Dealing With the Enemy

Prieth is a psalm that Austin wrote, it was a psalm that David wrote after he had won a battle over his enemies. Today, we are going to talk about battles and winning battles against the enemy. God loves us and exalts us. We need to remember to possess our possessions. Israel has seen victories like the victory of Jericho and victory over sin. Now, their enemies are coming together to fight against them. The devil's crowd joins forces to fight against God's people. We need to be strong in the Lord and put on the whole armor of God. Jericho represents the world and AI represents the flesh. We can overcome these through God's power. Now, we face the enemy Gibeon, who represents the devil. We need to submit to God and resist the devil. Without Jesus, we have no power over the devil. We need to remember God's promise and know that He is with us. Prieth is a psalm that Austin wrote, it was a psalm that David wrote after he had won a battle over his enemies. And today we are going to be actually talking in Joshua about the battles and winning the battles that are across the dealing with the enemy. But what I'm saying is that God loves us and that He is the one that is exalting us. We shouldn't forget about possessing our possessions and today we have come to the point to where, man, we have seen victories. We saw the victory of Jericho, right? I mean, all of a sudden in just seven days the walls come tumbling down, God gives them that city. We finally saw that they had problems with some sin, but praise God they had victories over the sin. They put Achan and his family to death and God restored back in his place in their lives and in their guidance. And so then they head to Ai and we see that now he gives them a victory over Ai. And we finished up last week where God ended up giving them, they had this tremendous worship service. If you remember, they rededicated themselves to God and their commitment to God between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. And Israel is now ready to march on in to finish conquering the promised land and everything that God has given them to possess. And now the battle is on. The enemies have heard that God is great, God is good, and God has given them this land. And so now we find that their enemies do not like that and they're all coming together against them. And you would think at this point, if you didn't read ahead and didn't know ahead, Israel is like most of us in our Christian life. We think now, man, we've had a victory at Jericho, we've had a battle and we've won the victory over our sin in our life. We went back and discovered and was able to have a conqueror, Ai. But now, all of a sudden, we think, man, we've got it made as a Christian, right? And usually that's when our problems begin to come and our problems begin to happen because they haven't learned everything. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ told us, Paul told us, Peter told us that we are to continue to grow in grace. We are to continue to learn, we are to continue to grow, we are to continue to mature. And so we come to Joshua chapter 9 and verse 1, and it says, "...it came to pass, when all the kings which were on the side of Jordan, in the hills and in the valleys and in the coast of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hittite, the Jebusite, heard thereof, that they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel with one accord." All of a sudden, all of these kings in Canaan land heard what had happened at Jericho, heard what had happened in Ai, and now they realize, guess what, we had better come together. There is no way on our own that we are going to be able to defeat Joshua. We're not going to be able to withhold their forces advancing. And so all of a sudden, they all come together and they join together seeking to defeat Israel. You know, it's amazing to me how the devil's crowd will join up to fight God's people. When God's people are doing what they're supposed to be doing, and God is getting the glory, God is getting the exaltation, the world and others are not happy. And so they will come against us. And if you study the Bible at all, you will find that this is nothing new. This is the same tactics that Satan has used from the very beginning. He still uses today. If you go to just the life of Jesus Christ, it is crucifixion. You have two individuals that was diabolically opposed to one another, Herod and Paulus, that did what? They came together for a common good, to crucify Jesus Christ. You see the Pharisees and the Herodians, they were totally opposite in their beliefs and everything. But what do they do? When Jesus Christ was on the scene, they come together with a common goal to see Jesus Christ put to death. And we still see the same alliances that are being formed today when God begins to move and God begins to do. It's amazing that the people that will come together in order to fight against us. That's what we saw in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 6. Paul reminded us, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the walls of the devil. The trickery, the cunningness of the devil. And guess what? He is still filled with walls today. He still wants to bring us down. He wants to keep you from possessing all these spiritual blessings that God has provided for you. And he's very good at it. He's very capable of doing what he tries to do. We look at a couple of different things. Jericho is a picture of the world. In other words, it was the first thing. But in order to go into the potato land... All of the enemies. You cannot live for God and live for the world. Jesus Christ said, you cannot serve two masters. You'll love the one and hate the other. And so it's just like the nation of Israel. They were told to go and destroy or drive out all of those in the world. And so Jericho represents this world. But God gave them the victory, not through power, but through his power. And so we also see, he said there in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 4, Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. And just like God was with them in Jericho, God is with us today. We can overcome the world. We can get out of the world and leave it. Then you find AI, which was the next battle they come to. And AI really has to represent the flesh. Not only do we have the world, but as Christians, we also have a fleshly nature, right? And we have that sin nature that is still upon us. And no matter how much we want to serve God and honor God, we still have this flesh with us. And we saw in AI what happened. Because of their flesh, they lost the battle. But then they come back. They seek God. They come back to God. They repent. They do away with the sin out of their life. They go back to AI. And now what happens? Now they're able to conquer their flesh. Now they're able to overcome the victory. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 7, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. And so there is this battle that goes on in our lives. How many of us, by our mind, we get up and we leave out of church on Sunday morning, right? With the desire to serve God on Monday morning, right? Our mind is made up. Man, we've been challenged through the message of the Holy Spirit. And we're going to do. But then how many of us wake up on Monday morning? The flesh gets in the way, right? We had a bad night's sleep. We wake up Monday morning. We're tired. We're grumpy. We're hurting. The weather's not right. It's either too hot. It's too cold. It's too wet. It's too dry, right? It's never perfect on Monday. And all of a sudden, it's flesh gets in our way. And so God kills us here. But yet we have the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so then we come to chapter 9. And we saw the victory can be won over the world. Victory can be won over the flesh. But there's one more enemy that we want to face. This is an enemy of Gibeon that we are going to talk about today. He is introduced in verse 3. All of these kings are gathered against Israel. And it says in verse 3, And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, they did work wily. There's that word again, right? They worked wily and made as if they had been ambassadors. And took old sacks upon their donkeys and wine bottles old and rent and bound up. Gibeon this morning is going to represent the devil. He's going to represent the devil. God can give us victory over the world. God can give us victory over the flesh. And God can also give us victory over the devil. Matter of fact, James tells us, and I read that in chapter 4 this morning, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The problem with a lot of Christians today, and the reason we are not obtaining our spiritual blessings, is because we are trying to resist the devil without submitting to God. In other words, we say, Man, I know the devil is strong and he's powerful, and I'm not going to have anything to do with him. But the problem is, is unless we get over here with God, it doesn't matter how much resisting you do. Notice the first thing is to submit yourself to God. And when you are in the arms of God, then we will see on the next one. But if we're away from God, Satan loves getting a hold of us and taking care of us. I'm reminded in Acts of the disciples as they went out. You remember they were casting out demons and healing people and doing all of this. And all of a sudden they come up on this demon. And the demon, instead of leaving the individual, what happens, it attacks them. And they come back to Jesus Christ, actually, and John. And they said what? They said, this demon said, Jesus we know, Satan we know. But who are you? Right? Without Jesus, without them being close to Jesus Christ, they had no power over these demons. And so Joshua tells us here to remember the promise. Remember the promise. Moses, if you remember in Joshua chapter 1 and verse 2. But Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people into a land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness of this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and into the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of good courage. For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance this land, which I swear unto the fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous. That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses, my servant, commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest. This book of the law 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. Notice he tells us there that our success comes from our obedience to God. Possessing our possessions comes as we get close to God, as we obey God, as we listen to God, as we obey God. And you know, we may get defeated every once in a while in the world. We may get defeated like an AI because of our flesh, but we always can come to God in 1 John 1, 8, and if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so we can rebound from failure, right? We can rebound. We don't have to stay in living in failure. And so, but many other things besides the world and the flesh, there's Satan. And Satan wants more than anything to attack us and to destroy us. Peter, who understood the battle between the flesh and the spirit and the health and the provisions of Satan himself, said in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. And so God has not left us without a word in the matter. And when we look at this passage of Scripture this morning, we see a portrait through Gideon of what Satan does and how Satan comes to us to try to trip us up, to mess us up in order that we may lay down our guard and that we may fall to the flesh, fall to the world, fall to Satan and digress from God getting the glory in our life. And if God's not getting the glory in our life, we're not possessing the blessings that God has for us. And so this morning, let's look real quick at some time as we study this passage and learn more about how our enemy operates. How does Satan really go about getting us and keeping us from obtaining the blessings that God has for us? First of all, we have to understand that Satan is very deceptive. He's very deceptive. Now, how does Satan deceive us? Well, first of all, when we look at this word deception, look at verse 4 in our text this morning. It says, "...they did work wildly, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks, took on their donkeys, and wine bottles, old and rent, and bound up." When the Gideons heard that Israel was now coming their direction, all these other kings get together and they say, what, we can stand against Israel and God if we do it together. We're going to get united. Now, Gideon, he comes up with a different plan because he says, you know what, there's no way to attack them at all. And so let's come up with another plan. So they work wildly. They come up with this scheme in their mind. What did they do? They put on old clothes. They got old wine cans. They got their food that had already started molding and everything. And what did they do? They made themselves deceptive. They convinced Joshua and the people that they had come from a far-off land, only with the truth of our lives, to our peace. You know, I think a lot of times we get this idea that Satan is this red demon, you know, that he had horns and he had a four-leaf tail, and all of us would recognize that he was a demon, right? And so we're kind of thinking that Satan is always like that. I've never read anything in that spirit or that way. I hope that Satan can transform himself as I do or what. So notice this section that he uses. And so the Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 11 that we are to stand and put on the whole armor of God to protect ourselves, particularly from the wiles of the devil. And so we see that Israel kept having this problem. And if you go back and you read the history of Israel, what was their number one thing? Their number one thing is they had a problem believing God and obeying God. What's their number one problem? We have a problem believing God and we have a problem obeying God. If you can't believe God, how can you obey God, right? And we get all this different things, whether or not this book of the Bible is really true or whether it's not. And all we're doing is what? Casting more and more doubt upon God. And therefore, what can I trust and what can I obey? And so then what we begin to do is what they're going to do in Judges. Judges, they no longer knew Joshua. There was no one that was righteous before God. And it says that all of the people did what was right in their own eyes. They forgot about the law. They forgot about what God had told them to do. And they did what was right in their own eyes, which God tells us very quickly that what we do right in our own eyes is wrong in his eyes. So he tells us that Satan is full of these wiles. And just before Jesus died, you remember, he told Simon Peter, when Simon Peter said, Lord, you're not going to die. You remember that? What did God say to Simon Peter? He told him in Luke 22 and verse 30, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Notice God said, Peter, Satan wants to sift you. He can't have you because you're going to lose our salvation. We cannot lose our relationship with God. But we can allow Satan to interfere in our relationship with God. We can allow Satan to mess us up and trip us up so that we're not obtaining the possessions that God wants for us. And notice he says, I have prayed that your faith fail not. In other words, what is faith? Faith is the two problems that Israel had, the same two problems that you and I have. Unbelief and disobedience. Faith is simply believe God that's enough that you'll obey God by faith. I believe God, so I'm going to do what I have to say. And notice what Jesus Christ said. However, Jesus Christ also knew his flesh and knew his existence and why. Peter's mind was probably going to fail. And you remember it turned out. What's going to happen? I'm praying that your faith will hold out. But the reality is, is guess what? Because Peter, you are working too much with your mind and your flesh, and you're not relying on me. You're not trusting the Lord, right? We never do that to Jesus Christ, do we? And what did he say? Before the talk, the heart converted. Peter, when you realize that you can't take care and battle Satan in your own house. When you realize that you don't really believe me enough to obey me. But when you fail, you're going to be converted. You're going to be reminded of this. And we read that in John later on. It says when Jesus was being led out of the praetorial to be whipped and mutilated in front of the people so that Paul could try to get them to release him. It says the eyes of Peter and Jesus met. And it says Peter went out and wept bitterly. Peter, what did he do? What was he doing while he was weeping bitterly? Well, Jesus on the other hand, went out and wept. And I believe he confessed to Jesus. I believe he understood. But when Jesus finally comes to him a week later and finds Peter there on the seashores of Galilee, what does he say? Peter, do you love me? Are you willing to die for me now? Peter said, Lord, you know, I love you like a brother, right? I want to follow you and I'll follow you as long as things are good. But you know, when the going gets tough, I'm not going to give up my life for you. So Jesus asked him again, Peter, do you love me with the God I love? Peter said, Lord, I love you like a brother. And then he said, Peter, do you love me with the God I love? He understood. I don't really love you because in my mind, in my flesh, I would say I do. But I also know the reality, right? And so God said, guess what? You understand. Now go and strengthen your brother and now go do what you are called to do. Paul wrote to young Timothy, his son in the faith. And he said, moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. This is in the qualifications of a pastor, a pastor. It says they must have a good report of those that are without, not only within the congregation, but also within the community. Because why? Satan is strong. Satan is powerful. And guess what? He is easily stirring up things and he wants to destroy what God is doing here in this sanctuary. He wants to destroy what God is doing through our ministry. And so, man, we've got to make sure that not only are we standing upright in front of those that we're ministering to, but also those that are without, those that are watching. It's amazing at how much hearsay you get when you go down to the store or the Walmart or somewhere. Everybody's heard, well, this is going on and that's going on. And yet we're here. Sometimes we're in a situation and haven't heard nothing about it. But not only does he start with deception, but notice they even changed their guns, their clothes. They made their clothes old and wore out. Look at what he said. They took old sacks upon their donkeys and wine bottles and wring it and bound up. And so they made themselves look like they had been trapped. To totally deceive Joshua and Israel. They wanted them to look like they had come from this far land that they had been traveling for this long time. They had their donkeys, were a little tired and wore out. All of their possessions, their wineskins, they had patches on their shoes and in their clothing. Their entire aim was for one purpose and one purpose only, to trick Israel. To trick them into doing it. Notice what it says in verse 5. Their old shoes and clouded upon their feet and old garments upon them. And all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. Man, they thought of everything, you know. Well, man, if we come with real good food, right, even though we look bad, then they're going to see right through us. And so, man, you see how clever Satan is? He thinks of everything that he could possibly do. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 14, he says, "...and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. He will make his plan appear to be the perfect thing in your life." It's amazing, in 30-something years of pastoring, it's amazing how many times I've sat either at someone's house or in the woods or in a fishing boat or out in the parking lot and they say, Brother Donnie, God has given this to me in this life. God has provided me with this job. God has provided me with this individual, but they're not saved. But I have to work on Sunday. But I have... right? In other words, what happened? They fell into the deception of Satan. Satan makes it look so good, but then... ...before. But we need to be very, very careful about the impulses of our mind. Remember Romans chapter 12 says that, first of all, your body's a living sacrifice, and do it by the renewing of your mind. Well, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, right? Because, man, the world is deceptive. How many times do we get stuff all the time? Calls about our insurance warranty. You know, they called me the other day and I told them, Man, I've almost got 300,000 miles on my truck. I've got a noise that's happening to my transition. You're still going to offer me the extended warranty, right? And you're going to take care of everything after I get it. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. And so notice what it says here. It goes on in John chapter 16, Who's the Spirit of truth? The Holy Spirit that Jesus... Look at what he said. He said, He will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. Jesus Christ is always with us. Remember God's promise in Joshua chapter 1, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. And Jesus said, When I return to the Father, guess what? Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, I have blessed you with all spiritual blessings on earth. However, we have to believe God and we have to obey God. We have to do what he says. And so not only does he deceive us, and not only does he go through all of the physical deception and changing all of the clothes and everything else, but the third tactic is he begins to discuss with us. He wants to get us to talking. He wants to get us to visiting with him. Look at what it says in verse 6. And they went to Joshua under the camp of Gilgal and said, Here's the talking part. Let's get in this discussion. They changed their appearance. They've done all the legwork. They've got this trick laid. Now let's get to the trap. And to the men of Israel, we be come from a far country. Now, therefore, make you a league with us. And the men of Israel said unto the Hebites, Peradventure, you dwell among us, and how shall we make a league with you? Now notice what's happening. The men of Israel are, this is kind of fishy, right? You come to these people that are from a far off country. They're worn out clothes. Their food is rotten. Everything is saying this does not really make sense, right? So how do you know you need to make a league with us if you're from a far off country? So they're starting to question the deception that is here. And look at verse 8. And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are you? And from where come you? So Joshua was saying, you know what? Something just doesn't seem right about this situation. God said, we're going to have to go in. And look at what he says in verse 9. And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord thy God. And then look at this next phrase because you'll miss it if you're just reading it. For we have heard the fame of him and all that he did in... Now when did Egypt take place? Over 40 years ago, right? What about Jericho? It wasn't spread enough that all these other kings were gathering up. But notice they were smart enough and kind enough that they didn't mention anything about the current situation. Man, we have been traveling for this long time because we heard how wonderful your God was in Egypt. We heard how he delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians. And we've come all this way so that we can make a league with you. And we've come all this way so that we can make a league with you. All that he did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the door, Ehan king of Heshbon to Od king of Bashan, which was at Ashtoreth. Therefore, our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us saying, Take this journey and go to Methium. And saying to them, We are your servants. Therefore now make a league with us. This is our bread we took hot from our provisions out of the houses. On that day we came forth to go unto you. But now behold, it is dry and it is moldy. Notice that in these verses the men of Gibeon just flat out lied. Flat out lied. They've got them trapped. They've got them convinced. They claim to be something that they were not. How many times has Satan got us to fall into the trap because he promises something that he never can deliver? We see it every single day of our life. And this is the perfect picture of how our enemy, the Satan, the devil, the roaring lion operates. He's usually slick and enticing speech to get you to yield to his plans for your life. He practiced his trickery even in the Garden of Eden. What did he do? He came to a discussion with her. He changed his appearance, right? He looked good. He looked great. She stood there and had a conversation with him. And she got him to talking. Did God really say, right? Do you really believe God's words? He got him to question God's word. And then she got Eve. Did he really mean what God said? Unbelief. Questioning God. Does God really have my best interest at heart? Is God really guiding me and looking after me? Second Corinthians 2.11 says, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. I was telling the church at Corinth, why do we keep falling for the same tricks? He is still doing it to you and I. And that's how good Satan is. The fact that we know what he's going to do, the fact that we know how he works, but yet he still gets us every single time, right? God, oh man, God must be giving me this. But yet there's all these contradictions to the word of God. Remember what he said? Keep the law in your heart. Keep it close to you. Believe me, follow me, and I will deliver this land. And Peter again says that be sober, be vigilant. Our adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Satan wants you. Satan wants your family. He wants your marriage. He wants your children. You realize that Satan wants your testimony? He wants us to no longer be able to give the glory to God because we took it upon ourselves to take the glory for ourselves. And he wants to use you and your family and your testimony to get to our church the same way that he used deception to get to Israel. Ultimately, he was wanting to get to God. And ultimately, he was wanting to destroy this nation that was giving God all the glory. Did they? No, they just obeyed. They believed God. Not only is he deceptive, but Satan is also destructive. How does Satan begin to destroy us? First of all, he diminishes our understanding. Look at what he does. It says in verse 14, And the men took of their vittles and asked not counsel of the Lord. Joshua had some reservations. Joshua said this does not completely seem right. However, when they showed him the bread, when they said let's sit down and eat together and make this league with them, Joshua all of a sudden said, You know what? I see what you're telling me. So I must believe it. The reality seems to back the story. And Satan will do that to our understanding. It says the God of this world, 1 Corinthians 4 says, The God of this world has blinded our eyes in order that we might not see the glorious of God. Satan has blinded us not to see the reality, not to see the truth. And what do we do? We don't seek God. We don't ask God for an opinion. We don't go to our Bible and read and pray and ask God, What does he think about it? No, we just say, God must have gave it to me. This door is wide open, right? So I'm just going to walk right through it without ever testing to see what the door is there for, why it's there for, what's on the other side. Not only does he mess up with our understanding, but he also disregards God's opinion. Look at what it says in verse 14. The men not only took up their vittles, which sharing a meal with somebody was a way of opening up this relationship and sealing this deal. It was always, the deals were always done over a meal. And that friendship, that intimacy of having someone sit down and fellowship with you. And then notice what happens. It says, and ask not counsel of the mouth of the Lord. Here they had even had a meal, but we also don't even see that they even prayed to thank God for the meal or seek God's understanding or anything about what was going on. Okay, we've got food. Y'all come from a long way. Y'all just come right on in. And they never looked at the will of God. They never thought about the consequences. Third thing, notice that it disrupts separation. Remember, Israel was always called to come out from among them. When Abraham was first called, what was he told? Leave your family. Leave your place of security. I am now your God, and I will lead you to a land that is flowing with milk and honey. He didn't even go to where God wanted him to go. He stayed there in the rain. His father finally passed away. When his father finally passed away, then he began to pick up and move more. He was supposed to be a pilgrim. He wasn't supposed to put down mills until he got to the farmer's land. What happened? Because he had family and his dad was of old age and his dad liked the place. He said, well, let's settle down for a while until his dad... Go back and read it. I worry a lot and all the problems that that caused. Guess what? He's still trying to... Satan wants to break off our separation. And we're seeing churches today and compromise, right? We just need to compromise. We need to be willing to allow anyone and everyone to... We need to just open ourselves up to... No. The Bible says precisely we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We come in here, we join a church, we are to be different. We are not to be conformed to this world, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We are second. We are peculiar people. We are odd people. We're different from the world. But how many churches and how many worship services today are trying to look just like the world so that they can invite people to come into the world and they use it under the disguise of what? Well, if we can get them here because of the lights and the music and everything else, then we can preach the gospel to them. And I'll tell you that's hogwash. 90% of all of the churches that are trying to attract them for the gospel do not even give an invitation at the end of the service for them to respond. Go to some of these churches. Listen to some of these churches. If God's moving with you, then meet me out there in the hallway or call me this week and we'll set up an appointment at the coffee shop. No, if the purpose is the gospel, give an invitation. Give people an opportunity to respond to the Holy Spirit and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So what Satan wants to do is break up our separation. He wants us to look and act like everybody else. Look at what he says in verse 15. And Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them and let them live. And the princes of the congregation swear unto them. And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league. They were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them. And the children of Israel journeyed and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Setharoth and Baroth and Kajoth at Jerem. And the children of Israel smote them not because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel and all the congregation murmured against the princes. Now they're murmuring, you guys have got us into a league with these people. Now we can't even kill them because you promised that they could live. But the Holy Spirit and all the congregation, we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel. Now therefore, we may not. Yes, we will do to them. We will even let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swear unto them. And the princes said unto them, let them live. Let them live. And now they've got a problem. Because the whole promised land and their whole blessing depends on what? Killing and destroying everybody and driving them out. You drive them out when you've made a promise with them, when you've invited them in. Remember, go back all the way to Deuteronomy chapter 7. It says, When the Lord God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. And look at this next phrase, Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Now we've got ourselves in another bind, right? Because if we kill them, now we've broken our word, right? And we've lied. And so now we've lied to them, right? So how many of us have ever been in a bind because of Satan before? We've heard the statement made two wrongs don't make a right, right? And so now they've got themselves into a predicament. How did they get themselves in this predicament? Because Satan is good. Satan is good. But here's what I want to leave you. They've broken their covenant with God. They've made a covenant with the people that are here because they didn't seek the will of God. They didn't seek the word of God, the law of God. And now they are partners with these people. But notice what happens. Notice in verse 22, And Joshua called for them and spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have you beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you when you dwell among us. Notice the very first thing that Joshua does here. The very first thing that he does is he comes to them and he denounces them. Why? Why have you done this? Why do you lie to us? Why did you do it? Wherefore have you beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you when you dwell? When Satan does to us, we've got to confront the situation. We cannot ignore it. We cannot just say, Well, this is my addiction or this is my problem. We cannot ignore it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. which he should choose. There is no question that Joshua and Israel made a mistake. They should have never made this alliance with these people. They should have never allowed them to be apart. However, because they made a promise that we're not going to kill you, Joshua dealt with the situation. You're not going to have a position of prominence among us. We're going to keep you alive, but you're going to work for us. You're going to be under our control. And so these mistakes were not permanent. Joshua realized the seriousness of what they had done, but he took the necessary... They can dominate them. And that's the problem with Satan. He can be controlled and dominated through the power of Jesus Christ. And so we put Jesus Christ to them. And then look at the third thing. We dispatch the enemy. Look at what he says in verse 27. Notice what he did. He made them servers and worshippers of God. Y'all take care of bringing the water in for the sacrifice. Do you realize how many times during a day... ...for them to wash after every sacrifice that they made. Every animal that they put up on the altar, the priest was constantly over there washing and cleaning and consecrating. And they were having to refill that. He said, you give you a night to want to do that. You're going to come and serve before God every single day. You say, why is that important? And let me show you right here. We're going to close. Over in 2 Samuel chapter 21, let's fast forward for a while and see how God really works. How God really takes care of things. In 2 Samuel 21 verse 2, it said, And the king called the Gibeonites. You remember who they are? They're the same ones that they just made a league with Israel. So now the king, who is the king in 2 Samuel? David. He calls them and said unto them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel. They were not. They were slaves of Israel because Israel made a treaty with them, right? So they're there not because God wanted them there, but because of the failure of Israel. So they were not the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the children of Israel had sworn unto them. And Saul sought to slave them in his zeal to be the children of Israel and Judah. Saul said, we need to destroy them. They're not Israelites. But guess what? They had already made a promise with them way back in. Verse 3. Wherefore, David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And wherewith shall I make the atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house, neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. Thou say that will I do for you. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us, that he should be destroyed from remaining in any of the communities of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord and giveth of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the king said, I will give them. Joshua took his error, his mistake, and he turned it into good for God. Joshua and Israel thought that they were making a treaty with these guys. Instead, they were breaking the commandments of God. Yet what happened? We see that through the years, they never was the children of Israel, but they were brought into the nation. Eventually, they did turn to start worshiping the true God. And David tells them this, You're not our children, but I'm going to take care of you and provide for you just as if you say it, and I'll do it. See how God did not glorify sin and mistakes this morning, but we're all going to make them. And they're just as bad. They're just as wicked. We saw the price that Achan had to pay for his sin, right? We see the wages of sin is death. There is a price to be paid. But also, I want you to understand that God can still deliver us from mistakes if we will allow him. And you know, maybe right now you're in the middle of one of them mistakes, right? But made this negotiation and you have sold your soul to the devil. You've given him everything, made an alliance with him, and you've realized, I've got myself in a rock and a hard spot. What do I do? What do I do? Jesus Christ said, If you will confess your sin, go and face it. Face the enemy. Face what's there and put that enemy in its proper place. He's going to serve you, not you serve them. We become a servant of Satan when we obey Satan. But when we obey God, then guess what? It's used. God can take. So this morning, as we look at this, the question that I want to ask you this morning is, will you let God turn your failure into fruit? See, God wants us to have all sorts of blessings. And so it shows us the importance before we make that decision, if you have it good, for your heart, it will work as well. So before you get into that, it's important you let God turn your failure into fruit. So it's meaningful to me. So I've just mentioned in my life, who has been a savior to me. And I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself. I've been a savior to myself.