Good morning to everyone. Good to see some familiar faces back today and visiting with us, and good to see you all. What a difference a week makes on the weather. Hey, it's pretty nice all of a sudden. 

We're thankful again, Mark, for leading us, and thank you for that, for playing. We appreciate that. We're working through Joshua, and we're coming to chapter 9 this morning. Chapters 9 and 10 kind of go together as a story. We'll cover this deception in chapter 9 and then look a little bit into chapter 10 as well. 

This is an interesting chapter because it records the account of subtle deception in the promised land concerning the nation of Israel. We've seen thus far, and we will see in many coming confrontations with the various inhabitants of the land, that there is war. Israel first took Jericho, then we saw last week the conquering of AI. In chapter 10, we're going to see a whole litany of battles whereby Israel will utterly destroy, with the edge of the sword, all the inhabitants of these many cities. 

But in our text today with the inhabitants of Gibeon, we see something very different. They've seen what has happened to all of the other nations, even back on the other side of the Jordan. They know and believe that the God of Israel is bringing total victory to Israel and total destruction to anyone who stands in the way. 

So they devise a plan, a crafty, deceitful plan, to really save their own hides. Joshua and Israel fall for it. They make a covenant with Gibeon and swear not to lay a hand on them and agree that they will be the servants of Israel. I'm not sure I fully understand why Joshua and Israel did this or what their thought was, but they were tricked and deceived by this nation of people, and they would live with that from this time on. 

Meanwhile, we see that the other nations in the region have banded together to fight against Israel. We see that at the beginning of chapter 9 and also the beginning of chapter 10. The five kings of the Amorites have formed a union against God's people and intend to stand and fight. Even after this covenant is made, they're going to attack Gibeon and draw Israel into that fight. 

However, this covenant that Israel makes with Gibeon really does kind of throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing. They're going through destroying the cities, driving the people out of the land, but because now the other armies turn and attack Gibeon because of the covenant, Israel must go and defend her. 

It seems to me, from my perspective, this is a big old mess, and I think that's how life is when we start to scheme and connive, when we make covenants partnering with the world, rationalizing our plans and purposes, leaving the simplicity that is in Christ and our focus on him. 

There's a key verse in this chapter, and in chapter 9 at verse 14, it says, "Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord." And that's what we've seen. When they haven't sought the Lord, when they haven't listened to Him, when they haven't obeyed Him, then everything goes awry. 

They did not ask; they did not seek the counsel of the Lord, the Word of God. God's been guiding them. He's been empowering them, bringing them victory each step of the way. He’s instructed them. He's spoken directly to Joshua, and here comes this subtle deception—the scheming, deceitful plotting of the world, this foreign nation as representatives, a strange occurrence, something odd, I would think to Joshua and Israel—and they say, "Yeah, okay." 

Well, we don't really have any idea who you are or where you’re from, where you came from, what you're up to, but this sounds reasonable. We're in. And they didn't even ask the counsel of the Lord. 

This is where we go astray, my brothers and sisters, always. This is where we go astray, and it causes us suffering, burden, grief, and often damage to the cause of Christ when we don't seek the counsel of the Lord, the Word of God. 

And yet, as we will see in our text and in application for us, God's overruling grace is effective in our lives even in the midst of our stumblings and bumblings and failures to look to Him and to trust Him. He sets us back on the right path and accomplishes His will in our lives for His purposes, for His glory, and for our good. 

We often fail to believe. We fail to seek Him in His word. We fail to obey. And yet, even in our failures, even the deception of Satan and all his wiles, his world system, his demonic influences, even when we yield to the sin that still lives in us and fail to believe and trust God, even when bad things happen in this world, in this life, as they so often do, God works all things together for our good. 

And we see that here in Israel. It's not that all things are good. From my perspective, this was a boneheaded move on the part of Israel. It was not good; they were deceived and now yoked to these pagans. 

We will see that God takes this event and works it for good. He orchestrates the circumstances to accomplish His will in a long string of victories and driving out the nations before them so that they may possess the land. God is full of grace and mercy, and He is faithful to accomplish His will in and through us, even when we choose to take the harder route. For this, we can be so very thankful each and every day. 

Let's look at our text, Joshua 9. Mark read that for us. It's a long chapter. I want to read some of these verses. 

Verse 1: "And it came to pass when all the kings who are on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in the coasts of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord," or one mouth, literally, it says they were in union. They were going to come together and make a stand against Israel. 

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and AI, they worked craftily, and we see this plan they put together. They make it appear as though they've been traveling a long way and their bread is moldy and crumbly and their sandals are worn out. They set up this whole thing, and they come to Joshua and they say, "We've been traveling from this far country." 

We're from afar, and Joshua says, "Well, perhaps you dwell among us, so how can we make a covenant with you?" They said, "Oh no, we're your servants." 

Joshua says, "Who are you? Where do you come from?" They said, "From a far country." They don't tell him who they are, they don't tell him where they're from; they just go on with this deception. 

And I think verse 14 again is the key: "Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask the counsel of the Lord." And they made peace with them; they made a covenant with them. 

And they realized, after three days, that they weren't who they said they were and that they lived near them. And then they kind of had this problem, and they asked them, "Why'd you do this?" 

"Well, why'd they do it? Because they knew they were going to be destroyed. They were trying to save their lives. They were acting craftily. They'd seen all that the Lord had done." 

So Joshua has to make good on his promise. And I want you to look at chapter 10—we'll just read a few verses into that. 

"Now it came to pass when Adoni Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken AI and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and its king." 

So he had done to AI and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them. So now the nations hear what happened. They feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than AI, and all its men were mighty. 

Therefore Adoni Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmath, Japhia, king of Lachish, and Deborah, king of Eglon, saying, "Come up to me and help me that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel." 

Therefore the five kings of the Amorites—the kings of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmath, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon—gathered together and went up; they and all their armies camped before Gibeon and made war against it. 

And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal saying, "Do not forsake your servants; come up to us quickly. Save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us." 

And so Joshua has to do that because of this covenant. That's what we see. We see further in chapter 10 God's going to use this event to spawn a string of victories and total domination in the land, but Gibeon is still there, and they'll have to deal with that from this time on because of their decision to not seek the counsel of the Lord. 

I've given you three points on your outline: subtle deception, seeking the Lord, and super abounding grace. 

Well, first in our text this morning, we see subtle deception. The Gibeonites come to Israel with a scheming, well-thought-out plan to deceive them and to make a covenant with them so that they might live to preserve their own lives. They were fully convinced, as they had seen in the various exploits of Israel and the power of the Lord God, that they would be utterly destroyed and eliminated if they sought to go to battle with God's people. And they were right. 

Joshua should have known this as well. He should have sought the counsel of the Lord. He should have kept his focus on God's plan and purpose and the simplicity of trusting the Lord and following His word and allowing God to have the victory and the glory. But he fell prey to the wiles of the devil, the deceitful plotting of sinful men, and he entered into a covenant binding himself in the nation. 

I'm really not sure for what good reason. This is a perplexing story to me because we see this deception, we see this unequally yoked situation, we see the clear statement that Israel did not seek the counsel of the Lord. Later in the chapter, Joshua recognizes that he's bound himself with the covenant, but he pronounces a curse on the Gibeonites. 

These things are all negative. The situation does not seem in any way good. And yet, in this act by the Gibeonites, I see a pretty clear parallel between their words and actions and what Rahab did earlier in the book. It almost seems that there's a measure of faith on the part of the Gibeonites. 

Think of these things. Like the Gibeonites, Rahab was a native of Canaan. Like the Gibeonites, she had confidence God was giving the land to Israel. God was giving the land to Israel. Like the Gibeonites, she responded with fear before God's people Israel. And like the Gibeonites, Rahab acted with cunning in order that she and her family might find refuge among the people of Israel. 

I'm not sure of all the ramifications of this situation, but I also noticed that God does not punish Israel as He had done before for their disobedience. He does not cause them to fail when they go to defend Gibeon in this newfound covenant. What we see in chapter 10 is a massive victory over city after city, king after king.

So it seems to me that God overruled the failure of Israel with His grace. But perhaps there was something more here concerning the Gibeonites whom God did preserve and spare from destruction just as He did for Rahab. The whole situation is a bit perplexing to me, but I am clear on the application for us, so that's good. 

The New Testament is replete with warnings about deception—deception of the world, deception of false doctrine, being taken captive. We studied John 16 this last Thursday night. I want to look at that passage with you. If you turn to John 16 at verse 1, Jesus has been teaching His disciples in John 15 about the love relationship that believers have with the Father, with the Son, with the Holy Spirit, and particularly the love relationship that we have with other believers. 

He says, "By this they will know that you are my disciples that you have love for one another." But then, at the end of chapter 15, Jesus also explains the hate relationship that we will have with the world. The world will hate you, Jesus said, because it first hated me. They crucified Jesus, and Jesus tells them that they can expect hatred from the world. They can expect hatred from religion as well as pagan men and Adam, and that they will cast them out of the synagogues, they will arrest them, and they will kill them. A servant is not greater than his master. 

And it's in this context that Jesus says in chapter 16, verse 1: "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble." The word translated "stumble" here speaks of a trap, a deception, of falling into a pit. Jesus knew, especially in light of the fact that the disciples were expecting the ruling Messiah, political deliverance, that when persecution came, it was a great danger, a trap, a pit to fall into concerning their faith. They would be taken captive by it. It would cause them to stumble, to be afraid, to doubt. 

Remember, that's what happened to John the Baptist when he was arrested and put in prison. What did he do? He sent his disciples to Jesus and he said, "Ask, are you the one, or should we look for another?" He was doubting because of his circumstances, because of his suffering, because he was sitting in a prison. 

And so Jesus tells them these things so that when these things happen, they will understand that it's all part of God's plan and it's the natural consequence of being in Christ and living as His ambassador in this hostile world. This is what we can expect from the world system that Satan has set up and from his demons and from his people in Adam. 

And so we see warning after warning throughout the New Testament. Jesus said, "Beware of the scribes and Pharisees, particularly their doctrine because it was a false doctrine." 

Listen to Paul's words in Colossians 2:6. He says, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." Here's the key: "Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." And then he says in verse 8: "Beware! Watch! Look out! Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." 

Deception comes through lies, through error, things that are not consistent with the doctrines of Christ. And there's a real danger in this world of being deceived, of being taken captive through philosophy and empty deceit, of being cheated according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, not according to Christ. Paul says, "Beware!" 

There's a serious danger of being deceived, just as Joshua was deceived by their cunning and craftiness back in chapter 9. And the answer, as we will see, as Paul says here in Colossians, is to focus on Jesus. It's to be filled with all the fullness of Christ, to have the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. It's what Paul calls the simplicity of Christ in 2 Corinthians 11. 

Think about that in the context of our world and of the evangelical church. How do we go astray? How do we get drawn into worldly philosophies and wisdom of men and marketing ideas and better ways to win men to Christ? How does that happen? It happens when we don't focus on Jesus, when we don't depend on Him, when we don't see that His way is through preaching and teaching the Word and depending on Him to empower us by the Holy Spirit and work in the hearts of men to bring them to Christ. 

We forget that the local church is a place where the Word should be taught and preached so that men can grow and be built up. We're going to look at that in Ephesians 4 here in a little bit, but that's the purpose of the local church: for believers to be built up, to grow and to become mature, to then go out into this dangerous world and be discerning, and not be deceived, and not be drawn in, but to preach the truth in love. 

Turn over to 2 Corinthians 11 with me, please. Let's look at Paul's words here. It's kind of a stunning thing that he says in 2 Corinthians 11. He's obviously struggling with things in Corinth—things are not going well there. 

2 Corinthians 11:1: "Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear less somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it."

Paul's afraid for them; he's worried for them. Paul says, "I fear," here in this great chapter where he lays out all that he has suffered—the persecution, the stonings, the beatings. But at the end of that list, he says that what troubled him the most was his daily burden, his concern for all the churches. 

And what was he concerned about? He was concerned that they would be deceived, that they would be tricked, drawn into false doctrine, moved from the simplicity that is in Christ. There's another Jesus out there, did you know that? There's another Jesus—a Jesus who cannot save, a Jesus who is insufficient. 

We may call him Jesus; we may claim the name of Christ. But if our doctrine teaches that this Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was insufficient and we must add works, or rituals, or whatever to it, that's a false gospel according to the book of Galatians. 

So there's another Jesus; there's another Jesus who isn't who He claimed to be, right? He's not God. He's not the fully sufficient sacrifice of propitiation for our sins. God was not fully satisfied and raised Him from the dead with power to show that He's a Jesus who's a good man, who's a good teacher, or it gets a little weirder sometimes, and He's the brother of Satan, or He's...but it's not who He is—who He claims to be according to the Word of God. 

So we can deny Him either by denying who He is or by denying what He has done and what He has accomplished. And that's what Paul is talking about. Someone comes along and they preach to you another Jesus, not the one you received, not the one you heard, not the gospel you believed when I came to you and preached and founded that church in Corinth, and you guys were solid when I left, and as soon as I leave—haywire, right? 

There's another Jesus, and I'm afraid that when they come along preaching the other Jesus, you may well put up with it. So how are we not going to put up with it? How are we going to discern it? We're instructed to expose error to confront it with the truth, to shine the light into the darkness. 

But there is a concern that we would fall for the lies, the deception—and Satan makes it look so good sometimes. And we don't want to always be swimming upstream, do we? Man, I swim upstream, and it's sometimes not fun; sometimes it's not fun. 

We have this great tendency to want to give the benefit of the doubt, to go along to get along, but this is the danger—the danger of making a covenant with the world, being seduced into false doctrine, taking captive and rendered useless, and all the trouble this causes in the church—the leaving of the simplicity of Christ, the compromise with false doctrine, the rationalizing of lies, and that which exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. 

This all draws us away. We're taken captive, and it's hard to tell the truth sometimes, but it's the only loving thing to do—to tell the truth. And we’re going to leave men dying and perishing in false religion, false doctrine, caught up in the ways of the world. 

Turn over to Ephesians 4 with me, please. Ephesians 4, let's look at verse 14 first, and then we'll look at 11 and following. But in verse 14, Paul says that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. 

These words just run through the scriptures: cunning craftiness, deceitful plotting, trickery of men. We shouldn't be children anymore tossed to and fro. There's a constant onslaught in this world—in religion, and humanistic philosophy, atheism, so-called science, government—a constant working of the entire system against the truth, and we must recognize this. We must understand this, and we must have a desperate need for Jesus every day, the simplicity of Christ, to focus on Him and His Word. 

What is the cure for being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, even in the true church? We see it all the time: churches, brothers and sisters in Christ, into this, into that, and we wonder what's going on. They're tossed to and fro, always looking for some experience, some new spirituality, a higher level. But this is deception because Jesus is the fullness, and you are complete in Him. 

He is all that we need. Look what Paul says is the cure for this lack of discernment—this being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Verse 11: "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastor-teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting." 

But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. 

This is the purpose of the local church, of the Word of God preached—"sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth." It's the teaching and preaching of the truth continually, verse by verse, book by book, by the hope, the power of the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth, as Jesus said— that keeps us from being tossed to and fro, that grows us up into fullness, completion, and maturity as men and women in Christ. 

It's the Word of God, the truth that keeps us from error. We must seek the counsel of the Lord, and this is the very thing that Israel failed to do in Joshua 9 as they were deceived, taken captive by the covenant that they made with Gibeon. They did not ask counsel of the Lord. 

The reason they were deceived? They did not go to the Lord; they did not seek His Word. For us now, in this new covenant time, we are constantly under assault by the lies and schemes of this world system. 

Satan sometimes comes at us as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, as Peter warns. And this is like the five kings of the Amorites who joined together to make war against Israel. It's a frontal assault; they see it coming. But other times, Satan comes with subtle deception, like the Gibeonites, through false religion, man's philosophies, the wisdom of this world. 

We can be drawn away; we can become confused concerning what is true and what is false. You know, sometimes that happens—people come to me, and they have a problem, and it's a heart-wrenching situation, and it's emotional, and you feel for them, and they have this situation, and I need to do this—and you can get confused, you know, because of your empathy, and you want—and boy, it seems like just seems like maybe that'd be a good course of action to get out of this mess. 

So man can kind of start to think that way. You go back to the Word of God, and it's so clear—no, that's not what God says, right? It's so clear. If you go back and seek counsel from the Lord, this is the way we should go with this. And we have to be willing to say, "This is what the Lord says." We have to believe Him; we have to trust Him even though it seems and it feels like maybe not trusting Him would be a better way. 

Well, Paul talks about our warfare in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, and this is a very instructive passage to us. He says, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 

It's interesting to me to note that the weapons of Joshua's warfare were carnal—swords and spears and battles. And he was fighting to drive out the inhabitants of the land so Israel might receive a promise from God. But we've been learning clearly, the very clear lesson in this book, that the battle belongs to the Lord; it cannot be won in our own strength. 

Joshua was successful to the degree that he sought the Lord and believed Him and obeyed what He instructed. In our time, we are engaged in a spiritual battle of truth versus error, and God has given us truth—the sword of the Spirit. His Word is our weapon, and He empowers us and gives us victory to the degree that we know, believe, and follow His Word. 

Notice it says "every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." We are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. What does that mean? It means inconsistency with His Word. So I have a thought, and I go, "Boy, what about this?" Well, here's what God's Word says—I'm going to bring that into captivity. I'm going to bring it into alignment with God's Word and choose to believe Him. 

If something does not line up with His Word, then it's false, and we must recognize it as such and warn the brethren concerning it. This can be very difficult because of the pressure of the world, family, or loved ones, circumstances—even of Christians—to pursue the ways of the world or go along to get along. 

The truth is very often unpopular, unacceptable, and sometimes even to believers. But this is God's way: Seek the Lord. Seek His counsel—His Word. Believe Him; trust Him to work out His will in His way in our lives for His glory. Trust and obey, for there's no other way. 

We see in our text subtle deception. We see seeking the Lord. And perhaps the most amazing point in our text—we see super abounding grace, which just kind of goes into chapter 10, and we'll look at that next week. 

But Israel and Joshua had messed up here. They didn't seek the counsel of the Lord. They were deceived, got themselves into a mess. This was not good. 

It was a failure on their part, and it got them into a tight spot. But we see that God overrules this failure by His super abounding grace. He works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose. 

God's will was for Israel to possess the land. He instructed them to destroy all inhabitants by the sword, but they got into this covenant deal with Gibeon. But what we see when they go up to defend Gibeon is that God uses this event to launch them into a series of continual victories all the way through chapter 10, and we're going to look at that next time. 

But God worked something that was not good for the good of His people in order to accomplish His purposes. Aren't you so thankful that God's grace super abounds, that it overrules our mistakes? Aren't you thankful that although your greatest desire is to be faithful, failure on our part to be faithful is a crushing disappointment in our lives, even so, our failure to be faithful to God does not negate the faithfulness of God to us? 

There may be consequences; there may be chastening from the Lord to get us back on track. But the truth is He will accomplish His purpose of conforming us to the likeness of Christ. It's a promise. 

And He's so patient with me. He's so long-suffering and faithful. His grace rules in my life. What I think about as I study this, as I worked on this message, is how much more God can do through me when I seek Him and His Word, when I seek His wisdom and counsel, so that I'm no longer tossed to and fro, taken captive, rendered useless. 

But through the Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm growing, I'm maturing, becoming discerning as I abide in the vine. And God produces fruit through me. That's what He wants for our lives. He wants to produce fruit through us. And that comes through an abiding daily relationship—talking to Him all the time in prayer, thinking His thoughts, lining up our thoughts with His Word, taking those thoughts captive, and then seeking to do what He's commanded us to do— to be a witness in this world, to preach the gospel to every creature, to speak truth in love, simplicity—not crafty plans and twelve-step methods. 

Natural course of life. Be who you are. Be a witness in this world for His glory. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for these accounts that we've been studying in the book of Joshua. We see Your people. We see failure and frailty. We see victory and faithfulness and obedience. And it's just like our lives. But we see Your faithfulness. We see Your grace. We see Your purpose. Help us to line up with that. Help us to just trust You, to know Your Word, to reckon it to be so, and then yield to Your life and power in us for Your glory. But also, Lord, for our good and the good of those who know You and who need to know You. In Jesus' name, Amen.