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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.
Remember Gibeon!
Series Thoughts On Joshua
| Sermon ID | 21215813125 |
| Duration | 12:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | Joshua 9:3-27 |
| Language | English |
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