Joshua Chapter 9:1-27

We have kind of a rule in our house that when you're apologizing, it's a real simple sentence. I'm sorry for that, period. Not, I'm sorry for doing that, but you really shouldn't have done this. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee.

David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. When things go wrong in life, we are often tempted to cover up our mistakes or blame someone else. Don't compound your mistakes.

Own up to them and repent. Pastor David discusses this and more today as he continues in the book of Joshua Chapter 9. But first, when you're in trouble, where do you turn most often?

Do you look to yourself or the advice of your friends, or do you go straight to God? We want to help you experience the hope that comes from looking to the Lord when your life turns upside down by sending you Pastor David McGee's CD series titled Lessons from the Wilderness. In this encouraging resource, Pastor David looks at one of the most difficult periods of King David's life to show you how you can wait confidently on God no matter what you're facing. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

Now here's David McGee with part three of his teaching, Decisions. So let's turn to Joshua Chapter 9. Joshua Chapter 9, verse 1. It came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the great sea towards Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hittite, and the Jebusite heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wine skins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet and old garments on themselves.

And all the bread of the provision was dry and moldy. It's about six miles, six and a half miles from Ai. So it's not very far from Ai. It's right in that area. So they didn't have a long walk, but of course, what did they do? They took out and we're going to deceive the children of Israel.

Let's see how it goes. Verse six, and they went to Joshua to the camp at Gagal and said to him to the men of Israel, we have come from a far country. Now therefore make a covenant with us.

And the story gets more interesting. Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, perhaps you dwell among us. So how can we make a covenant with you? In verse eight, I wish they'd have gone with verse seven and the chapter would end it, but it didn't, so let's continue. Verse eight, but they said to Joshua, we are your servants. And Joshua said to them, who are you and where do you come from? So they said to him, from a very far country, your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God, for we have heard of his fame and all that he did in Egypt. Verse 10, they continue on with the flattery and they say, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan's of Sihon, king of Heshmon, and Og, king of Bashan, who was at Ashtorel. Now keep in mind, they're flatter in Joshua. They're flatter in the group. And understand flattery can, it can mess with your sense of discernment.

It can. If you remember, they tried it on Jesus a lot, didn't they? They go up and go, oh, master, you're such a good teacher. Oh, we know you're from God because nobody could do the things you've done unless they were from God.

And then they would say something really silly. It didn't work on Jesus. The sad truth, it works on us. It works on you and it works on me. That can ruin your sense of discernment.

So be careful because it, again, it's a way the enemy can get in. Verse 11, therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, take provisions with you for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, we are your servants. Now therefore make a covenant with us.

These guys are liars. This bread of ours, we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it's dry and moldy.

You know, at this point, they really should be suspicious. These guys are pointing out their moldy bread, which even in that day, if they were really ambassadors, think about it. If their bread had gotten dry and moldy, what would they have done?

They would have had flour with them and they'd have made more cakes, but they're carrying around, look, see, dry, moldy. It's a little suspicious, but it comes right after the flattery. So they're like, oh yeah, yeah. We're great guys, dry, moldy bread.

Okay. And they're just eating it up. They're just swallowing it. And these wineskins, verse 13, which we filled were new and see, they're torn.

And these are garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey. This is, their buzzers and bells have to be going off at this point, but they're not listening. They're not listening.

When your buzzers and bells go off, listen to your buzzers and bells. So they trusted in what they could see. Verse 14, then the men of Israel took some other provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. You know what's amazing to me? It was just a couple chapters ago.

Wasn't it? Remember when they were going against AI and they got very overconfident in themselves and they didn't inquire of the Lord. They didn't ask the Lord and they got in trouble. And here we are a few chapters later and they're getting in trouble again.

Why? Because they didn't inquire of the Lord. Verse 15, so Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the rulers of the congregation swore to them. They messed up.

You know what's interesting? You realize how they messed up. They didn't necessarily, it didn't start with what they did. It started with what they didn't do.

They didn't seek the Lord's counsel. See, this is the thing, guys, so often we think of sin. We think of sin as stuff that we do, don't we? I mean, if I say, hey, tell me how you sin today or this week or this month or whatever.

Immediately what comes to your mind is what you did. The bad things you did, right? Those are called sins of commission. Do you understand the sins that really mess us up are not sins of commission?

Now, this is going to rock your boat. It's not sins of commission that really mess us up. It's sins of omission. It's what we don't do that gets us in real trouble. The sins of omission lead to the sins of commission.

Do you understand? And this is wild, but do you understand it's going to be what we don't do. It's going to be what we don't do.

It's going to be what somebody doesn't do that has them in an eternity without God. What they don't do. They don't receive Jesus as their Lord.

They don't ask for the forgiveness of their sins. It's what we don't do that often gets us in trouble. As a matter of fact, what happens sometimes is we are so focused on the sins of commission or what we commit that it happens more and more and more and more.

Why? Because we're forgetting about the things we're not doing. See, if there's things that you do, if there's things like reading the Bible and praying, having a devotional time, those things will help you with stuff you do that you shouldn't. They'll help you with those sins of commission, but you can focus on those sins and keep repeating them or you can focus on what you're not doing and implement those things. James 4 17 says, therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. The life lesson there is sin is far more often what we don't do. It's what we don't do. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 tells us pray without ceasing.

Pray without ceasing. Now is Paul suggesting, who wrote the book of Thessalonians, is Paul suggesting that we just pray all day long that everybody quits their job and we just meet in here in the sanctuary and pray seven days a week? I think that's exactly what he meant. No, I'm kidding. Just making sure you're awake.

No, that's not what he's talking about. He's saying stay in an attitude of prayer. Stay in an attitude of knowing that you're in the presence of the Lord.

Stay in an attitude of prayer and in communication with the Lord. And if there's a time in your day when you're pressed for a decision, you're not sure what to do, take time to pray. If you don't have time to pray, don't do it. Don't do it. I mean, tell somebody, you know, I can't do this right now. I'm going to have to pray and seek the Lord and the Lord will speak to you.

The Lord wants you to ask him about these things. They made a deal with their enemy. You can't make a deal with the enemy.

Here's an unpopular thing. You ever heard the saying you're your own worst enemy? Do you know that's true in Christianity? We talk about Satan. We talk about demons.

We talk about all these things, but do you understand the person that you struggle with in your faith the most? It's not your kids. It's not your parents. It's not your husband. It's not your wife.

It's you. It's your flesh. That's what we struggle with the most. And sometimes in relationships, we come into contact with somebody that seems to point their finger and gets on that soft spot of the flesh and it gets all riled up.

But that's just them showing us what our problem is. We need to understand that as Christians. Now, I know that there's people and there's churches and there's so-called Christians that will say, you got to kind of make friends with yourself. Now, what you need to do is understand there's a war going on inside of you. Romans 8 verse 7, Paul put it like this, for the sinful nature is always hostile to God.

It never did obey God's laws and it never will. See, perhaps you have thought mistakenly, perhaps you thought you're the only one that has this battle going on. Perhaps you've even thought there's something wrong with me that this battle is going on. No, this battle is something that 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says is such as is common to man. All of us have this battle going on.

Sadly enough, folks in churches have gotten really good about lying about this, even in the midst of our struggles. How are you doing? Fine. How are you doing? Fine. Praise the Lord.

And still going, man, I'm struggling. Can you pray for me? There's a war and part of any battle plan should be understanding what your weaknesses are. We all have this weakness, this weakness of the flesh, our sinful nature that we will carry around until we're in heaven. If you understand what your weaknesses are, then you can proceed with a good battle plan. But if you act like you don't have any weaknesses, that battle is not going to go well.

It's not going to go well. Now, the cool thing is, God has a plan for our victory and it's dying to our selfish nature. It's dying to the things that we want that will hurt us sometimes. And God will do the impossible in us in fighting these battles. We can't do the work of the Spirit with the arm of the flesh and the work of the Spirit is regenerating us and changing our nature, changing our very nature.

God's the only one that can do that. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's Word in just a moment. But first, no matter how wise you are, listening to your own advice when you should be trusting God is dangerous. That's why we want to send you Pastor David McGee's CD series called Lessons from the Wilderness. Journey through one of the darkest times in King David's life and discover how you can wait confidently on God no matter what struggles your faith has had, no matter what struggles you're facing, because his plans are perfect and he always comes through for you. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

Now, back to today's message. Verse 16, and it happened at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them. Probably felt pretty silly. Then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Cheroroth, Cheroroth, Berath, and Kirghis-jem. But the children of Israel did not attack them because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation complained against the rulers.

That's different. Then all the rulers said to all the congregation, we have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel, now therefore we may not touch them. That took a lot of integrity for leadership to do that. They had messed up and it would be easy for them to say, well, you know what, let's just forget the vow we made and let's wipe them out. They had made a mistake, but they didn't compound their mistake by a lack of integrity. What happens very often is we make one mistake and then we want to cover up that mistake. Then we want to cover up that mistake and that mistake and that mistake and that mistake. But repentance, repentance says, you know what, that was wrong.

What I just did then there was wrong. The life lesson, do not compound your mistakes, own up to them and repent. Do not compound your mistakes, own up to them and repent. We have kind of a rule in our house that when you're repenting or you're apologizing, it's a real simple sentence. I'm sorry for that period. Not I'm sorry for doing that, but you really shouldn't have done this. Because that's not an apology. You ever heard an apology like that?

Hey, I'm sorry I said that to you, but you really shouldn't have looked at me like that. That's not an apology. That's not repentance. That's not repentance. Let me tell you what else is not. I tell you what, if there's one thing I'm really good at, it's repenting because I've messed up so much.

So let me share some insights with you. If while you're repenting to the Lord, you're explaining to Him why you did what you did, that's not repentance. If you're asking for somebody else's forgiveness and at the same time you're explaining to them why you did what you did, that's not repentance. And let's be honest, I guarantee you everybody in here has done this. Well, I'm sorry, but after all, my mother was like this.

My father was like this. I wasn't held enough as a baby. I wasn't, you know, we make excuses for our sin. But when we do that, we're not really repenting. We're not repenting. See, because think of it, repenting is what? Admitting that you were wrong. What is justification explaining why you were right?

Those two things are at odds with one another. Let me tell you what's going to happen after tonight. You're going to have to repent for something.

Chances are good. You're going to have to repent for something and you're going to find yourself engaging in what I just mentioned. Don't waste your energy. Don't waste your air in saying why what you did was okay at the same time why you're saying what you did was wrong.

You can't do that. You can't repent and explain it at the same time. Verse 20, this we will do to them. We will let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath, which we swore to them. And the ruler said to them, let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for all the congregation as the rulers had promised them. Then Joshua called for them and he spoke to them saying why have you deceived us saying we are very far from you when you dwell near us.

Now therefore you are cursed and none of you shall be freed from being slaves woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God. So they answered Joshua and said because your servants were clearly told that the Lord your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very much afraid for our lives because of you and have done this thing. So at this point they're being honest. Saying look we heard your plan was to wipe us out. We wanted to avoid that so we lied to you.

We made friends. Now and it ends up that now that they're locked in that this was the thing to do. Now looking at various commentaries some of them disputed this but you can read this later. Second Samuel chapter 21. Saul has disregarded this covenant with the Gimeanites and David has to come back and restore that covenant.

It's second Samuel chapter 21 and God is withholding his blessing on Israel at that time because they didn't honor this covenant here. And you know what Joshua has given us a good picture of. How to make a mistake and recover from it.

He's shown us twice so far in the book of Joshua. How bad he messed up and how to recover from it. See guys a lot of times we sit in here and I tell you how to succeed and I want to communicate that to you. But I also want you to know what to do when you fail because we will stumble.

We will fall. Winston Churchill said success is never final. Failure is never fatal.

It is the courage to continue that counts. We all mess up and what happens sometimes when we mess up is we let it take us out. We mess up, we blow it. Sometimes we blow it royally and you know the first thing we do we quit going to fellowship. I can't go to church. I messed up.

I'm ashamed. When at that moment in time coming here is the very thing you need to do. This is the very place for you when you mess up. I don't know where we got the notion where church is a place you go when you've got it all together.

Because guys we never have it all together. Not until we get to heaven. So what we need to learn from this is how to recover from our mistakes. And maybe you're sitting there and you go I can't believe a pastor is telling me how to mess up. No I'm not telling you how to mess up. We all have that down.

Amen. I don't have to sit up here and teach you how to mess up. When my kids were born I didn't tell them how to lie. They just came upon it you know. I didn't tell them. I didn't tell them hopefully you didn't teach your kids do this do this honey go mine do that do it again honey go mine and then show grandma and grandpa watch this isn't that cute go mine. We didn't teach them that.

They came upon that all by themselves. We got that part down. The part we struggle with is what do we do then when we mess up. Do you understand God knows you're going to mess up. He didn't save you.

He didn't forgive you because he thought you never again would mess up. As a matter of fact I think God has probably chuckled at many of my prayers when I would say something as arrogant as oh Lord I'll never do that again. And the Lord's probably up there going well at least not till tomorrow.

But what happens then. Psalm 37 and this verse has come up a lot. Psalm 37 23 says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand. And we remember on Sunday morning we talked about cast down. The picture there is a sheep that has gotten turned over on the ground.

The sheep that has gotten turned over on its back with its legs in the air and it can't get turned back over. That doesn't have to happen to us because the Lord loves us so much that he's willing to forgive us of the things that we do that are wrong. Verse 25 and now here we are in your hands do with us as it seems good and right to do to us. So he did to them and delivered them out of the hand of children of Israel so that they did not kill them.

And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord and the place where he would choose even to this day. Do you understand how different God is than anything else, anybody else, any other situation or organization in the world with you? If you make mistakes let's say against the government, the government, the police. Do you understand what happens? You get thrown in...