Joshua chapter 9 from verse 3 to the end of the chapter, verse 27. Remember Gibeon. Well, let's first of all learn what happened at Gibeon. We're told plainly, verse 3, the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai. They knew what had happened to those two cities. They also knew what happened on the other side of the Jordan, the east. They knew what happened to Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan. And so the men of Gibeon reached a decision. Their leaders and the people combined together to approach Israel with a ruse, with a deception. And so clenched close to Israel and saved their own skin. They did not want to go the way of Jericho and Ai and Heshbon and Bashan. And so they resorted to a ruse. The ruse is simple to tell. They dressed themselves in old clothes and so on, with old wine bags and so on. And when they reached Joshua, they gave the impression, when they reached Israel, they gave the impression that they had been traveling for weeks. And they lived in a very distant country. They said that they had heard what Israel had done, what God had done for Israel, the Lord your God has done for you on the east of Jordan. And we don't want that. And so we've decided to come and offer to be your servants, make a treaty with us. We live a long way away. You have nothing to fear from us. We know you will defeat us and so we submit to you. We know the Lord your God is with you. Look, here are the evidences of our long distance and our travel. Flattery, deception, lies, prevarication first of all. Where do you come from? Perhaps you live near to us. How then can we make a treaty with you? That's what Israel asked in verse 7. We are your servants, they said, not replying. But Joshua pushed again. Where do you come from? Who are you? And where do you come from? And they lied. Lies, prevarication before that, deception, flattery. The Lord your God is with you. Spiritual talk, you see. The Lord your God is with you. But now, see, we know that you're going to conquer the world. We live a long way away. Israel looked at the visual aids. They were impressed by what they saw. They did not consult the Lord, verse 14. They did not inquire of the Lord. They did not submit to God's mind. They did not obey His counsel. They had been told not to make any treaty with the people. But they did. They broke God's word. They broke His commandment. They made a treaty. And the leaders ratified it by an oath. Of course they soon found out that it was a deception, an infiltration, a lie, and the best they could do then was hold Gibeon close to them as servants and lackeys and slaves. They could not go back upon their word. But what can we learn from Gibeon? That's what we see here. What can we remember? What should we remember? Well, the challenge is to us as believers, I speak to those of us who are believers, we must obey God. We must not judge by feeble sense, by the outward appearance. We must be more discerning than this. And if we have the plain commands of scripture as Joshua and Israel had been given, they should have obeyed those commands. We learn here that it's so easy to judge the Lord by feeble sense, to judge by events, to use our own wisdom and skill, to be taken in and deceived. In the New Testament we see it, in Jude, in the second chapter of Galatians, infiltrators, false teachers had sneaked in, unawares, they had come in. You see, in 2 Peter as well, they were joining with the believers, the believers who welcome them in. Of course, I acknowledge that we're never going to get a perfect church on earth. Those who oppose us, that is those of us who appeal for regenerate church membership only, those who oppose us, Presbyterians and the like with their visible church, they taught us with this, you're looking for a perfect church. We're looking for the nearest we can get to an entire regenerate membership. Unbelievers do. Unregenerate men and women do sneak in, come in unawares. But we must be awake and aware of it, brothers and sisters. The people of Gibeon deceived Israel. We must be on our guard. Remember Gibeon, and not judge by outward appearance only, but stick close to what God has commanded us, and in prayerful inquiry submit our ways to the Lord. But the men of Gibeon teach another lesson too. I think what we see here foreshadows in a very graphic way what we have today and we've had now for 1800 years. What do I mean? Christendom. What's Christendom? The conglomeration of believers and unbelievers in one church. The New Testament assemblies were the ecclesia, the out-called ones. It remained like that for a while under persecution, but from Constantine onwards it became fashionable. Christianized, state Christianized worship and religion, institutional religion was established, Christendom, and from then on the church was and that's Big C, this new institutional Christendom, this new church, institutional church, was made up of believers and unbelievers. The medieval church continued it, Rome continued it, infant baptism emphasized it, priestcraft and clergycraft all came in confirming it, statecraft, political intrigue and so on, all came in. The reformers did some reformation, but they maintained some of the leading principles of Christendom. Visible churches, the combination of believers and unbelievers, glorying in it, misinterpreting the parable of the tares, the churches not It's the world that's the field, not the church. The church is not made up of believers and unbelievers. The world is. But Christendom had made it into the church. And of course with infant baptism, it enforces it. And so it goes on. And we're still living in the plague of it today. Even in the evangelical and the separated churches, it's so easy now to have a combination of Christianized pagans. Gibeon is the great foreshadow of this. We must remember Gibeon. Gibeon shows to us what Christendom will be like, the combination of the enemies of God with the saints, as it were. Here we see Israel and Gibeon locked together, and we see it today mingled together. It's a terrible, terrible combination. One of the great problems I've had to face in my ministry over 50 odd years is these Christianized pagans, these lookalike unbelievers, looking like believers, but in their hearts are unregenerate. And yet there they are in the church, sometimes in the leadership of the church, sometimes in the pulpit of the churches. What do we have here? Gibeon, writ large. I would have a word for all who are in that position, who are nominally joined to the people of God, have sneaked in in some way, or been born into it, as they would say, through infant baptism. Can't you learn from Gibeon? Gibeon knew that if they fought Israel, they would perish. So instead of fighting like Jericho, like Ai and like Sihon and Og, these kings. What did they do? They compromised and closed in and joined with Israel in the wrong way. But there was a better way, and we've seen it already. Do you remember? Joshua chapter 2, Rahab. They could have joined Israel, submitted to Israel, submitted to God in Israel. They could have joined and been circumcised, entered into covenant with Israel. and become proselytes. That was the right way. And the right way is not to become a look-alike Christian, but to come to Christ, to bow the knee to Jesus, to receive Him, and be washed in His precious blood, and be clothed in His righteousness, and become one of the people of God. There's no good being look-alikes. Be one of the people of God. And as for us, the people of God, let us be separate. We're told to be separate. Come out from among them, and don't let's welcome them in. That is the unregenerate. Let us demand conversion, evidences of conversion, evidences of life. Let us demand that they submit to Christ in conversion, and then the evidences of it, and their obedience in baptism, immersion. And then recognize them. as the people of God. Let us not join the Christendom way. Remember Gibeon then. Beware of flattery, beware of deception, lies, beware of clever pseudo-spiritual talk, the Lord was with you on the other side, oh yes we know, all that kind of thing. Don't judge by appearance, prayerful, scriptural let us be, brother and sister. Let us not be deceived by mere outward appearance. and ask for those who are not yet converted but are pretend Christians. If there's anyone listening to me, oh my friend, come to Jesus now. Be real. Be a real Christian. Pause my soul and ask the question, aren't thou ready to meet God? Aren't thou made a real Christian, washed in the Redeemer's blood? That's what we need. That's what you need, to be made a real Christian. Well, these are the lessons I see here. And so I say, remember Gibeon.