Joshua 7 (The Reality of Sin- John Lasken)

Cornerstone Church

1 view

October 4, 2020

The Reality of Sin Joshua 7 John Lasken

00:19: Okay, good morning everyone. I hope you can hear me. We're going to start off with our announcements first, a prayer, and then we're going to begin to sing and worship.
00:28: So I'm just going to do one announcement tonight. We are bringing Andrew Rappaport this evening.
00:33: He's going to be a guest speaker and he's going to be talking about the topic of dispensationalism versus covenant theology and we hope that you can make it here tonight at six o 'clock.
00:44: And then he'll be back again next week to continue that discussion. So let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this day.
00:52: We thank you that we could come into this building and worship you. Lord, we just ask that you bless this time as we enter into singing your praises,
01:01: Lord. We ask that this be honoring to you. And then Lord, as Pastor John comes to share your word, we ask that you use him in a mighty way as he shares from the book of Joshua today.
01:11: And we ask this in your son's name. Amen. If you can stand with me. Sing three songs together to prepare our hearts for communion.
01:36: He is worthy to be praised. Beautiful beyond our highest thought.
02:03: Worthy, he is worthy. Holy, holy is the word made flesh.
02:15: King who bore pain and poverty. Come to claim the rebel and the worthy.
02:30: He is worthy. All glory and honor, all power and praise.
02:40: Be to your name, be to your name.
02:46: For no one could rival your glory and fame.
02:53: We lift high the name of Jesus. Be to your name, to your name.
03:57: We lift high the name of Jesus. Worthy is your name.
04:17: Holy, holy, none beside you.
04:24: Greatly to be praised. Holy, holy,
04:34: Lord Almighty. Worthy is your name.
04:43: Holy, holy, none beside you.
04:49: Greatly to be praised.
04:54: All glory and honor, all power and praise.
05:01: Be to your name, be to your name.
05:07: For no one could rival your glory and fame.
05:13: We lift high the name of Jesus.
05:19: No one could rival your glory and fame.
05:25: We lift high the name of Jesus.
05:33: Holy, holy, Lord Almighty.
05:40: Worthy is your name. Holy, holy, none beside you.
05:52: Greatly to be praised. You, you are my king.
06:12: Jesus, you are my king.
06:19: Jesus, you are my king.
06:27: I'm forgiven because you were forsaken. I'm accepted.
06:37: You were condemned. I'm alive and well.
06:43: Your spirit is within me because you died and rose again.
06:51: Amazing love. Amazing love. How can it be that you, my king, would die for me?
07:07: Amazing love. I know it's true.
07:14: And it's my joy to honor you in all
07:19: I do. I honor you. I'm forgiven.
07:27: I'm forgiven because you were forsaken.
07:35: I'm accepted. You were condemned. I'm alive and well.
07:44: Your spirit is within me because you died and rose again.
07:54: Amazing love. How can it be that you, my king, would die for me?
08:07: Amazing love. I know it's true.
08:14: And it's my joy to honor you in all
08:20: I do. I honor you in all
08:26: I do. I honor you in all
08:33: I do. I honor you.
08:54: I cannot compare to the glory of your love. There is no shadow in your presence before the holy blood.
09:23: And it's only through your mercy, Lord, I come.
09:31: I bring an offering of worship to my king.
09:37: No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing.
09:44: Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due.
09:51: Oh, Lord, I bring an offering to you.
10:03: Let's sing that again. The sun cannot compare. The sun cannot compare to the glory of your love.
10:16: There is no shadow in your presence. No mortal man would dare to stand before your throne before the holy one of heaven.
10:36: It's only by your blood and it's only through your mercy,
10:43: Lord, I come. I bring an offering of worship to my king.
10:53: No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing.
10:59: Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due.
11:07: Oh, Lord, I bring an offering to you. Oh, Lord, I bring an offering to you.
11:27: Where I receive from the
11:35: Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
11:49: Do this in remembrance of me. The same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
11:58: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
12:06: Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the
12:12: Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
12:22: For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
12:29: That's why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
12:38: But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
12:45: I wanted to point out a few things from the scripture this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
12:52: There is a proclamation with the gospel with this, the cup and the bread.
12:58: We proclaim to all that Jesus has died, that he rose again, that he defeated death.
13:05: And as we do that, we do it with great joy. We do it with great humility because we realize what he has done for us.
13:15: We realize that he suffered and was beaten and was called all kinds of names and yet he endured that because he knew what the end was.
13:26: He knew the goal. He knew that he was to win us over, to redeem us from the pit, to reconcile us to the
13:35: Father. That is that process of bringing us into relationship with the Father. So as you consider the elements this morning, consider a proclamation in a very visible way.
13:47: The second thing that we see here is that we're doing this, we're commanded to do it until he comes, until the great day of the
13:54: Lord. And that should give to us some hope and a reminder that Jesus is coming back.
14:00: And when he comes back, he's going to restore all things, that he's going to make a way, make us now complete in him and that we will have the final freedom that we all desire, rescued from sin.
14:16: He has rescued us in the past tense, but then the future as we are restored to him in glory.
14:23: So we want to do that and proclaim his death, burial, and resurrection until he comes.
14:29: The third thing that we can see is that we need to examine ourselves. And 1 John 1 9 says that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
14:41: And so as Christians, we want to be able to come to the Lord and confess to him and examine ourselves and say,
14:48: God, I've fallen short in so many ways. Because all of us realize that we're not perfect and we sin.
14:55: We sin often. And this practice of confession, this practice is a healthy thing.
15:01: So I invite you, if you're a Christian, that this is for you to take of these elements and do so in a manner worthy of the
15:09: Lord. Just do so as you examine your heart, as you examine your sin and just confess it to the
15:16: Lord. If you don't know Jesus, this is your opportunity to get right with God, to turn from your sin, to repent and believe in the one and only son,
15:25: Jesus Christ. So I invite you to do that. But first, let's take a minute now and just confess your sins before the
15:32: Lord and then I'll pray and we'll partake. Our Father, we thank you for your grace toward us, forgiveness of sin, past, present and future, that you've made us a new creation in Christ.
16:40: And so we are grateful and humbled by your love for us. We consider the elements before us.
16:49: We proclaim, Jesus, your death, burial and resurrection until you come.
16:55: And we give you thanks for the mighty work that you accomplished on the cross to redeem and restore us to you,
17:02: God. We thank you for all these things. In Jesus' name, amen.
17:08: So if you have one, this is how it works. Peel off the top layer is a little plastic film and then you'll get to the element of the bread here.
17:18: Don't peel the whole thing, you'll get right to the juice. So just the top layer, you could hold up the elements here and we'll take these together.
17:26: This is the body of the Lord that was broken for you and take and eat in remembrance of him,
17:32: Jesus. As you take the juice here, you just peel off the top again and I want to remind you of what this represents, this new covenant that we have in Jesus, that he has made the way, that he has torn the veil from the top to the bottom, that we didn't have access to God, access to the
18:02: Holy of Holies and we can find mercy and grace in our time of need. So this new covenant is really that new relationship that we have with God.
18:10: We don't need a priest, we go right through Jesus to the Father and we have fellowship with him.
18:16: So as you take this juice, be reminded and be grateful of this new covenant that you enjoy today in Jesus' name.
18:24: So take and drink this and the blood of Jesus poured out for us. Amen. Good morning.
18:46: One of the opportunities I get when I'm able to be in the pulpit, I love scripture.
18:53: I love to be able to just talk about scripture and I love to see the truth of scripture and I like scripture to speak to me where it is.
19:02: I've been working for a while now in a series in Joshua and so today we're in Joshua 7.
19:10: Now at first blush if you were to read it, it can seem somewhat heavy. I was talking with somebody after the first service and they had mentioned they read
19:22: Joshua 7 in anticipation and said, what's he going to do with this?
19:30: John 1 12, but as many as receive him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on his name.
19:41: We, my brothers and sisters who have turned to Christ, are the children of God.
19:49: There are so many blessings that come with that. The moment of accepting him, the moment of becoming his child is one of the most amazing transformations life could ever bring.
20:00: We get to experience blessings such as becoming a new creation. Who we were is replaced by who
20:07: God chooses for us. We are now capable of doing things that please
20:13: God. As a new creation, we experience forgiveness. Those times that we stumble, those times that we fall, we get to experience real forgiveness that comes from the throne of God.
20:27: We get the Holy Spirit. In the upper room, Jesus taught his followers that he was about to leave, but be glad because when
20:36: I leave, I will send another. And so we have the Holy Spirit that lives within us, that opens our eyes to things that pure people cannot experience, and we get to pray real prayer.
20:49: We get to actually talk to Yahweh. We actually get to approach the throne.
20:57: We get to talk to him. We get to call him Abba, Father, and our prayers are not just recitations.
21:03: They are true communication with God, and we get his word.
21:10: And we get his word in a way that we can read it, and we can understand it, and we can grow through it.
21:16: The word has given us for several reasons. First of all, it's God's very word. We get that from 1
21:22: Timothy 3, 16. We learn about God by reading the scriptures.
21:29: We get that from John 5, 39, and we learn about ourselves. We get that from Hebrews 4, 12.
21:36: It searches the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Scripture teaches us how we should grow to be what we should be, and we get that from 1
21:47: Timothy 3, 16 and 17. And so we get the chance to go to the scripture, and I encourage you as you go there to spend time doing it.
21:57: To don't just pass by it, but to spend time, and as you do it, pray that God would open your eyes of your heart, that you could see it, and that you can consider what
22:06: God's truth is for you. Meditate on it, and let it get into your heart, not just thoughts, into your mind.
22:17: There are passages that as you read, they don't seem on the surface something that's, they're difficult, and Joshua 7 could be one of those.
22:28: So you spend time reading it, meditating it, asking the Lord to open his truths to you, but then you go beyond that into the context of the book that you're studying, and it may give you more insight about what this passage is really teaching you, and then you can step even bigger and look at the entirety of scripture called the meta -narrative.
22:51: That's how I like that big word, meta -narrative, and see where it fits into his big picture.
22:56: You can take time studying it and getting a better insight into it. Psalms are a book within the scriptures that presents so much beauty to it.
23:08: There are themes like worship, celebration, lament, confession, surrender.
23:18: Within the Psalms, Psalm 38 is a Psalm of David. Now David, as we know, had some serious problem with sin in his life, and so in Psalm 38, he actually professes this problem.
23:35: Let me read some verses coming out of Psalm 38. Verse 4, for my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden.
23:43: They're too heavy for me. Psalm 6, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate.
23:49: All the day I go about mourning. Psalm 8,
23:54: I am feeble and crushed. I groan because of the tumult of my heart.
24:01: And as you read those within Psalm 38, it feels heavy. You feel the heaviness of the sin that David confesses, but there's a bigger picture.
24:11: Even within Psalm 38, verse 9, O Lord, all my longing is before you.
24:18: My sighing is not hidden from you. Verse 18, I confess my iniquity.
24:25: I am sorry for my sin. Verses 21 and 22, do not forsake me,
24:32: O Lord. Oh my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me,
24:37: O Lord, my salvation. You see, within Psalm 38, there is a picture of acknowledging sin, taking responsibility for sin, but yet surrendering that sin to God and seeking after his cleansing, placing reliance on God.
24:56: And then if you put this within the metanarrative of Scripture, in the beginning in Genesis 1, God created the world.
25:03: And as he created, he looked and it was good. And as he created man, he said, and it was very good made in the image and likeness of God.
25:10: And if you go to the very end in Revelation 22, verse 20, he says, yes,
25:16: I am coming again. But in the middle is the picture of sin, of man's rebellion.
25:22: But it's also the picture of God's love, of his sovereignty, and of his calling, and of his providing, and of salvation.
25:34: Psalm 38 is a picture that talks about, we have all sinned.
25:40: It's a thought, it talks about man is in need of a justification, and it comes as a gift.
25:46: I am a sinner. I am in need of help.
25:53: I am incapable of fixing it myself, but I am in his sovereign hand.
26:02: This prepares us now to go into Joshua 7 with eyes that see a bigger picture. In Joshua 7 is the message of the sin of Joshua, and the sin of Achan, and the sin of the people.
26:15: There is the picture of God's judgment. There is the picture of consequences. But within the picture of Joshua, there is
26:24: God's provision, and his power, and his sovereignty. We see Israel conquesting, making battle, having victories, but failing, and needing help.
26:36: And we have the picture of God's holiness, and his judgment, but yet his mercy, and his faithfulness to the covenant.
26:45: So far in Joshua, we've seen the following. In chapter one, the nation is encamped in Shittim on the east side of the river, and God places
26:57: Joshua in charge in the place of Moses. And he says, be strong in the
27:02: Lord. In Joshua 2, spies are sent from the camp across the river to Jericho, the first obstacle that they're going to face.
27:12: And these spies go into the city, and they end up in the house, the home of Rahab, the harlot.
27:19: Now if I were writing a story, I don't know who that's who I would have chosen, but they're there. And what does she tell them?
27:26: The people in the land, their hearts have melted, because they have heard what
27:32: God has done for you. How they parted the Red Sea, and how they have been, how he has been with them throughout the wilderness.
27:41: The hearts have melted. Chapter three now, the nation crosses. And we have the priests carrying the ark, and the river
27:50: Jordan is at torrent flood stage at this point in time. And with the river raging, the priests have to put their foot to the water while it's still raging.
28:04: But as soon as they do, the land is dry, the water is held back, the priests stand in the middle of the river as millions of Israelis pass in front of the ark to the other side.
28:16: And chapter four is 12 stones taken from the river, set up as a memorial.
28:22: When your children ask you, when future generations ask you, you can tell them how God brought you across into his land.
28:31: Chapter five is a consecration. This nation has been in the wilderness, an entire generation has died.
28:38: And so they circumcise, which has not been done for 40 years.
28:44: And they consecrate before the Lord, and they celebrate the Passover. And they establish this relationship with Yahweh.
28:51: And Joshua, at the end of the chapter, doing a little recon mission, he runs across the captain of the host of the
29:00: Lord. And he says, whose side are you on? Well, that's the wrong question really.
29:06: It should be Joshua, whose side are you on? And so he gets the marching orders.
29:11: And so in chapter six, Israel obeys and they walk around the city day after day.
29:17: And on the last day, the trumpets blow and God knocks the walls down. And all he has to tell them is, do this and the walls will go down.
29:25: And by the way, nothing inside there is for you. Now, before they actually crossed, we read a lot of things as God prepares the people for what they're going to encounter, the testings, the problems, the trials.
29:41: In Deuteronomy 6 .4, the passage known as the Shema of Israel. Hear, O Israel, the
29:49: Lord is our God. The Lord is one. Establishing this singular relationship that God has for his people and his people should have for them.
30:03: And then it's followed by verse five, which Jesus quotes as the first and greatest command.
30:10: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.
30:16: Did you ever see those two put together? What a great picture we have to prepare ourselves. But then he goes on in verse 11, chapter 11 of Deuteronomy.
30:23: And he says, there will be blessings, there will be curses. And he explains it further in chapter 28.
30:29: And he says, if you obey me, all of these blessings, but if you don't obey me, all of these cursings.
30:38: So now Israel is in the land that's a promised land. It's a land flowing with milk and honey.
30:46: It's a land that was inhabited 40 years ago by spies who said they're giants and we are grasshoppers.
30:53: But we do know from chapter two that those people hearts melt because of what
31:03: God does. And these people are told go in and follow the Lord and I will be with you.
31:09: And so there are blessings that they are going to experience. They're going to have opportunities to worship and to be before the
31:15: Lord, but they are not perfect. And that takes us to chapter seven.
31:22: It reveals the truth of hearts. It's a timeless truth. It's a truth that talks to you and talks to me.
31:31: There is sin. Man is not perfect. And there are going to be consequences when there is sin.
31:41: But you see the narrative, the text of Joshua, there are provisions.
31:48: But as we get into Joshua seven, we're going to see that man can't do it and he needs help.
31:55: So stepping back again, God created. It was perfect. Man was set in fellowship with God, but man rebelled and sinned and we continue to sin, but God provides the solution.
32:10: I love Ephesians two verses one to three talk about the total depravity of man walking according to the course of the prince of the power of the air.
32:21: And then verse four, but God. And that's part of this meta -narrative that takes the reality of sin, but gives us gives us a future.
32:30: And so now it's time for us to turn to Joshua seven. Let's pray. Father, as we look to your word, speak to our hearts, let us see the reality of who the nation of Israel was, who
32:46: I am, who we are. Let us see the impact of it. But Lord, let us see in the bigger picture, your faithful love and let us see through Joshua seven and into eternity we pray in Jesus name.
33:00: Amen. I'm going to actually start in verse two. I'll get back to verse one in a minute, but I'm going to start at verse two.
33:08: Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Avon, east of Bethel and said to them, go up and spy out the land.
33:16: And the men went up and spied out Ai and they returned to Joshua and said to him, do not have all the people go up, but only let two or 3000 men go up and attack
33:29: Ai. Don't make the whole people toil up there for they are few. So about 3000 men went up from there from the people and they fled before Ai and the men of Ai killed about 36 of their men and chased them before the gate, as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent and the hearts of the people became melted and became as water.
33:59: This is the sin of denying the sovereignty of God. The God who said,
34:05: I will go before you. The God who said in the Shema, I am the
34:10: Lord God. I am the Lord is one, but they are denying who he is at this point in time.
34:18: This is a promotion of self. This is a denial of God's rightful place in my life.
34:26: It can manifest itself or by saying, I want this. I need to have that.
34:32: I can't wait for God. I know what's best for me in this situation.
34:40: I don't really need to bother God. This is so small and insignificant. I got it. Isaiah 14 documents the first time we see this in scripture.
34:51: It's a story of Lucifer. Lucifer was one of the created angels in the very presence of God.
34:59: Most likely one of the more significant angels in the presence of God.
35:05: And in verse 14, Lucifer says, I will make myself like the most high.
35:13: I will make myself like the most high. Yahweh is the
35:19: God, the ever existence, the all eternal God. Yahweh God created all.
35:24: Yahweh God created the angels. Yet Lucifer in total rebellion against God says,
35:34: I will make myself like the most high. The ultimate rebellion.
35:40: For man, this looks like reluctance to submitting to God. It looks like reliance on my own self knowledge, reliance on my own self power, because I determined that this is within my capability.
35:53: It's a denial of the sovereignty of God. So the nation of Israel, Joshua, they're in camp.
36:01: They're fresh off a victory at Jericho. And I want to imagine the scene that might be going on in the camp at this point in time.
36:11: But first think about two other camps. When they were in Shittim, way back in chapter one, they had the river in front of them.
36:19: How are we going to get across this river? And there was Jericho, this massive city.
36:25: They had no idea how to defeat him. All they could do is rely on God. They had no idea how to get there.
36:33: Or they weren't there in camp after the consecration and after the circumcision and Jericho's next.
36:39: How are we ever going to do this? We got to have God, because we can't do it.
36:44: But here they are in camp, outside of Ai, feeling pretty good about themselves.
36:52: What's next is Ai? Well, we don't know a whole lot about Ai, except it's smallish.
36:58: We know that it's north of what is now Jerusalem. It's west of where Jericho was.
37:03: It's up in the hill country. But compared to Jericho, not a big deal. This time of year is kind of interesting in college football.
37:14: Teams that think they might be going to a national championship game or maybe they're going to win their conference champion, they take a look at the schedule and they figure out which games are important and which games are no big shtick.
37:28: And the games that are important, they take very, very seriously. And then after having this big game, this little tiny city school, no big deal.
37:37: We don't really have to worry about it. Sometimes the analysts call it a trap game.
37:44: So here's the nation of Israel and here's Joshua. They just beat their big game and they got the
37:51: W sitting there. And here's little Ai, not a big deal. We can take care of this.
38:01: There's a tendency I've seen, I'm a transplant here to Philadelphia, but I'm a
38:08: Chicago boy and I'll talk about Chicago for just a minute if you could bear with me. There aren't very many times, but those times where the
38:16: Cubs are playing good ball. After a win, throughout the city, people hang out of their windows these white flags with a big blue W.
38:29: And you can see them all over the city. They're proud of the that they won the game. Or you can go through the city and you can see
38:36: Philadelphia Eagles, world champions. Or you can see Philadelphia 76ers.
38:44: People wear these t -shirts, they're proud of it. I'm thinking in camp, hey we got these t -shirts all over the place and they're flying these big
38:50: Ws. We beat Jericho. Yeah. What's next? Ai. Eh, not a big deal.
38:58: The perception was they didn't need to bother with God. They didn't need to bother God. The perception was that they were on a roll.
39:06: The perception was they were undefeated. But here's the problem. This is all they.
39:13: When they were in camp at Shittim, when they were in camp outside of Jericho, they weren't talking about they.
39:19: They needed God. Now they don't think they need God. They don't think they need
39:26: God. So the spies went out, they saw, they perceived, they reported, and the response was this is not a big deal.
39:36: In fact, don't even make all the people toil. Well I'm sorry, but as the nation crossed over the
39:44: Jordan, all the people went. So much so, the tribe of Gad and Reuben and the half -tribe of Manasseh, who were going to be allowed to stay east of the
39:55: Jordan, all of their fighting men had to come. Fight with the nation until the entire land was going to be settled.
40:02: When they marched around Jericho, even though all they were doing was marching and then shouting, all the people were there.
40:09: And now they look at it and they perceive what they think is significant. And they say, just send a couple thousand, no big deal.
40:19: They denying the sovereignty of God. They forgot Joshua 1 .5.
40:25: I will be with you. I will not fail you. The risk there is when they don't realize that it's
40:32: God. So Joshua takes control. He believed he couldn't fail.
40:39: By the way, he had no experience in this. He wasn't put in charge until Joshua 1.
40:45: And the first battle that they had was Jericho. And he did nothing except walk around and shout.
40:51: But he figured he had this one in control. The other problem is that Joshua doesn't realize that the actual battle is only a part of the story.
41:04: The other part of the story is, are you going to rely and submit to God? It's a spiritual warfare that's going on.
41:12: Galatians 5 .16 tells us, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
41:18: And so Joshua was blind to the fact that he needed to rely on God.
41:24: He could walk in his own understanding. Now what happens when you try to fight a spiritual battle without God?
41:33: It's not good. And so it wasn't. They fell.
41:39: They fell hard. But that takes us to the second sin. Joshua 6 -9.
41:46: Joshua tore his clothes, fell to the earth on his face before the ark until the evening.
41:54: He and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, and I'm going to go to that in a minute, but at the beginning of this, it sounds good.
42:02: It sounds like a submissive, contrite heart where he's talking about his remorse.
42:11: But do you pick on what's coming after that? Alas, O Lord, why have you brought this people over the
42:18: Jordan at all to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? What that we had been content to dwell beyond the
42:26: Jordan. O Lord, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies?
42:32: For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth.
42:38: And what will you do for your great name? He has denied responsibility.
42:48: After Lucifer was sent to earth for his rebellion against God, he deceived
42:59: Eve, and there very easily, Adam came right along with it, into thinking God didn't really mean it.
43:05: God won't really do that. That fruit looks very good. And so they believed, and immediately
43:11: Adam and Eve fell into shame, and God walks in the cool of the day, and they hide because of the shame and the guilt.
43:19: And God says, where are you? Adam's response, that woman you gave me, she made me do it.
43:28: It's the ultimate, ultimate denial of response, responsibility. And so Joshua here standing with potentially what looks like remorse in his heart, is really just denying his own sin.
43:43: And what does he do? He quickly takes the offense. He can't defend himself, so he quickly takes the offense, and he uses a series of questions.
43:52: Why did you bring us here? Why did you give us over to the Amorites? Now what would you have me say?
44:01: What are you going to do to restore your great name? The denial of responsibility exposes an unrepentant heart.
44:14: A denial of reliability can be a game where I'm not as bad as the next person.
44:21: If I can put more blame on somebody else, maybe I'm off the hook. And if I can blame
44:26: God, then clearly I can be exonerated entirely. In Numbers 14, the nation at Kadesh Barnea, the spies come back.
44:38: Ultimately they blamed God for even bringing them there. Denying responsibility is a whole lot easier than taking responsibility.
44:49: Blaming someone else, even if it's God, is a whole lot easier than confessing and repenting and seeking cleansing.
44:59: The only problem is that denying responsibility is really only hiding the truth.
45:06: There is sin. There is guilt. And if you're denying it, you're just hiding that truth.
45:13: Denying responsibility denies the opportunity for forgiveness and for cleansing.
45:21: Romans 6 .23 talks about the wages of sin. It's death. But then it says, but the free gift of God is eternal life.
45:28: There's a transformation that can take place. And in the midst of that transformation is acknowledging your guilt, confessing that guilt, and turning to the
45:36: Lord. Israel and Joshua are guilty of covetousness.
45:44: They're guilty of denying the sovereignty of God. And then they're just denying their own sinfulness.
45:51: So that takes us to the beginning now. Back to verse 1. But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things.
46:00: For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things and the anger of the
46:09: Lord burned against the people. The consequences as we read verses 11 to 13.
46:16: It says that in verse 13, get up, consecrate the people, and say, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow.
46:23: Thus says the Lord God of Israel. There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.
46:36: There must be an understanding that covetousness has an impact. And that the worst thing to do once that happened is to deny it and to be unrepentant.
46:47: Covetousness is spoken of in scripture very strongly. Zechariah 33 verse 31.
46:54: It says, you have heard the words, but you're led astray by your lustful desires.
47:00: Hearing the actual words of God, the commands of God, the direction of God, you allow the lust to take power over truth.
47:10: And so you follow after lust. Habakkuk 2 talks about you're seeking greater status for yourself.
47:20: Covetousness is going to manifest itself in several ways. Jealousy, greed, or discontentment.
47:28: Those actions that desire the accumulation of things that perhaps aren't rightly yours.
47:34: Lust and selfish motives, those attitudes that allow you to judge something in a way that totally denies
47:42: God and puts yourself in the center. And the assessment of promoting yourself above others.
47:50: Even promoting yourself above God. And relying on things instead of relying on God.
48:00: We're all susceptible to this and it applies to everybody. Jeremiah 6 .13 says, everybody is greedy for gain.
48:08: I need to look around and say that again. Everybody is greedy for gain. And then
48:15: Colossians 3 .5 nails it down and it says, this greed, this covetousness, it's part of your natural flesh and it must be put to death.
48:29: So Achan succumbed. The nation walked around Jericho six days.
48:35: Seventh day they marched. The trumpets shouted. The walls came down. And all they had to do was rejoice in God's provision of a victory over a great foe.
48:46: But Achan went in and he saw something and he liked it. And he denied the fact that God had a better plan for him.
48:54: He had a better plan for himself. I want that thing. God really won't be upset if I take it.
49:01: Will he? It's just a small thing. But what did he have to do with it immediately? He had to hide it.
49:07: He had to put it under the cot in his tent. He couldn't even enjoy it. He couldn't even show his family, his friends. Nobody could see it.
49:15: Satan had convinced Achan that this would be okay. In fact, this would be a good thing.
49:23: But his lie was exposed because the reality is that falling under the sin of covetousness will never lead to satisfaction.
49:33: Now why did God do this to them in the first place? Why did he say you can't take any of this stuff? I think there are two reasons.
49:40: One, he wanted to set a clear definition. When I say you can, you can. And when
49:45: I say you can't, you can't. And then he wanted to test their hearts. Are they going to admit to his sovereignty or are they going to lead their own way?
49:57: Now this sin of covetousness often leads to the sin of unrepentance.
50:04: And that's a symptom of a heart that denies God and focuses on yourself. God is going to set standards for life.
50:13: And we're not perfect. And there are going to be times where we do believe that lie.
50:19: And there are two ways that we can respond to that. The first, Isaiah 55 -7, forsake the evil way.
50:27: Hosea 14 -2, return to the Lord. Joel 2 -12, return with all your heart.
50:36: This is something that you desire to do, not something you think you have to do. And Acts 3 -19, when you return, turn for times of refreshing.
50:48: Those times that you fall, those times that you break the standards of God, there will be feelings of guilt.
50:53: There will be feelings of remorse. But when you turn to God, we are promised there are going to be times of refreshing.
51:03: 2 Chronicles 7 -14, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, turn from their evil ways,
51:14: I will hear, I will forgive, I will heal. That's the preferred response to those times.
51:23: Taking responsibility. Confession is taking responsibility.
51:29: Choosing the better path with a genuine heart and seeking after God. But Achan did not take this path.
51:38: He chose denial. He chose deceit. He believed that what he did would be no big deal.
51:45: And so he hid it, what he had, from his wife, from his family, from his nation. He even thinks he's hiding it from God.
51:53: Because Satan promised him gratification. But it wasn't to be had. We cannot hide things from God.
52:01: David, as the king, as the anointed, fell hard.
52:09: 2 Samuel 11 tells us this story. Bathsheba, Uriah, and David's self -expression.
52:23: It's not, well, then Nathan the prophet comes along and Satan sees it for what he is. And the good part of that story is once he recognized it,
52:31: God dealt with him. But David turned back because we know scripture describes
52:37: David as a man after God's own heart. And so now fast forwarding many years in 1
52:43: Chronicles 28, David is talking to his son Solomon. Maybe out of the experience of what he already knows to be true.
52:52: And he tells his son, God searches the heart. He knows every intent.
52:59: He searches the heart. He knows every intent. Proverbs 2 tells us that the way of man is right in his own eyes.
53:06: But Jeremiah 17 9 warns us that the heart is more deceitful than all else.
53:12: Hebrews 4 12 tells us that there's nothing that isn't laid bare. He searches the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
53:21: So the story of Achan is one of covetousness, deceit, exposure, and eventually consequences.
53:29: Jeremiah 13, get up consecrate the people and say consecrate yourselves for tomorrow.
53:36: Thus says the Lord God of Israel. There are devoted things in your midst. You cannot stand before your enemies with the devoted things among you.
53:48: And then verses 25 and 26, we get the ultimate proclamation.
53:54: Achan, his family are to be killed, burned. There are to be stones piled upon them as a memory.
54:01: The message is severe. But my brothers and sisters, this is a relevant and an important message.
54:08: Sin has consequences. God is just and there are consequences to sin.
54:13: Sin is a virus. It infects. It affects the whole being and it must be dealt with.
54:23: Now God has included this chapter, Joshua 7, within the story and it does feel harsh.
54:30: And we might feel uncomfortable with the severity of the consequences. But take it within the whole picture of Joshua and within the picture of scripture, please.
54:41: God is the author. He is the creator of all. God created. He saw that it was good.
54:47: He created man and said it was very good. God created man in his image and likeness. God desired fellowship.
54:54: God desired the worship of man. He is sovereign. But sin came in and it infected man.
55:03: It becomes a barrier between man and his Lord. Between man and the throne of God.
55:10: It has consequences. Now fortunately, scripture doesn't end there. It doesn't end with this bleak story.
55:17: It doesn't even end with a message that says go fix it because you can't. It ends with a story of love.
55:25: It talks about the love of God. The sacrifice of his son on the cross. The grace of God given.
55:32: It talks about the gift of faith that is given to us for the resolution of our sins.
55:40: Responding to God's gift resolves our guilt. It leads to a life restored in fellowship with our creator.
55:50: Joshua 7 is recorded to show that in the midst of all that God does for his people, his people are not perfect.
55:57: There is sin. It's to show then that the love of God overcomes even that.
56:04: When man rebels, man needs God's help. Now without God, there is no hope.
56:12: The context of Joshua 7 displays God's love. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up as I give some thoughts of application.
56:24: This message applies to us today. This message emphasizes the fact that we are all sinners.
56:33: We are all judged. We are all guilty. And we are all deserving of punishment.
56:40: We are all in need of redemption. But there's good news.
56:47: And as you look at Joshua 7 in the greater picture, it doesn't stand alone. It stands within the entire book of Joshua.
56:55: It stands within the metanarrative of scripture. It includes God's promise to go before us and to be with us.
57:03: It encourages us to take responsibility when we sin, acknowledge our propensity to sin, to talk about turning to God.
57:12: It portrays a God who already knows that we sin and yet provides the cleansing blood of Christ on the cross.
57:22: It's a message that promises for those who turn back to him, those who confess, those who repent, those who call him
57:29: Lord, there is a future. And that future includes eternity with the
57:35: Creator. We are all invited to come, confess our sins, allow his blood to wash us white as snow to step out of Joshua 7 and into the picture of God's love.
57:47: Let's pray. We come to you, Father. We come as people much like Joshua and Achan and the rest of Israel.
57:58: We are susceptible and we fall. We confess that. We thank you,
58:03: Father, that in the midst of our rebellion, your love never fails. You've provided a way, the blood of your son on the cross that washes us white as snow.
58:15: You've provided the grace that we could see and perceive and faith that we can respond. So, Father, we thank you for the cleansing because we are sinful.
58:25: We are stained with sin and we look forward, Father, through your gift to an eternity in fellowship with you.
58:35: Now, there's someone here today who can see themselves in the narrative of Joshua 7, someone who has not yet surrendered their sins.
58:43: The good news, today can be the day of a new start. If you realize Joshua 7 applies to you, if you want cleansing, if you acknowledge that you need
58:53: God, take the words of John 3 .16. He loved you.
58:59: He gave his son. He loved you. Today, take that step. God's calling. Your need is real.
59:06: His grace is sufficient. In faith, respond. Acknowledge your sin.
59:12: Repent. Turn. Ask God to come into your heart as the Lord.
59:18: This prayer speaks to you. Please speak with me, Pastor Jeff, one of the elders,
59:24: Eric Meyer, Rob Randall, Mike Stockland. Don't let this day go by. Let this be the first day of your life as a new creation, as an adopted heir.
59:36: Amen. I had no hope that you would own a rebel to your will.
01:00:25: And if you had not loved me first, I would refuse you still.
01:00:38: But as I ran, I held boundaries indifferent to the cause.
01:00:48: You looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross.
01:00:59: And I beheld God's love displayed. You suffered in my place.
01:01:09: You bore the wrath reserved for me. Now all
01:01:15: I know is grace. Alleluia.
01:01:27: All I have is Christ. Alleluia. Jesus is my life.
01:01:45: But I would be yours alone and live so almighty.
01:01:54: The strength to follow your commands could never come from me.
01:02:04: Oh, Father, use my rants of life in any way you choose.
01:02:14: And let my song forever be my only boast is you.
01:02:29: Alleluia. All I have is
01:02:35: Christ. Alleluia.
01:02:41: Jesus is my life. Alleluia. All I have is
01:02:53: Christ. Alleluia.
01:03:00: Jesus is my life.
01:03:08: And now Israel, and I'll say, and now Cornerstone, what does the Lord your
01:03:13: God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to serve and love him, to serve the