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Deceit And Manipulation

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• Well, let's open our Bibles to the book of Joshua chapter 9, and we're going to read a rather lengthy passage, verses 3 through 27. Joshua chapter 9, verses 3 through 27. The title of the message is "Deceit and Manipulation." Deceit and Manipulation. So notice Joshua 9, beginning there with verse 3: "And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, they did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up, and old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them, and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy."

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• "And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us. And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you? And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God."

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• "For we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth. Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you."

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• "But now, behold, it is dry, and it is moldy: and these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey. And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD. And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them."

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• "And it came to pass at the end of three days, after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them. And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day."

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• "Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. 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. But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them."

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• "This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them. And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them. And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us? Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."

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• "And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the LORD thy 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 sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing."

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• "And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not. And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose." Deceit and manipulation.

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• No one likes to be deceived. However, the truth of the matter is we are normally deceived in many ways. And consequently, we're also manipulated in many ways. And interestingly, in the Bible, Satan himself is referred to as a deceiver. For instance, in Revelation 20 and verse 10, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." But note, he said, "and the devil that deceived them." And the truth is that there are deceivers on every hand. We must not only be wary, but we must also be vigilant as well. There are many deceivers in the religious realm. In 2 John chapter 1 and verse 7, the Bible says, "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." So anyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, anyone who does not confess the incarnation of Jesus Christ is declared to be a deceiver.

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• Now, deception does not just simply happen in the religious realm. There are many religious deceivers. That is true because they promote error and heresy and licentiousness, but deceit can be found in a multitude of places. Let me give you some scriptures just in general, and I want you to think about these because each one of these happens to be in terms of deceit. And of course, you're going to find that there are a number of things that can deceive us.

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• For instance, Deuteronomy 11 and verse 16, the Bible says, "Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them." But note, he said, "Take heed that your heart be not deceived." And when you get to the book of Obadiah, chapter 1 and verse 3, here, Edom has his nest up on the rock, so to speak. And listen to what the scripture says: "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?" In other words, "No one can destroy me. No one can bring me down." And it's the pride of his heart that deceived him. And of course, God did indeed bring him down. When you get to the book of Romans chapter 7 and verse 11, the apostle Paul said, "For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." So now it's not just the pride of our heart.

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• It's sin that deceives us as well. And then when you get to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9, the apostle Paul says, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" He goes on to say, "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." So he's saying if you believe that someone who commits all of these sins consistently and constantly and continually is a real genuine Christian, he said you're really deceived already. He said, "Be not deceived." This kind of people shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And then when you get to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 33, he says, "Be not deceived."

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• "Evil communications corrupt good manners." So if you think that you can stay around sin, be involved in the fringes of sin and watch sin and think that somehow it's not going to affect you, God says you're deceived, because evil communications corrupt good manners. And of course, everyone knows Galatians 6 and 7, where the Bible says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." So anyone who thinks then that they can sin against God and not suffer the consequences is deceived already.

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• In fact, the truth of the matter is this: each one of us, before our conversion, was deceived. In Titus 3 and verse 3, the Bible says, "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." So let's face it, we were deceived before our conversion. And the sad thing is we can also be deceived after our conversion. We were warned in 2 Timothy 3, verse 13, that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."

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• Now, when you and I think about deceit, we normally think about deceit in a bad light. Usually, evil and wickedness are associated with deceit. However, let me point something out. There is a proper use of deceit, and we're going to consider that just shortly. But deceit may be used for us or deceit may be used against us. Let me say this another way: there is a proper use of deceit and there is an improper use of deceit.

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• So let me give you a definition. This is a dictionary definition, and there are actually two definitions. Here's the first one. Listen carefully: "The act of causing someone to accept as true or valid that which is false and invalid." Well, when you read that definition, obviously that definition, whether it be right or wrong or sinful or not sinful, would depend upon the situation, the circumstances, and probably the intent for it to be determined either right or wrong. But when you get to the second definition, the second definition is this: "The quality of being dishonest or misleading; the quality of being deceitful." Obviously, as Christians, we should eschew, that is, we should spit out dishonesty and deceitfulness.

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• It is not to be in our normal course of walking and conduct. The truth is, however, that deceitfulness—and listen carefully—yes, even dishonesty, sometimes happen to be not only necessary, but proper.

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• Now, there are many instances of deceit in the Bible, and there are many instances of deceit being wicked and wrong. And the very first instance that you and I can come up with happened in the garden of Eden, where the serpent beguiled Eve and she sinned. And when you read 1 Timothy chapter 2, the Bible says very clearly that Eve was deceived. So obviously that is a wicked and bad act of deception. However, there are also instances in the Bible where tyrants were deceived.

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• to prevent more wickedness and rebellion. Now, have you ever considered the fact, or even thought about this, that all warfare is based upon deception? Even hunting is based upon deception. That's why we wear camouflage. We want the deer to think that we're a bush or that we're a tree or that we're something other than what we really truly are. And so camouflage is just simply a means of deception. Military deception refers to an attempt to mislead the enemy forces during warfare.

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• Usually we talk about the fog of war. And usually during the fog of war, there's all types of psychological operations. There's informational warfare where in times past, we dropped leaflets and brochures on our enemies and just trying to use propaganda or even use truth, whatever it may be. But there are always psychological operations. And there's visual deception. All of these happen to be in warfare.

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• Now Sun Tzu, who was a Chinese warrior, in his book, The Art of War, made this statement. Listen carefully. He said, "Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe that we are far away; when we are far away, we must make the enemy believe that we are near." So each one of these tactics that Sun Tzu just expressed is an act of deception.

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• An interesting thing would be this: if you go on the internet and just type in the words "deception in war," you will be amazed at what you will come up with. I have in my library a book and the title is Deception in World War II. Would it surprise you to find out that during World War II that America had inflatable tanks and inflatable airplanes and inflatable buildings? We even had planes and tanks made out of cardboard and plywood. There were fake airfields, there were fake cities, there were fake hospitals, there were fake factories, and a host of other things that were just deceitful. They were just fake is all there was to it.

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• And when we're talking about deceit, have you ever stopped to think about that spies use deceit continually? In fact, all spying is deceitfulness. So if I'm going to spy on Gary, I'm going to pretend to be his friend and I'm going to exact every little bit of information I can out of him and check out everything he has. And what I'm doing is I'm deceiving him. I'm pretending I'm his friend when in reality, I'm not. So all spying is based upon deception. Now, before you begin to think, well, all deceit is wicked and wrong—and I think we could say that all deceit is sin—well, let me answer that by saying no, that not all deceit is wicked and wrong, and not all deceit would be classified as sin. Why?

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• And the answer is because the holy, righteous, sovereign God of heaven and earth has used deceit not only to trick his enemies, but also to defend his prophet and his people. Let me show you. If you would hold Joshua 9, we're going to come back there, but turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 16. 1 Samuel chapter 16. And look, if you would please, at verses 1 and 2. Now, before I read 1 Samuel chapter 16, may I remind you that if you read 1 Samuel 15, you will find that God has rejected King Saul from being king. Saul has disobeyed God. He's refused to do what God commands and God rejects him. And so when you get to 1 Samuel 16, God gives Samuel a mission. And that mission is very simple: you go to Bethlehem and you anoint one of the sons of Jesse, the one that I point out, to be king in the place of Saul. That's a simple mission. So look in 1 Samuel 16 verse 1: "And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?"

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• "Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons." Now, here's the mission. You just go to Bethlehem, and you anoint the man king that I tell you to anoint. Well, look in verse 2: "And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the LORD said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD. And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee." Now, did Samuel take a sacrifice? The answer is yes. Did he offer the sacrifice? The answer is yes. But was the mission to go to Bethlehem and offer sacrifice? No. So offering the sacrifice was a cover because Saul was a tyrant. And so God said, here's what you do: just say, "I'm going to Bethlehem to go to sacrifice to God."

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• And that's exactly what he did. And that's when he got Jesse there and the sons and anointed David to be king in the place of Saul. Let me give you another one. If you will turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 7. 2 Kings chapter 7. And let me just give you the background. Before I read this to you, you could read the context for yourself, but Samaria has been surrounded by Syria. The Syrian soldiers have them all surrounded and people are starving to death inside the walls. So, you read the text, they're even killing and cooking their own children. They're eating dove's dung. They're starving to death. And so if you stayed inside the city, you starved. If you went outside the city, the Syrians murdered you, killed you.

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• So, Elisha's in the city and Elisha says, "By this time tomorrow, the flour is going to be sold for so much and wheat will be sold for so much." And one man said, "How in the world can this be? If the LORD opened the doors and the windows of heaven, could that be possible?" And Elisha said, "Well, you'll see it, but you'll not eat of it." And of course, the man was trampled to death when it really happened. But I want you to see what God did to get rid of the Syrians. Notice if you would.

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• 2 Kings 7, beginning there with verse 6, the Bible says—in fact, let's read verse 5—"And they"—that is, the lepers, the four lepers—"and they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there." Well, what had happened? "For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their lives."

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• Now let me ask you a question. Was that deceit? Of course it was. God just simply caused them to hear noises like the noise of a great army, like the noise of chariots. And they said, "Oh no, oh no. The king of Israel has hired the Egyptians and hired the Hittites and they're coming. We got to get out of here." And that's exactly what they did. And so God used deception to scare off the Syrian forces.

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• Now, let me give you another clear example. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 22. And before I read this, I want to give you the background. In 1 Kings chapter 22, we're going to be reading about King Jehoshaphat from Judah goes to Samaria to visit King Ahab. Ahab was a wicked ungodly pervert. And so Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, he says, "Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?" And Jehoshaphat, I think wickedly, wrongly answered and said, "My people are thy people, and my horses are thy horses." In other words, we're one with you when in reality we're not, because Jehoshaphat was basically a good man.

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• He was just stupid at this particular point. And so when Jehoshaphat agreed to go with Ahab, then Ahab calls in all of his false prophets, and they're all saying, "Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper: the LORD hath delivered it into your hands." And they're just prophesying one right after the other. And Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides? I don't listen to these false prophets. I want one of God's prophets." Ahab said, "Yeah, I got one, but I hate him. I despise him."

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• And by the way, he's locked up in prison, but he said, "Since you've wanted him, I'll get him out for you." So let's begin looking at it. Here you have it in 1 Kings chapter 22. And let's begin reading there with verse 13. So the messenger goes to get Micaiah, watch verse 13: "And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets"—remember, these are false prophets—"declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?"

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• I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and heard the sarcasm in Micaiah's voice at this particular point. And Ahab understood it because he answered and said, "Go and prosper, and the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king." Ahab knew he was mocking him because, verse 16, "And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD?" Hmm. Now, let me tell you what Micaiah basically answered: "You want the truth, Ahab? You can't handle the truth."

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• But I'm going to give it to you. So watch verse 17: "And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets."

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• "And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee. But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself."

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• Now note, if you would please, here's something that I find extremely interesting. God sent a lying spirit in the mouth of all these false prophets. Ahab was deceived by his false prophets. And the interesting and the amazing thing is he continued to be deceived. Even when Micaiah said, "You're deceived. These prophets are lying to you. Here's what has happened." And he continued in his deception. I'm going to tell you something. A lot of people had rather be deceived than hear the truth. When you begin to think about deception and you begin to search for it in the Bible, there are so many instances. Abraham deceived Abimelech, the king of Gerar, Genesis chapter 20. Isaac deceived Abimelech, the king of the Philistines in Genesis 26. Jacob deceived his father in Genesis 27. Laban deceived Jacob in Genesis 31. Shiphrah and Puah deceived Pharaoh in Exodus chapter 1. Rahab deceived her king in Joshua chapter 2. Michal, Saul's daughter, deceived her father Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 19. Ziba, the servant, deceived Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 19.

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• Deception is all through the Bible. It has played a part in the lives of the saints down through history. Some of it was wicked. Some of it was not wicked. Some was necessary, some happens not to be necessary. You will find when deception is used, especially on tyrants and wicked individuals, usually it is used to preserve life.

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• Now, let me explain something. It's probably been years since you've heard me say this, but I've taught this any number of times in several different messages. There is a principle in scripture that we need to understand. And that principle is very simple: you do not owe the truth to someone who's going to abuse the truth. You do not owe the truth to someone who's going to violate the word of God. Yes, we should be men of our word. Yes, we should be men of integrity and men of character. And yes, we should speak the truth in love. Yes, we should be known for our honesty and our integrity. However, I do not owe the truth to anyone who is going to be violating the word of God.

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• So here's a good illustration. Suppose your neighbor and you get into an argument. I mean, it's a violent argument. I mean, you really, really lose it. And you're cussing each other out. And your neighbor threatens you. He says, "What I will do is I'll just get my gun and I'll come back and I'll blow your brains out." And you think he's just blowing off steam. And he turns around and goes back to the house. And you get to thinking about it and you think, "Well, you know, he might have been serious."

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• "Maybe I need to go somewhere till he cools down." And you call me and you say, "Pastor, could I hide out at your place for a day or two till my neighbor cools down?" "Yeah, I'll let you stay here." And then you asked me, "Well, would you go to my house and check on my furniture and my things there? I don't want this man to burn it down." I said, "Sure, I'll go check on it for you." And I go check on it. And as I go get there, here comes a neighbor storming over with a shotgun. And he's looking at me and said, "Where is that man?"

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• "I'm gonna blow his brain out." At that point, would you prefer me to say, "I cannot tell a lie. He's hiding at my house in the third bedroom in the closet"? Or would you prefer me to say, "Peace, man. I don't know. All I saw him do was get out of town yesterday. I don't know where he is." Now, when you say, "Well, I'll just tell the truth and let God work it out." Well, what if the man went there and found you and blew your brains out? Now, I just told the truth.

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• I am now an accomplice to murder because I pointed out where you were. Here I am walking down the street and a man steps out from a corner and puts a pistol in my face and says, "Give me all your money." And I pull out two $1 Federal Reserve notes out of my pocket and say, "Here it is." And he looks at me and says, "Is that all you got?" I'm not going to stand there and say, "I cannot tell a lie."

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• "There's $600 hidden in my right shoe." If I said that I'm helping him violate the law of God. I'm going to say, "You got it, buddy. That's all I've got. Sorry." I do not owe the truth to someone who is going to abuse the truth.

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• Now, our Lord gave us a warning in Luke chapter 21 and verse 8, when he said this—now listen carefully—"Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them."

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• Now it is true that there are many false Christs in the world today. In fact, the Bible tells us—we read it earlier in 2 John—there are many false Christs. There are many deceivers who say that Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh. And there are some men today who claim to be Christ, who claim to be the Messiah. No, our Lord says, if you follow them, you are deceived.

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• But we also need to take heed that we may not be deceived in a lot of other areas as well. By the way, I want you to understand something. Most Christians in reality are deceived. We're deceived in so many different ways. It is almost unimaginable. For instance, let me give you a couple of areas. We are deceived when it comes to money. The average Christian believes that fiat money created out of thin air and manifested in paper is real, genuine money. It is not. It is debt. It is a note. It is a note to pay. But to pay in what?

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• We no longer have it backed by silver or gold. Now, money in the Bible is by weight. Money historically, not only in the Bible, but constitutionally, is by weight. If I were to ask you, "What is a dollar?" someone would reach over, pull out a paper, says, "Here it says one dollar." No, that's not a dollar. You know what a dollar is? A dollar is a unit of measurement.

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• It's like a quart or a half gallon or a gallon. You don't go into a store and say, "I want a quart." No, you will say, "I want a quart of milk" or "I want a quart of juice." In other words, the quart is just the unit of measurement. You have to tell what you want. So a dollar is like a gallon or a half gallon or a quart. It's also like an inch or a foot or a yard. It is a unit of measurement.

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• So let me give it to you. Here it is historically, legally. The Coinage Act of 1792 created and defined what a dollar is. Listen carefully. The act established or defined the dollar as a weight of silver, 371.25 grains of fine silver. So a dollar then is 371 and a quarter grains of silver. Listen to this. The act went on and regulated the value of gold coins to silver as 15 to 1 ratio. So it would take 15 grains of silver to equal one grain of gold. The regulation also included establishing the purity of these coins. So the Coinage Act gave us three gold coins: the eagle, the half eagle, and the quarter eagle. It also gave us five silver coins: the dollar, the half dollar, the quarter, the dime, and the nickel, and two copper coins: the one cent and the half cent. And I have an old half cent coin in the house. They went out years and years ago. But this Coinage Act of 1792 also said that any citizen could take their own silver and gold, which they dug, which they found, take it to the mint and the mint would coin it for them without charge.

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• Isn't that amazing? Interestingly, there is a punishment attached in the Coinage Act of 1792 if anyone debased the silver or the gold coins. The punishment was death. Isn't that amazing? In other words, you look at all the politicians today that are guilty of treason and guilty of debasing. And by the way, the Coinage Act has never, ever been repealed. It is still law. And the punishment was death.

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• So we can answer the question, "What is a dollar?" A dollar is 371 and a quarter grains of pure silver. It is a unit of weight. It is a measurement. A dollar is a measurement of 371 and a quarter grains of pure silver. Now, so, most Christians are deceived when it comes to economics, when it comes to money. Most Christians are deceived when it comes to debt. Look how often we run down to the bank and borrow money.

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• And you know, the Bible says in Proverbs 22 and verse 7, "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." And the word "borrower" there happens to be the Hebrew word ebed, which literally means a slave or a bond slave or a bond servant. So if I go down to the bank and I borrow 10,000 Federal Reserve notes, which I really don't borrow 10,000 Federal Reserve notes, what I get is 10,000 electronic digits put into my account. Okay?

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• Now then, I am their slave because I now have to work for them until I pay back those electronic digits plus interest in some kind of fiat currency, which they didn't give me to begin with. Okay. I'm just saying we don't understand that debt is indeed slavery. And so we are deceived in many ways, not just in money and not just in debt, but just stop and think about this. Propaganda is deception. Controlled news media is deception. Politics is deception. False religion is deception. Drugs are deception. Medical treatment of symptoms instead of the cause is deception. Sin is deception.

  #54 | 38:01 to 38:48 | cleaned

• And the truth of the matter is we often deceive ourselves simply because we do not want to believe the truth. Neither do we want to accept personal responsibility. It is easier oftentimes and more comforting to believe a lie than it is to believe the truth and accept it. What is it that Jeremiah 17 verse 9 say? Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

  #55 | 38:49 to 39:20 | cleaned

• So you have to understand the deception is rampant, even in our day and time. Now, what I want you to do is this: I want you to go back to Joshua chapter 9. I have not forgotten that, but what I want you to see is this: I want you to allow me to show you some truths concerning deception, and hopefully we can see how easily we are deceived and maybe how we can avoid being deceived in the future. Notice if you would, in Joshua chapter 9, verse 4, particularly, notice the Bible said, "They did work wilily."

  #56 | 39:21 to 39:56 | cleaned

• "and went and made as if they had been ambassadors." Now the word "wilily" there is the Hebrew word orma and it refers to deceit, to guile, to subtlety, to shrewdness, to craftiness, to treachery and beguilement. If you look in verse 22, you'll see the same word translated as "beguiled." "And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us?" So the word "beguiled" and the word "wilily" are the same word. Now, here's my question. What are we to learn from this incident in Joshua chapter 9?

  #57 | 39:57 to 40:42 | cleaned

• First of all, number one, we must grasp the fact that things are not always as they appear. Let me say that again. Things are not always as they appear. Look, if you would, in verses 4 and 5: "And they did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up, and old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them."

  #58 | 40:42 to 41:12 | cleaned

• "And all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy." Now skip down to verses 12 and 13: "This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is moldy: and these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent."

  #59 | 41:13 to 41:33 | cleaned

• "And these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey." So the Gibeonites then appeared to be ambassadors. They acted like ambassadors. They even said they were ambassadors. For instance, in verse 11, they said, "Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants." They were sent, they were ambassadors. Their bread not only appeared moldy, it was moldy. Their wine bottles not only appeared rent, they were rent. Their shoes, their clothes were rotten and falling apart. They not only appeared that, they were.

  #60 | 41:33 to 42:13 | cleaned

• Let me say this again. We must learn that appearances can be deceitful. Things are not what they always appear to be. Our Lord said in John 7 and verse 24, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." Most people judge by appearance. If you and I judge the Pharisees by appearance, they would have been very, very good and godly people. Because by appearance, they prayed all the time. They didn't pray publicly.

  #61 | 42:15 to 43:02 | cleaned

• They gave tithes of everything they possessed. I mean, they were never late for a service, for a synagogue meeting. They were there. And yet our Lord said in Matthew 23, verse 27, 28, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." So the outside was very beautiful when it comes to a Pharisee, but the inside was very wicked. So they may have appeared righteous, but our Lord says, "No, they're corrupt. They're rotten. They're filthy."

  #62 | 43:03 to 43:50 | cleaned

• And so this is what the Israelites did when they saw these Gibeonites. They just simply judged everything by appearance. It appeared to be true. No, they did not investigate. They had no verification of their story or their testimony. Are you listening to this? They were deceived by their own eyes. I have been in a multitude of counseling sessions and I have heard people say repeatedly, "But I know what I saw." Not really. Because your eyes can deceive you. For instance, suppose, suppose you drove down the street and you saw me with a pistol drawn, pointing it at a man's chest. And the man is standing there with his hands up and you drive down the street and you just see me pointing my pistol at him. He's got his hands up and you say, "Oh no. Brother Weaver is robbing that man."

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• And you call the cops to come out there. And you're just absolutely assured in your mind that I'm a thief and I'm robbing that man. What you didn't see was earlier, I'd come upon this man beating his wife. She was bloody. She was bruised. She was broken. I broke it up. She ran into the house to call an ambulance and to call the cops. And all I'm doing is holding him till the cops get there. So just because you see me with a pistol pointing at someone and his hands up, doesn't mean I'm robbing him. If you judge simply by appearance, then, you know, I'm certainly guilty. I'm just simply saying you cannot, you cannot oftentimes believe your own eyes.

  #64 | 45:08 to 45:51 | cleaned

• Years ago, I read about a pastor who almost lost his ministry based upon appearance. He was driving down the street and his car engine died. And so he drifted over to the side of the road and parked in front of a house. Unbeknown to him, the house belonged to a well-known prostitute in that area. His car was there overnight. The church gossiper drove down and saw the pastor's car sitting in front of the prostitute's house. And then she began to tell how the pastor had spent the night with the prostitute. The next morning, the pastor came with a mechanic, got the car fixed and drove it.

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• On Sunday, he found out what had been circulating. So on Sunday night, after the church service was over, he drove his car and parked it in front of the church gossiper's house and left it there overnight.

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• Now, if you're going to judge by appearance, the church gossiper was no better than the prostitute there that she was accusing him of being with. So I'm just simply saying appearances can be deceiving. And here Joshua and all these elders were deceived by appearances. Do not judge by appearance. Here's the second thing. We must be aware of those that will not give us a straight answer and especially to easy questions.

  #67 | 47:16 to 47:48 | cleaned

• Look in your Bibles, verses 8 and 9. Joshua 9, verse 8: "And they said unto Joshua"—well, let's go back in verse 7—"And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you? And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come." Watch this, "from a very far country." Listen, Joshua just asked two very simple, straightforward questions. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

  #68 | 47:48 to 48:29 | cleaned

• That's all I want to know. These two questions would have been very easily answered, but they evaded the answer. They were very evasive. They did not say who they were. Neither did they say from where they came. They simply said, "We are from a very far country." Okay, fine. Name the country. Tell me the country you're from. Give me a town in that country. Give me a city in that country. Give me a geographical location.

  #69 | 48:30 to 49:03 | cleaned

• No, they did nothing like that. When you cannot get a straight answer from someone based on a very simple question, you better beware. Honest men will answer honestly. If you answer honestly, fine. But if you evade a very simple question and refuse to answer it, I know that something is wrong somewhere. And when you refuse to answer a very simple and straightforward question, I must conclude that there must be an evil motive in you.

  #70 | 49:03 to 49:46 | cleaned

• You're seeking to deceive me and manipulate me or control me in some particular area. So you cannot judge by appearances and you have to be aware of individuals who will not give you a straight answer.

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• Thirdly, I want you to look at verses 9 and 10. You have to also be aware when one is using religion or theology to influence or persuade you. Look in verses 9 and 10: "And they said unto him"—he asked, "Who are you? From whence come ye?"—"And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan."

  #72 | 50:01 to 50:32 | cleaned

• "To Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth." Wait a minute now. "We were from a very, very far country. We heard what God did to the Egyptians." Well, heck, you could have heard that. That was 40 years ago. But wait a minute. They came to Gilgal. This was the first place that Joshua and Israel crossed. They had just defeated Sihon and Og just before they crossed over Jordan. Now these people were from a very, very, very, very, very far country.

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• How did they hear so quickly? They knew about Og and Sihon.

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• Now here's what is happening. Joshua asked, "Who are you? So where did you come from?" "Oh, we're from a far country. And the reason we're here is because of the name and the fame of God. I mean, we have heard about this God. He is so good. He is so great. He is so wonderful. And now we want to come so that we can be in league with you and we can worship this God as well." And so they are pretending now that they have undertaken this journey on a religious account and that they had the highest respect for God, and they really wanted to serve him.

  #75 | 51:22 to 52:08 | cleaned

• Listen to me very carefully. All of this is hypocrisy. They were hypocrites. I'm going to show it to you in just a moment. Now, it is true. One thing that they said: "We've heard the fame of him." They knew what God had done to the Egyptians. They knew what God had done to the Amorites. They certainly knew the fame of God in that sense of the word.

  #76 | 52:09 to 52:37 | cleaned

• But the real truth of the matter is this: they did not come out of respect for God. They came because they did not want to die. If you look down to verse 24: "And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the LORD thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you."

  #77 | 52:37 to 53:10 | cleaned

• "Therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing." Do you see what I'm saying? Here they came, giving a religious pitch. And they were not interested in the one true living God. They were only interested in saving their lives. Let me tell you what we're to learn. We're to learn to examine men by their walk and not their talk. We're to learn to look at their lives and not simply listen to their words.

  #78 | 53:10 to 53:47 | cleaned

• Our Lord said it very plainly. Listen carefully. "By their fruit, you shall know them." And there's a vast difference between fruit and words. So we must be aware when people try to use religion. I've been preaching for 57 years. I could tell you so many stories, it would make your ears burn. But people who tried to use religion to get something, especially around Thanksgiving, Christmas time, it's like they all come out of the woodwork from somewhere. I'm just saying that's exactly what these people did right here.

  #79 | 53:48 to 54:36 | cleaned

• Now, let me ask you a question. Where did Joshua and the elders fail? And the answer is, Joshua and the elders failed exactly where you and I fail most of the time. Look if you would beginning at verse 12. Watch carefully. "This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is moldy: and these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent."

  #80 | 54:37 to 55:17 | cleaned

• "And these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey." Now watch carefully. "And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD." Okay, I know what I see. This has got to be true. I mean, look at the food. Look at the wine bottles. Look at the clothes. Look at the shoes. And now they're saying they're coming just because they want to worship the one true, the living God. They judged everything by appearance, and they did not seek counsel from the mouth of the Lord.

  #81 | 55:18 to 56:05 | cleaned

• May I remind you of a passage in scripture? Proverbs 3, verses 5 through 7: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil." So Joshua and the elders sought not counsel of the Lord, which means they were wise in their own eyes. They judged by appearance and they did not seek counsel of the Lord. We must learn to seek counsel of the Lord at his mouth, his law, his truth, his counsel and we cannot be governed by appearance or by our puny finite understanding.

  #82 | 56:06 to 57:09 | cleaned

• Have you ever stopped to think about this? God is the only being that cannot be deceived. He's omniscient. He knows everything. You can't deceive him. That's why I tell people when it comes to prayer, you might as well be honest with God. He already knows anyhow. You might as well tell him up front, "Lord, I'm as cold as a cucumber. I don't feel like praying. Lord, unless you warm my heart, I, you know, I don't know what I'm going to do." He already knows.

  #83 | 57:10 to 57:43 | cleaned

• Now let me try to make an application. I want you to listen to this. I think this is the main truth that we're to bring from this passage and apply it to our lives. We must learn the absolute need for God's guidance in every area, in every circumstance, and in every situation. You see, here's what happened in the wilderness. You have to remember in the wilderness, they had the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Wow.

  #84 | 57:43 to 58:15 | cleaned

• All you gotta do is look up. There it is. Easy to follow God when you've got a visible verification.

  #85 | 58:16 to 58:23 | cleaned

• Now they're in the promised land. They no longer have the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, but they do have his law. They do have him. They do have the priesthood, but nobody sought the Lord. So the truth of the matter is this: we need to have God's counsel in our lives. We cannot trust our judgment. One said, truthfully, everyone complains of his memory, but no one complains of his judgment. We think our judgment somehow is infallible. These people were deceived.

  #86 | 58:25 to 59:10 | cleaned

• Let me tell you something. If you think that you cannot be deceived, you already are deceived. If you think that you cannot be deceived, you are already deceived. It's just that simple. Now think about this, if you would, please. Giving false information is a form of deceit. But withholding factual information is also a means of deceit. I can deceive you by lying to you. But I could also deceive you by withholding truth from you.

  #87 | 59:10 to 59:50 | cleaned

• Deception is always for manipulation or control. Why would I try to deceive Joshua? So that I can manipulate him, so that I can control him, so I can get from him whatever I wanted to get from him. It's always manipulation. It's always control. Why did these Gibeonites deceive the Israelites? Because they wanted to live. They wanted to have a league. They wanted their will. They wanted their way.

  #88 | 59:53 to 1:00:25 | cleaned

• And they didn't want to die, which is understandable. But here's the other thing. We can only be saved from deception by God and his word. We need to learn the word of God, and we need to learn to think biblically and scripturally. We are being bombarded on every hand in newspapers. By the way, I hope you know what Will Rogers said. Will Rogers said, "If you do not read the newspapers, you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." That's the truth. And that's the truth with TV. That's the truth with a lot of radio. That's the truth about everything that we hear. The only thing that's going to save us from being deceived is the word of God and the principles that he's revealed. We need to learn that word and we need to live by those principles. Deception is always for manipulation and control. As our Lord said, "Be not deceived. Take heed to thyself that thou be not deceived."

  #89 | 1:00:28 to 1:01:51 | cleaned

• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. We thank you, Lord, that thou art omniscient. Thou art the only being who can never be deceived. And so, Lord, we ask that you open our minds and our understanding and give us, Lord, grace to bow to thee, to learn thy truth and to apply it to our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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• you you you

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:07:18Z