marvelous is the story of
Joshua and Israel crossing the Jordan River On dry ground, the
Scripture says, in the middle of flood season, the mountains,
the snow was melting, it was flooding the Jordan, and yet
the Lord parted the waters once again and they passed on dry
ground, just as He did at the Red Sea. And I'm reminded that
God enables His people to cross on dry ground into the land of
promise, allowing them to escape the judgment and justice of God,
without even a bit of mud on their feet. What a picture that
is of the sinner coming to Christ. A picture of our sanctification.
Perfectly righteous in the eyes of God Almighty. In Joshua chapter
2 and 4 we have the story of the mercy and grace of Rahab.
Isn't that a marvelous story? Oh, I see myself in Rahab, don't
you? The Lord showed her mercy. She was delivered by Joshua,
whose name means Jesus, her Savior. And how glorious is the story
of that scarlet line that she hung in the window that pictures
the scarlet blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was shed for
His people. Isn't that a beautiful illustration?
When God sees the scarlet blood, that scarlet line, he passes
over all who have the blood of Christ on the window of their
heart. And what a token of grace that
Rahab the harlot was found in the lineage of the Lord Jesus
Christ, a harlot. She was the great, great grandmother
of King David. And then we have the story of
Achan in the book of Joshua. Achan disobeyed the commandment
of the Lord and he took that which belonged to the Lord and
he hid it in his tent and he was destroyed. And then there's a story of AI,
or I, I'm not sure how you say it, and how Israel, being proud
and cocky over their great victory over Jericho, without seeking
the Lord, they sent only a few men out to fight, and they tucked
tail and ran like cowards, and 70 men lost their lives. The scripture reveals the second
battle with AI, and we're told that Israel utterly destroyed
the city of AI upon the battle plans of their great captain. Joshua, who was given those orders
by the Lord Himself. Jesus Christ is the captain of
our salvation. Just illustration after illustration
of the mercy and grace of God. Then we come to chapter 9 and
we have a glorious picture of how sinners come to Christ. That's
what I want to talk to you just briefly about this morning, coming
to Christ and how sinners do that. It always has something
to do with sinner's need. Always. Are you needy? Are you a sinner? Do you need
help? That's when you'll come. And also, I want us to remember
Paul's words that said these things, the Old Testament Scriptures,
were written aforetime for our learning that we through the
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And I hope this morning
that the Scriptures do that for us. They give us hope. First
we see in our text that there's always two responses to hearing
of the sovereignty of God and salvation. And by the way, the
sovereignty of God is not a mere doctrine. No, it's the gospel. People think, oh, you are one
of those sovereign gracers. Have you ever heard that? It's
not just a doctrine. It's the God of heaven and earth
that came to earth, became a man, and took upon Him the sin of
His people and saved them from their sin. This is an amazing,
amazing story. And it's good news to sinners.
Only two responses. Sinners will either believe and
bow to Christ, or they'll believe not and rebel. That's always
the case. When God reveals that He has
mercy upon he'll have mercy, those who hate the sovereign
God and His gospel will gather their weapons and their alliances
to fight God and His servants as we see in verse 1. Look at
it again with me. And it came to pass when all
the kings which were on this side of Jordan in the hills and
in the valleys, and all the coasts of the great sea over against
Lebanon, The Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and
the Perizzite, and the Habite, and the Jebusite heard thereof, that they gathered themselves
together to fight with Joshua in Israel with one accord. Or,
as we read in the beginning in verse 3, they'll come to Joshua
as needy paupers to the king. They'll beg for their lives in
the service of Joshua. Yes, the Gibeonites had come
to Joshua, as we read, and the people of Israel, it says, wilily,
which means deceitfully, telling them that they had come from
a far, far land. As wrong and deceitful as it
was, and lying, never being right, the Gibeonites were seeking mercy
and deliverance. Why? They saw themselves as needy. Do you see yourself as needy?
Have you come to Joshua that way? Yes, the Gibeonites had
come to Joshua that way, and as wrong as it was, they came
because they needed help. Come to Christ, dear sinner.
That's the only place help is found. Verse 3 tells us that
they had heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai. And when
a sinner hears about the righteous indignation and judgment and
condemnation that God has pronounced upon all who would not bow to
God and His eternal Joshua, they'll do one or two things. And I mean
to be redundant on that. They'll either gather weapons
and prepare to fight, as we see these nations did in verse 1,
or they'll come as poor and beggarly sinners to Christ. They'll either
rebel and fight against God, or they'll beg for their lives
to serve God and His church. And that's what the Gibeonites
did. Verse 4 says, 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, and old
shoes and clouded upon their feet, and old garments upon them.
And all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. They came as needy paupers. They sought mercy at the hand
of Joshua. What a picture they are of saved
sinners. Yes, they come deceitfully. So do we. We must come as we
are. We have nothing that we can bring,
nothing that we can offer God. We come just as we are. All things
are naked and opened unto God. He's the one with whom we have
to do. There's no pulling the wool over God's eyes. We come
with desperately wicked hearts, don't we? Hearts that are deceitful
above all things, the Scripture says. We come forth from the
womb speaking lies, and we still speak those lies when we come. Like beautiful sepulchers, outwardly
beautiful, we adorn ourselves with ornamental righteousness,
but inwardly we're full of death and corruption. That's how Scripture
portrays us. And if you If God has been pleased
to show you your state before God, you'll see yourself that
way. Like the Gibeonites, our clothes of righteousness are
ragged and torn. Our bread's nothing but stale
crumbs. Our water and our wine is all
dried up. And though the Gibeonites use
deceitful means, a sinner who sees their real need is desperately
poor and needy, desperately wicked, they're also desperate for mercy. Are you desperate for mercy?
You've come to the right place. You've come to the right God.
He's able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we
could think or ask. We come as the Gibeonites, having
nothing to offer. We have nothing but great need.
We come saying, even though Joshua slay me, yet will I trust and
serve him. That's how needy sinners come.
The Gibeonites had no place in Israel. They weren't a covenant
people. It was not right to give them the children's bread, but
nothing would stop them from seeking mercy. Are you hearing
me? Nothing stopped them from seeking
mercy. Mercy is for sinners like them.
And the gospel is good news to sinners. What a picture of God's
method of grace. The book of Joshua shows us something
of the mercies and the grace of a covenant of God towards
ruined, helpless, and needy sinners. Those who are well have no need
of a physician. but those that are sick do. And
only the great physician can heal our great disease of sin. And those who come to Christ
seeking mercy, always, always find mercy. No one in the scriptures
that came to the Lord Jesus ever was turned down. That they came
the right way seeking mercy. And isn't that such a hopeful
thing to sinners like us? Come just as you are. Come just
as you are. That's a wonderful hymn. Religion
about ruined it, causing us to sing it over and over again to
try to course us down the aisle to make a profession of faith.
But that's a beautiful hymn. That's how we come, just as we
are. Nothing to bring, nothing to offer God. But God of the
Bible, says what he means, and he means what he says, and a
mealy-mouthed God cannot be truly worshipped. And what a picture
Joshua gives us of the kind of sinners that God saves. He saves
whom He wills. He's a sovereign God. He's the
only God that can save. The God of the Bible means what
He says. And a mealy-mouthed God, as I
say, cannot be worshipped. Pityed maybe. Ignored most likely. But worshipped? No. And feared? Definitely not. What a wondrous
thing the Gospel report is to a real sinner. And I'm still
amazed that God had mercy on me. And it comes in the way of hearing
God's mercy and grace to sinners in Christ. No other way. Maybe
these Gibeonites heard about Rahab. Could be. Well, what did
they hear? Before they ever came We see
in verse 3 that they heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and
Ai. And in verse 9 they heard about
Israel's God and His fame and all that He did in Egypt. The
news had traveled fast. They heard about the ten plagues.
They heard about the destroying of Pharaoh's army at the Red
Sea. In verse 10, they heard all that
God did to the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og. In other words, they heard about
all the things that happened to those who opposed Israel and
their God. And all it had to do with was
destruction. Destruction. And then in verse 1, the Gibeonites
being part of the Hivite nation. Did you notice that when Rex
was reading? They heard what God had purposed
to do to them. In verse 7 it says that the men
of Israel said to the Hivites who were made up of the Gibeonites.
That's who they're talking about here. That's who they're talking
to. The Hivites, the Gibeonites. And the Bible is clear, dear
friends, to what God would do with those who oppose Him and
His Son. The problem today is that not
many actually believe that God will do what He says. Men and
women have convinced themselves that God loves the world too
much to destroy anyone in hell. But we can't pick out of the
Scriptures the parts that we like and believe only in. I remember
my mother, I was always looking for a better job, and she said,
you want a job with all the work picked out of it. Well, maybe
I did. But that's pretty much what modern
day religion does. They pick out the justice and
the wrath and the anger and the eternal condemnation of hell
out of what they preach. The Bible is clear as to what
awaits an unbeliever. It's not pleasant at all to think
about and it's certainly not pleasurable to talk about. Those
who will not bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ will be bound
hand and foot and cast into outer darkness, where there's weeping
and gnashing, grinding of teeth. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God. The Lord, through the prophet
Isaiah, said, those that have transgressed against me, for
their worm doth not, and neither shall their fire be quenched.
How horrific! The consequences of the unbeliever
will forever be reminded of their hating Christ. That's what will
make hell so horrific, not just the physical pain, but knowing
throughout all eternity that you would not have Christ to
rule over you. There's a place called hell and
many travel that broad way that leads to that place of eternal
destruction. But today, everyone is going
to heaven. I've preached several funerals
in the last ten years. I've never been to a funeral
once that I haven't preached. And the person that passed was
going anywhere but heaven. I asked the funeral director
who was fixing the guitar. He'd been there almost 50 years. He was passing the torch to one
of his children. And I said, can I ask you a question?
And he said, yeah. I said, has there anyone ever come through
here that wasn't going to heaven? He said, not a one. Not a one. Well, we know better. There are
great consequences for rebellion against the God with whom we
have to do. Rebellion against Christ will
ultimately condemn unbelieving sinners to endless torment. But
with some, for a few, Scripture calls them a remnant. God gives
grace to see their need. Salvation is not what We must
do for God, or not what's been done by us, salvation what's
already been done in and by and through Christ. I love what Rex
prayed when he said, the finished work of Christ. It's a finished
work. You know when a man can rest?
When he's finished with his work. And we can rest in Christ because
our work is finished. The Lord said it from the cross,
it's finished. And it is, my friends, it's finished.
Nothing for you to do. Just bow, trust, and obey as
needy Gibeonites. Being dead with Christ. Verse
16, And it came to pass at the end of three days, after Israel
had made a league with them, that being the Gibeonites, that
they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt
among them. After three days, again signifying
and picturing the burial and resurrection of Christ and our
justification by it, the truth comes out about these Scythianites.
Being dead with Christ and buried with Christ and risen with Christ
and justified in Him, Though we've made peace with God in
Christ, though we have entered into a league with Christ, though
we've been made new creatures in Him, by nature, in our flesh,
dwells no good thing. Oh, I'm reminded of that almost
every minute of every day. The thoughts that go through
my mind. The things that my heart comes up with. Oh my. Lord, help
me. Truly in our flesh dwells no
good thing. We're safe sinners, but sinners
still. And this is revealed to us and all who know us. Did you
notice what the charge that they had laid against the Gibeonites
was? Notice the language of the Holy
Spirit here. It's just beautiful. The Word of God doesn't say that
after three days that the Gibeonites' lies were discovered. They had
been. It doesn't say that their deception had been revealed,
but it had. It doesn't say that they had
proven to be deceitful. They were. No, they were discovered
to be neighbors living among them. What a comforting choice
of words the Holy Spirit uses here. Yes, they were liars. Yes,
they were deceivers. Yes, they were wicked. And by
nature, so are we. But now they're described as
neighbors. Not enemies that live just over
the hill, but neighbors who lived among them. The Hebrew word for
neighbor means kinfolk, family. They were now family. And that
word neighbor carries with it a pleasant thought, doesn't it? Is it not the law fulfilled in
loving your neighbor as you love yourself? They were not discovered
to be despised infidels. They were. They were not discovered
to be hated high tithes. They were. They were described
as being neighbors, and everyone present knew what they had done.
The word was out. They themselves knew their wickedness,
but none of that plays into who they are now. A covenant of peace
had been made with them. I'm not trying to justify what
they had done, but the Lord justified them in spite of what they've
done. And isn't that good news? Let those who are without sin
cast the first stone, and every saved sinner is a sinner saved
by grace. Look at verses 17 and 18. And
the children of Israel journeyed and came unto their cities on
the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon,
and Kephara, and Beroth, and Kirjath-Jerob. And the children
of Israel smote them not. That was the original purpose
of God. Do away with all of them. But he smoked them not. God required
complete decimation of every nation of Canaan. But on these
highbites, these Gibeonites, God showed mercy. There's hope for us. There's
hope for us. Why didn't Israel destroy them?
Verse 18 tells us, "...because the princes of the congregation
had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel." You see, the
believer has entered into a covenant, a covenant with God based on
the finished work of the Lord Jesus. God in mercy spares in
and through Christ alone. There's no love for sinners outside
of Christ. There's no mercy, no forgiveness
for sinners apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And did you notice
what happened? All the congregation murmured
against the princes. As I read that, I thought, when
you take a stand for the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ, you can expect religious opposition. You can just count
on it. In the religion of the world,
if the religion of the world hated the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord said, they'll hate you too. No follower of Christ will
suffer death. Not one of them will be lost.
They'll all be saved. And I'm not resting this morning
in a work of righteousness that I do, because it's not by works
of righteousness that I do. I'm resting in Christ's finished
work that He did for me what I could never do. And He did
everything for me that God requires of me. That's what makes Christ
the gospel. Verse 19, But all the princes
said unto the congregation, We've sworn unto them by the Lord God
of Israel, therefore we may not touch them. I stand before God
Almighty on that day of judgment. And He calls on me to give an
account of what I've done. I'm going to say, Lord, not anything
I've done, but what my Lord did for me. And He's going to say,
based upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, enter in,
thou good and faithful servant. That's my hope. That's it. That's the only hope that I have.
On Mount Moriah, God told Abraham, He said, touch not the lad. while
he had his knife drawn and was ready to pierce him. Touch not
the lad. He said, I'll provide for myself
a sacrifice. And not only did he, he himself
was the sacrifice. Verse 20, This we will do to
them, we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because
of the oath, the league, the covenant which we swear unto
them. What a picture here of the law and justice of God. August
Toplady said it best when he said, payment God cannot twice
demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. The debt's been paid. The wages
of sin is death and Christ died in the room instead of sinners.
God says in those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the
iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none And the sins of Judas, they shall
not be found. You know why? Because there's
not any. There's not any. And I suppose that's been one
of the hardest things over the past 35 years or so that I've
had as a believer. And that's believing that I don't
have any sin. Why? Because I have to live with
myself. I know what goes through my mind.
I know what goes through my heart. But God declared me, according
to the perfect righteousness of Christ, to be justified. Not just as if I've never sinned,
but I've never sinned. And if we can get a hold of that,
you'll find some rest. Get a hold of it. May God enable
you to grab hold of it and hang on to it all the days of your
life. to them who have obtained, like
precious faith, through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. God is long-suffering to who?
Usward! Not willing that any, being any
of those chosen sinners should perish, but that all, every single
one of them, Everyone that God set His affection on before the
foundation of the world, everyone that God gave to Christ, everyone
that Christ died for, all of them shall come to repentance.
Not all the world, but all the elect. And I'm so thankful that
the Lord saves wretched, lying Gentiles like me. Verse 21, And
the princes said unto them, Let them live. Let them be hewers
of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation as
the princes had promised them." And again we see something of
our natural tendencies of sin. The princes of Israel would live
up to their oath, their promise, but they still sought to punish
the Gibeonites for their deception. They said, let them live, but
with us there's always a but, isn't there? but let them be
hewers, cutters of wood and drawers of water, servants unto the congregation."
Now here's what I want you to think about, and it's such a
blessing. To curse the Gibeonites with
servitude was doing nothing more to them than treating them on
how they wanted to be treated. In verse 8 they said, we are
thy servants. In verse 9 they said, thy servants
are come. They willingly took the place
of serving that was given unto them. That's what a child of
God does. It's an honor, it's a privilege,
it's a pleasure to serve the living God. It's no burden. And this is why, verse 22, And
Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore
have you beguiled us, saying, We are from a very far country? when they dwell among us. Now
therefore, ye be cursed, and there shall none of you be freed
from being bondmen and the hearers of wood and the drawers of water
for the house of my God. Servants you claim to be, so
servants you will be." And notice their answer. Verse 24, And they
answered Joshua and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants,
they're still referring to themselves as 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 before you. Therefore,
we were sore afraid, afraid of our lives because of you, and
had done this thing." Now listen closely to what they said. This
is why we lied. They said, this is why we deceived
you. And as wrong as it might have been, we did it to save
our lives. Have you and I ever lied to God?
Was it because we were ashamed of what we are? Always remember,
by grace are you saved. A man or a woman that really
wants to live. Now hear me, if you really want
to live, a man or a woman that really desires to have Christ,
they can. That's right. Elections never
shut anyone out of heaven. It makes it for certain, Jimmy.
Makes it for certain. And that's the Gibeonites in
verse 25. And now, behold, we are in Thine
hand. That's where the believer comes.
Lord, I'm in Your hand. And as it seemeth good and right
unto Thee, do unto us. Do unto us. Do. You see, when
a sinner throws themselves upon the mercy and the grace of God
and Christ, they're willing to accept whatever God might be
pleased to give them. Why? Because anything short of
eternal condemnation and eternal judgment is justice. And justice
is mercy. Anything apart from that is nothing
but mercy. And that's the attitude of every
broken sinner. Lord, whatsoever seemeth good
unto you, do it. After all, you're working all
things together for my good. Whatever seems good, let God
do whatsoever seemeth good unto Him. And can't you rest there? Oh, I can rest right there. When
the Gibeonites are confronted with what they had done, they
immediately confess and willingly take the place, the position
that Joshua gave them. And notice that Joshua cursed
them to servitude, and a curse is a blessing if God makes you
a servant of Christ. We don't want to be anything
but servants to Him. Whatever is thought to be evil against
the child of God, God meant it to be good. Why? It was by the
way of the pit. It was by the way of Potiphar's
house. It was by the way of prison that Joseph arrived upon the
throne of Egypt. What his brothers had meant for
evil, God meant it for good. And it was their evil intentions
that in the end saved them by the Lord's mercies through Joseph
whom they had thought to murder. and who thought they had murdered.
God's overriding providence, what an amazing thing. It always
works together for the good in the lives of his people, those
that are called according to his purpose. Now the princes
here pronounced a curse upon the Gibeonites and so did Joshua,
and they were very different, one from the other. In verse
21, the princes declared that the Gibeonites would be servants
of the congregation, but in verse 23, Joshua said, you'll be hewers
of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. Friends, we don't serve the church.
We serve Christ who serves the church. It's His church. It's His bride. We're the church,
the bride that serves Him. Who is it that attends the altar
of the Lord? It's the sole privilege of the
priest and Levite. And unto him who loved us and
washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us, past
tense, he made us, we already are, kings and priests under
our God. Unto the world servitude is a
disgrace, but to the safe center it's anything but. Especially
when it's servitude in the house of the Lord. Especially when
it's at the altar of God. Yes, skewers of wood and drawers
of water were jobs reserved for the lowliest of people, but that
didn't bother the Gibeonites. And that doesn't bother a true
child of God. But we're less than the least.
I'm not deserving to be called the child of God. It's a pleasure
to serve in the house of the Lord. And why wouldn't they be
and why wouldn't we be? If you're condemned to death
and all that awaits you is sure destruction and never-ending
torment and the bowels of hell, servitude in God's house at His
altar is incomparable promotion. Like Mephibosheth of old, we're
lame on both of our feet, dead dogs ruined by a great fall. Yet we sit at the king's table,
feasting upon the riches of God's never-ending table of grace. It's pure grace. That's almost
an oxymoron, isn't it? If it's grace, it's pure, and
if it's pure, it's grace. But this is the grace that's
found in Christ alone. What's the reason for our redemption?
Mercy. Mercy. Nothing but mercy. It sprang from the goodness of
God alone, and it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
It began in pervenient grace, God showing us what we deserved
at the hand of His justice. Just like the Gibeonites, we
too heard what God did to folks like us. We were afraid and we
sought mercy at the hands of our heavenly Joshua. Though by
nature we're deceitful liars, it was God that caused us to
come to Joshua. It's God that caused us to beg
for mercy. And our confession is always
the same, Lord, we are Thy servants. And in spite of me, and in spite
of my weakness, regardless of my deception and my deceitfulness,
my Joshua, the Lord Jesus, made a covenant with me. It matters
not who murmurs against me. My Joshua says he shall live.
And my curse becomes a blessing. So let me ask you in closing,
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
shall condemn any sinner for whom Christ died? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? In light of these things, I now
understand better the words of the psalmist who said, I'd rather
be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. than to dwell in the
tents of wickedness. What an honor and a privilege
to serve Him. And that's what you're doing
this morning. You're serving Him. You've come to hear again about
how Christ, God in the flesh, took your sin and put it away
by the shedding of His own blood. And there's no better news than
that. It thrills my soul. I pray that
it does yours. May God be pleased to make it
so, for God's glory, for our good, and for Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you.