Amen. Thank you so much, gentlemen. As I was listening to that song, there's so much personal application in it, and we can turn to our neighbors, but we really need to turn within, as Brother Ben was saying. Have I humbled myself before God? Have I turned from my sins? Have I prayed? There is a great pestilence in our land today. This is the topic that I'm gonna be talking about this morning. There are many pestilences that you could point to, many symptoms of problems, deep-seated problems that we have. But I think one of the greatest problems is that of spiritual deception. People want to know the truth. One of the common complaints that you hear these days is, where do we go for the truth? Do we go to television or do we go to social media? Do we trust word of mouth? People say a lot about it, but how many are willing to truly turn to the one who is the source of eternal truth, who is truth, God himself? And that's what I wanna talk about today, how important it is for we as God's people to beware of deception, the deception that is all around us, and how it can happen to any of us, even those who have been spiritually victorious. There's always that moment that follows when we let down our guard. And you see this in Joshua 9. If you'll turn there with us today, Joshua 9. In Joshua 9, in verse 3, the Bible says, and when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, how he had completely conquered these cities, they did work wildly. In other words, they resorted to deception and went and made as if they had been ambassadors. and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles or wineskins, old and rent and bound up, and old shoes and clouded wrapped around their feet, and old garments upon them, and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal. These are the Israelites going into the land of promise to conquer it as God had told them. And they said unto him and to the men of Israel, We become from a far country. Now, therefore, make ye a league with us. The men of Israel said unto the Hivites, or the Gibeonites, Peradventure, perhaps you dwell among us, and how shall we make a league with you? And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye, and from 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. 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, All the inhabitants of our country speak to us saying, take victuals or food 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 are wineskins of wine, which we filled were new. And behold, they be rent, or they're bursting. And these, our garments and our shoes, are become old by reason of the very long journey. And the men took of their vectuals, the Israelites, and ask not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. 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. Let's pray. Father, bless your word to our hearts today. Guard us from deception. Sanctify us by your word. Your word is truth. We pray that your Holy Spirit would do that work which needs to be done in our hearts and lives so that we would be on the lookout for Satan's devices, that we would not be taken in. We pray that your Holy Spirit would move among us today. In Jesus' name, amen. This is one of those true stories from the California Highway Patrol. And it shows one of the traps that you can often come to without realizing it. But there was a police officer who found a perfect hiding place for watching speeders. All of a sudden, however, the flood of tickets he had been handing out slowed to a trickle. Then he found the problem. A 10-year-old boy was standing on the side of the road with a huge hand-painted sign which said, radar trap ahead. A little more investigative work led the officer to the boy's accomplice. Another boy about 100 yards beyond the radar trap with a sign reading tips and a bucket at his feet full of change. Please don't try that kids, you'll get into trouble. Now, wouldn't it be great to receive warnings about traps that come our way spiritually? And to always know the pitfalls before we fall into them. You know, this is what God does for us if we'll listen to his voice. He helps us to determine what is spiritually healthy and what is spiritually harmful. And that really is what we're talking about today with this thing of discernment, telling that which is good from that which is bad for us, what is spiritually healthy from that which is harmful. And it may not be bad in and of itself, but it may not be what God has for us. The problem arises, though, when we ignore God's direction and when we choose to follow our own way. Now, it may be deliberate rebellion, or it could be another thing, and that is careless disregard for what God has already told us. Did you catch those two things? Deliberate rebellion. Now, we get onto our kids a lot about this, and by the way, we adults can be guilty of this as well. But you see, we as adults, are often guilty of careless disregard. Not really being spiritually alert, as Jesus told his disciples in the garden, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. You see, spiritual discernment involves, and this is the key word, carefully, carefully heeding God's counsel. It's so easy for us to become lax in this area of our spiritual lives. And this is why Paul said in Colossians 1, if you want to turn there with me, Colossians 1, those of us who truly want to serve Christ, and I assume that that's everyone who has accepted Christ as Savior, And by the way, that is the first step. If you're without Christ here today, you need to receive him as your savior. But the very next step is to live for him. Colossians 1 and verse 9, Paul says, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire something. And what is that desire? that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will. And I want you to meditate on those words for a moment. Where does God want me to go to school? Whom does God want me to marry? Where does God want me to live? What church does God want me to go to? Does God want me to buy this car? Does God want me to buy this home? You see, this is very, very practical. Many times it includes things that are as plain as the nose on our faces, where God says to flee sexual fornication. It really does start there. We start with the basics. These are things that we know that God is displeased with. And as we do that, God gives us further knowledge about things that may not be as clear. But God wants us to be filled with the knowledge of his will. It's not always clear to us, but it's not as though God is trying to hide it from us. He wants us to know it. But for his own purposes, for his own reasons, he gives us the knowledge that we need, moment by moment, day by day, and sometimes not any more than that. I've known people that when they were seven years old, they accepted Christ, and soon afterward, they knew exactly what God wanted them to do for the rest of their lives. I've heard testimony from people like that. I have no reason to doubt that, because they went on and accomplished it. But God doesn't always do that for all of us. Sometimes he just gives us knowledge one step at a time. And it's not for us to ask, okay, God, why are you giving this person knowledge and not me? Well, he is giving you knowledge, but he's doing it in his own timing, at his own pace, for his own purpose. But here's the key, he wants you to know what he wants you to do, that's his will. Notice this, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, this is something that we can't get from ourselves. Now God can use our intellect, he can use our talents, he can use our ambition, our willpower when we surrender those things to him, but ultimately wisdom comes from God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, knowing God, following him each day. And why does he do all of this? What is the ultimate purpose? It's not just for success in life. It's not just so that I can prosper financially or even in other ways that God wants us to prosper. But here it is in verse 10, that ye might walk, what? worthy of the Lord. That's why he gives you knowledge of his will. Not worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. God wants us to grow spiritually more than anything else. And so that's what we seek first and foremost as we ask God for guidance We come to him and we say, Lord, what do you want me to do? How do you want to grow me through this? How can I know you better through this? And that may mean not having the knowledge that you want at the time. I don't know about you, but I'm not a patient person. I just wish that God would tell me what he wanted me to do. But you see, that's exactly why he doesn't tell me immediately because he may be saying, you know, what you need is patience, John Mark. You need to learn patience. You need to learn to trust me because the knowledge of where you're gonna live or what you're gonna do in the future, that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is growing spiritually, being more like Christ, knowing Him. And so not everything may turn out according to our plans. But the good news is, is that God is working out His plan as we get to know Him better. And sometimes it's through the trials of life. It's through the defeats. It's through the mistakes. That's how God teaches us to be more like Him. It's all about spiritual discernment, but it starts with listening to the voice of God day by day. And how easy it is to forget that. We can live for months in a row having our personal devotions, and then all of a sudden one day we stop, and then the next day we find ourselves too busy, and all of a sudden we've gotten out of the habit, and we're making decisions without God. without including him in our lives. I want you to notice number one in our outline, watch out for deception. Watch out for deception. First of all, letter A, stay alert for those who oppose the work of God. This was the Canaanites. Obviously, they were not just going to sit back and let the Israelites come in and take their land. But that was exactly what God's program was. Now, this is the background to this. First of all, we can say that the main burden of this chapter, and it starts in verses one through two, is to show how God incites the Canaanite kings to come against Israel to their own destruction. That's the context. See, these Gibeonites were going to trick Israel. Then these other Canaanite nations, they were going to get mad at the Gibeonites and attack them. And Israel was going to come in and help according to the covenant that they made with them. And that was the plan that God was going to use to do a mighty work and to destroy many of the Canaanite nations. So that's the context of this. It was all part of God's plan to bring judgment upon the Canaanites. Now for a lot of people, this is a problem because God says you wipe out everything. Men, women, children, even the livestock. Now, this is a problem for some, but listen, this is what God told them to do. It was not ethnic cleansing. It was divine judgment. And friends, it shows you how serious sin is and how the sins of previous generations can affect those who come afterward, because that's what's happening here. But this came at the command of God. And God had already told Abraham this 600 years before in Genesis 15 verses 13 through 14. He told Abraham, he says, one day your descendants are going to have this land, but they're going to be servants in an unknown land for 400 years. Then God's going to bring them out. They're going to come in and they're going to conquer the inhabitants. So God had already prophesied that. This was His plan. Now, according to Deuteronomy 20, and you might want to write this passage down, Deuteronomy 20, verses 10 through 18. This will make sense to you as you read this passage, but Deuteronomy 20, verses 10 through 18, and then Deuteronomy 7, 1 through 2. So that's Deuteronomy 7 and then Deuteronomy 20. God gave his people certain instructions, and that is that Israel was permitted to make peace with cities that were a considerable distance away. But they were required to completely destroy the seven nearby Canaanite nations. Somehow the Gibeonites got wind of this. And isn't that something? But God says, for these seven nearby nations, you are to destroy them. And that included the Gebionites, who were also the Hivites. They knew, but this was their way of opposing the work of God. Now you have to look at this in the overall context of what Israel was supposed to do. What was one of the greatest problems for the nation of Israel in their history? And it started out early in their history. Well, it was that they refused to eradicate those nations that God told them to deal with. And God had warned them, there are going to be thorns in your sides if you don't deal with them, if you don't do what I tell you. Right here, this is the first indication that Israel fails in its mission. Many more failures would follow. And the Canaanites would indeed become thorns in the side of Israel, because Israel refused to do what God had told them to do. Letter B, we stay alert by heeding God's directives. The Hivites knew exactly what was at stake, and so that's why they said this to the Israelites. They claimed to be people who lived just to or who claim to be at a far distance. Number one, then we watch out for deception. These were people who would deceive. Number two, number two, understand that deception takes many forms. Now here's the way that they deceived the people of Israel. They did it, first of all, by half-truths. We are most often deceived by half-truths. Most people aren't going to swallow a complete lie, but usually it's interspersed with the truth. And so they come, this is in Joshua 9 and in verse 8, and they claim to be from a far country. Now, the first part of what they said was a lie. because they were near, they were one of those seven Canaanite nations that was to be destroyed. But they mixed in a good measure of the truth. And this is what advertisers do all the time. Other people in our society do it. We are a society that is beset by deception. Some of the greatest Downfalls that we have experienced as a society from dangerous philosophies have come from those ideas that contain half-truths. Now, some of them can be trivial. It is said that Subway's $5 foot-long sandwich actually measures 11 inches. Anybody ever measured that? I haven't. But how many other things are advertised to us and they're really not the truth? All kinds of things like that in our society. Notice also though that we can be tricked by external evidence. Anybody in here colorblind? You don't have to raise your hand. I'm colorblind, that's why my wife dresses me, okay? Otherwise, you would see a variety of colors here that I would wear to the pulpit. I think I've got several varieties of color blindness. Well, in verses 11 through 13, these Gibeonites were prepared. Now, the lie was that they had come from a very far country, and this is one of the ones that Israel was allowed to make peace with. And so they had to prove it by the provisions that they had brought. And so they took moldy bread, they took old clothes, they took old wine skins. You know, back then they would take a sheep's bladder or a sheep's stomach and they would fill it with wine. So in the King James Version, when you see the word bottles, they didn't actually have glass bottles back then, but they would have wine skins. And I'm glad we don't do this today, okay? I don't want to drink something out of a sheep's stomach. But anyway, they still do this in some countries. It's a container. And over time, the skin dries out and it loses its flexibility. And as they pour their beverages into it, it eventually breaks. And so they took old wine skins to give the appearance that because of their long journey, all these things had worn out. So they were really doing this up. Their lives were on the line. But it leads us to some important lessons here. Just because something sounds reasonable, doesn't mean it's right. But you see, a lot of us can be trapped by our dependence upon our intellect. Intellect is a great gift. We ought to nurture it. The Bible even encourages us to gain knowledge, but don't depend on it apart from God. Let God work through it, not in spite of it. Here's another one. Just because something seems right to our eyes doesn't mean that it's always right. We have become such a fake society. And you can see this with sometimes the things that people do to their bodies to try to be someone else. And they take it to ridiculous extremes. There's some people who will have plastic surgery so that they can look like their favorite movie stars. And they'll destroy their physical appearance. See, God made each one of us because he wanted one of us. We're unique to him. We don't have to be someone else. But there are people in our society who do that and they live by their eyesight. And this is such a tendency for all of us to do because something looks right to us, then we accept the lie. How about this one? Just because something feels good or right doesn't mean that it is. Well, we know the old saying, if it feels good, do it. That's advice out of hell. There are a lot of things that are going to feel good to you that will destroy you. And all we have to do is look to our first parents. This was the problem from the very beginning. Remember Genesis 3, 6? If you want to turn there with me, Genesis 3, 6. This was Adam and Eve in the garden and the serpent tempts Eve. And in Genesis 3, 6, the Bible says, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and then that it was pleasant to the eyes. And that really is the sense that we put most of our trust in, what we see. And then a tree to be desired, to make one wise. On the basis of this, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. So instead of going by what God said, she went on the basis of her own investigation, her own intuitions, her own knowledge, her intellect, what she saw. She gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And it plunged the race into sin. Flip over a few pages in Genesis 13 and verse 10. You remember when Abraham and Lot were having a conflict over grazing rights? Lot had the choice of where he wanted to go. The Bible says in Genesis 13, 10, and Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan. that it was well watered everywhere. And then it adds this, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, that's already a hint, something bad is going to happen here. And it tells us later that the people of Sodom were wicked sinners before the Lord. But you see Lot moving closer and closer. His discernment got worse and worse and finally he was sitting at the gate of the city. Completely involved in what they were doing. And friends, I submit to you, that's what happens to an individual in a society which forsakes God. They lose the gift of discernment. Now, just recently, to give you an example from, to give you a current example, it was recently discovered that A North Carolina preschool used flashcards featuring LGBTQ themes to teach kids colors, including one card depicting a pregnant man. I saw the picture of it. Now you may say, well, look, pastor, these are extreme examples here. That's what everybody says. But yet, why do we see them continually popping up everywhere? It's not the extreme anymore. It's becoming commonplace. This is a good lesson. Now, for one, I've told these cards were removed from the classroom where they don't belong because somebody spoke out against it. But do you see what is happening? It progresses from one step to another. It's Romans chapter one is what it is. When people turn away from God, they lose the ability to reason morally, spiritually. They lose all discernment. And so now you'll have a person who looks you square in the face and tells you that a man can be pregnant. You say, How idiotic that is. I mean, these are not dumb people who say this, but spiritually they're reprobate. You say, how could this happen? It sounds like satire, doesn't it? But it's not. People are actually losing the ability to distinguish good from evil on the most basic of levels. when it comes to human biology. You don't think that deception is a pestilence today? Number three, number three, that means we seek God's counsel in every area of life. We have to watch out for deception, and number two, understand that that deception is gonna take many forms, and that's why number three, we must seek God's counsel. in every area of life. We seek it, letter A, through His Word. And this is the basic step towards living for God. There are certain things in the Bible we know to be true, and that's where we begin. Doing what God has told us to do clearly, plainly. If we can't obey that, how do we expect God to give us any more guidance? We need to be people of His Word. How many of us spend quality time in God's Word each day, those of us who are saved? We read everything else in the world, or we watch television, or we watch the news, and we listen to other things, we're on social media, but how many of us give quality attention and quantity as well? Quantity is in terms of time. How many of us give time to God? so that we can heed what he's telling us. It is absolutely necessary that we are in God's word. This is what God told Joshua in Joshua 1 verses 7 through 8. He said to Joshua, be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law. That's what Joshua didn't do here. which Moses my servant commanded thee, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest what? Prosper. In other words, that you may find what God's will is and do it wherever you go. This book of the law, verse eight, shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." God told Joshua, here is my plan. And in his case, it was go into the land of Canaan and conquer it. And God says, Joshua, if you want to do this, if you want to be successful at it, meditate upon my word. Do what it commands. Stay on the right path. Don't stray from it to the right or to the left. That is the secret to knowing how to please God and doing His will, being in His word faithfully. For Joshua, it wasn't deliberate rebellion. It was just careless disregard. But that was enough to cause a lot of trouble for the people of Israel. And it was only the beginning. And these people would indeed become thorns in their sides. How many times do we allow sin to remain? We refuse to get rid of it. And it has dire consequences for us. Well, not only the Word of God, but prayer. Communicating with God. There was a way to do this in Numbers 27. And you may want to write this passage down. We don't have time to get into it a lot. But in Numbers 27, they could go to the priest. The high priest had these little gemstones called Urim and Thummim. And he probably wore them in his breastplate. They were gemstones that were used by the high priest to determine God's will in certain situations. No one knows the precise nature of them. or exactly how they were used, but this was God's method in that day and time. And David used this. If you read in the one-year Bible, we're reading through the life of David, and David would consult these. But this was God's method. How do we do it today in these New Testament times? We go to God in prayer. God, what do you want me to do? I sincerely want to do your will. Be honest with God. Don't try to load the balances with Him. You know, sometimes we come to prayer and we've already made our mind up what we want to do. If you do that, you're going to be double-minded. You come to God and you profess to do what he wants you to do, but at the same time, you've already got your mind made up. You're of two minds. And God says, don't expect to have an answer from me, because you're not truly seeking my will. You're not asking in faith. We have to be willing to say, okay, Lord, even if I don't like the answer, I'm gonna do it because you said to do it, and I love you and I trust you, and I'm gonna step out by faith. You know, there are other things that God uses to guide us, providential circumstances. Sometimes he just arranges things in a way that lets us know that he is guiding us. There's godly counsel. There's the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit. But first and foremost, we go to His Word. We pray. We trust God then to give us other means of guidance. But how many of us are led astray because we fail to go back to the basics? You may have heard about the two-year-old in Redmond, Washington. You managed to sneak out the patio door. No two-year-old would do that, right? Because she wanted to hug a black bear cub that was in the backyard. You know a two-year-old, she wants to hug the teddy bear. And there it was out in the backyard, so she makes a beeline for it. You can just imagine mom's reaction, right? Mom sprinted out and took the child to safety. You know, that's what God does with us. We laugh at the innocence of a child, how they don't know the dangers around them, but how often we're the same way. And that's why we need to trust God. There are some things that look attractive to us, they feel good to us. The world tells us to do it. Hey, don't let anybody tell you what to do. Don't be restricted. Don't listen to oppressive voices of your culture. Do what feels right to you. Exercise your freedom. And at the same time, you're just going deeper and deeper into bondage on the way to destruction. Aren't you glad that God rescues us? But that's why we need to be listening to His voice. For that person today who is without Christ, it starts by running to him. That's the first step, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. And every day that you put that off is really an act of rebellion. You see, you can't be on the fence with God. When he says come and you don't, it's the same as saying no to him. In your mind, you may be saying, well, just wait a while. I'll think this through. But when God speaks to your heart and he says, come, you need to come. You need to say yes to him. Maybe there's somebody like that today. Let God capture your heart. He'll give you the desires of your heart because he'll make your desires his desires. or His desires, your desires. He'll align your will with His. If you're a child of God here today, and maybe your attention is on the things of this world, or maybe it's just careless disregard, then you do business with God today. Listen to His voice through His word and through prayer. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your perfect truth, We thank you that it never leads us astray. And Father, we pray that you would give us guidance as we seek to live for you. We pray that you would give light to each heart today. Each individual is struggling with some decision that needs to be made. And we know that you have a plan for each individual, each person. And that begins with salvation. And then it leads on to a life of putting you first and seeking to live for you. Father, help us to follow your perfect truth.