Compromise While On The Way Series

For the last several weeks, I have been preaching out of Joshua a series of messages on “Receiving Your Inheritance.” During this series of messages, God has given me several positive ones, such as “Pulling Down Strongholds” and “The Faithfulness of God”. However there are several messages that I guess you could consider as negative, since they serve more as warning than anything else. Last week’s message, “The Danger of Hidden Sin” was such a one. Today’s message will also serve as a warning as well. If there is one thing that hurts the church today, probably more than anything else, it is compromise. Now I want to make something clear, in the area of relationship, compromise is valuable. It is impossible to have a good relationship with another person without somewhere and somehow compromising. Relationships won’t last long if you are not willing to reach compromises. However, in the subject of warfare, compromise is deadly. In relationships, you usually have two people that share similar goals, but maybe just disagree on how to reach them. In warfare, goals and attitudes are extremely different and compromise rarely settles anything. Essentially, the United States reached a compromise in the Vietnam War and in reality, nothing was settled. For the Christian life, compromise is also deadly. For the child of God, Satan loves for you to compromise because by doing so, he gains inroads into your life. One of the things that I heard Doug Small say during camp meeting was that if Satan has an area of your life, if he has gained an inroad, if he has a place, then he is going to keep coming back again and again to view his property. This is why the Bible says in Ephesians 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.

Here is a little story that shows how dangerous compromise is. Winter was coming on and a hunter went out into the forest to shoot a bear out of which he planned to make a warm coat. By and by he saw a bear coming toward him and raised his gun and took aim.

“Wait,” said the bear, “why do you want to shoot me?” “Because I am cold,” said the hunter. “But I am hungry,” the bear replied, “so maybe we can reach an agreement, or a compromise.” In the end, the hunter was well enveloped with the bear’s fur and the bear had eaten his dinner. We always lose out when we try to compromise with the devil and sin. It will consume us in the end.

Here in Joshua chapter 9, Joshua and the Israelites reached a compromise with the Gibeonites. We are told that the Canaanites were gathering together for the purpose of war, but the inhabitants of Gibeon decided to work deceitfully for their survival and deceived Joshua and the children of Israel into ensnaring them and causing them to disobey the full commands of God as He had given them to Joshua concerning the receiving of the inheritance which God had promised to them. They were to totally destroy the inhabitants of Canaan, not to enter into a league (compromise) with them. I want to share with you this morning, three lessons from this text that we need to remember when (not if) you are tempted to compromise with the enemy.

I. BE AWARE OF THE ENEMY’S HOSTILITY.

1. Remember what I told you regarding the different regarding compromise in relationships and in warfare. As a believer, you must remember that you are not to have a relationship with the devil nor with sin.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

2. Remember that Joshua and Israel have now entered the promised land. They were standing on the land that God Himself had promised them. However, even though they had entered into it, there were still enemies that were all around them.

A. See the Enemy’s Power

3. Note verse one. The Bible says here that all of the kings who were on this side of Jordan heard of what happened to Jericho, then they gathered together with a single purpose.

4. What I want you to see is that this wasn’t just one or two, here reference is made to many kings coming against the people of God. The kings that ruled the cities in the mountains, the kings that ruled the cities in the valleys, and even the kings that were completely on the other side of Canaan, by the coasts of the sea, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, are all coming together. We are not told of an exact number but there were many. Here in Canaan, each city essentially had their own king, so what we are seeing is all the cities of Canaan banding together against God’s people. They had heard of what God had done at Jericho. They knew that they were dealing with a powerful foe, they knew that one by one they could not stand against the Israelites, they were scared so they joined forces. They were desperate for they knew that their time was short.