Devotion to God

doing in that place. God, we pray that you would bless them as they seek to raise up men to be sent out to establish faithful churches throughout that nation and other African countries. And God, we pray especially for Manasseh Kayonga. as he, among those men, pastors Grace Baptist Church and Kuperian Poshy. And God, we pray that you would encourage Manasseh, that you would bless his efforts, that you would add to their number, that they would have the joy of seeing conversions, the joy of seeing your people grow in holiness, grow in maturity in Christ. And God, we thank you also for the work that Pastor Mbewe and others in Zambia are doing in training pastors in the Addis Gadan denomination in Ethiopia. And Lord, we pray for that work. We pray, Lord, that Ethiopian churches would be raised up and strengthened to preach your word faithfully. And God, we thank you for HeartCry Missionary Society and the work that they are doing in partnership with Pastor Mbewe and with these efforts. And so we just pray that you would bless this initiative. Father, we also come before you this morning on behalf of those who are among us and the specific needs of this body. Lord, we pray for Samuel Burks as this is his last Sunday with us before heading off to boot camp. And Lord, we pray for your grace to be upon him in his life. We pray, Lord, as he enters into this new phase of life that you would protect him. both physically and protect him from the evil one. And God, we pray for him that godly men, that you would bring godly men alongside him to love him, to counsel him, to point him to Christ day by day. Father, we also lift up to you this morning our sister Joyce Nash as she recovers from a stroke this past week. Lord, we pray that you would grant her peace. We pray that you would bring healing. And we pray, Lord, that she would be looking forward to the new life that you have promised for all who are in Christ. And Lord, likewise, we pray this for every member among us with health ailments and other trials. Lord, we think of Mary Mignon and the macular degeneration of her eye, and our sister Jen Flack, our brother Ron Slaughter, and Betty Parr, and Lord, others as well. God, we pray for each one that that they would be granted perseverance through trials, that they would glorify you in the way that they trust you with their physical health and with all that they need. Father, we pray also for those among us who are seeking jobs. Andrew Garland and Chris Belcher and Mark Brennan and Dow Wynn and Katie Tomlinson. And God, we pray for each one of them that you would provide wisdom, that they might discern what job you are calling them to. We pray that you would provide for them, that you would open doors. And God, we pray that you would grant them much peace as they wait. Lord, we also pray this morning for those who are among us even now who do not know you. Oh God, we pray that this morning might be the morning when your salvation dawns in their hearts, when their eyes are opened to see the glory of Christ, to repent of sin and to trust in him. And God, we pray for ourselves and all who are among us as we prepare now to hear your word proclaimed. God, may we be those who listen attentively and carefully and who obey your word. Help us by your spirit, in Christ's name, amen. This morning we'll be reading all of Joshua chapter six. We'll be hearing of God delivering victory to Israel at Jericho. Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout out with a great shout. and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him. So Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, take up the Ark of the Covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark of the Lord. And he said to the people, go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the Ark of the Lord. And just as Joshua had commanded, the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord, went forward, blowing the trumpets with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, you shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout. So he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. And the seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns, before the ark of the Lord, walked on. And they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawn of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city, and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them to you, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord.' So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat. So that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys with the edge of the sword. But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her. as you swore to her. So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire and everything in it, only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. The Bible is full of many fantastic stories. Many study these stories and many have defined culture and the way we think about ourselves. And I believe God has given us these stories, they're really historical narrative. He's telling us what has happened so that he can teach us about himself, he can teach us about ourselves. And much what we see is God tell us in his stories that he's good, he's faithful, He's right and he tells us and he gives us pictures of how sinful we are. Most of our stories actually emphasize how man continues to fail and fall and how God is always perfectly righteous and faithful. We love these stories and I believe God gave us these stories not only because they give us a context and a narrative so we can see what God does, I think they're really helpful for children. God gives us stories because everyone can kind of capture a story and see what it means. And we love to teach these stories to our children. I think sometimes we take our favorite stories and we want to teach them to the children so that they're really excited about what's happening. And I think sometimes we do this, we cause ourselves to miss the point of the story and cause the children to miss the point of the story. So let me give you an example. Noah's Flood is one of the most fantastic stories that we love to tell children. I mean, what's better for children than to see a floating zoo? Right? You're on a boat, and you've got all kinds of different animals everywhere. That's really exciting. It gets kids, you know, you have all the different animals going in, and you get to color it, and it's an exciting story. But when we emphasize the floating zoo, we actually miss the whole point. God. who is holy and just and righteous is decreating. Remember when he created, he separated the land from the water and then he put living beings on that land and what he's doing in the flood is he's bringing the waters back on the land because all of us who lived on that land had rejected him. He's showing his justice and his judgment against sinners. Jericho is another one of these stories that we love to teach children. I mean, what's greater than having a battle where there's really no arrows shot or swords flung, and you get to act it out, right? You got trumpets, you got an ark, and you march around something, and you get to blow the trumpets and knock some kind of wall down. It's a lot of excitement for a child to see, and very entertaining. But we miss the point. See, Joshua 6 is connected to Joshua 7 and connected to Joshua 8. But what drives all these together is that God is teaching his people Israel, I am your commander. You have to obey me. I am the holy God, he says, and what I say must be obeyed. You don't get to make judgment calls when you're gonna decide when not to obey. As we heard Roger read in verse 18 and 19, the key focus, I believe, that drives these texts together is Israel and if they're going to obey God when it comes to the devoted things. We see this in verses 18 and 19. We will see that God commands, we've already heard that God commanded these things. We're gonna see that Israel disobeyed and therefore they fail in their next campaign. And we're gonna see God make them obey His command to destroy everything devoted to destruction. Big picture of our text. God is holy. That's what we started with singing, holy, holy, holy. God is holy, and He calls His church to be holy. Now this text, I believe that this sermon, I hope, as it reflects this text, It is supposed to be a terrifying text. This is supposed to be terrifying. We're supposed to be terrified of our sin, of our sinful desires, of how they lead us so far away from God so that we can cling to the grace that is ours in Jesus Christ. We have to be terrified of our sin so that we can be led to the grace of Christ so that we can have proper reverence for God. Now I want to make something very clear, especially if you're not a Christian. If you're not a Christian, here is something I want to make very clear for you. This message is for those who have been redeemed so that they are warned not to listen to their sinful desires. God does not expect you to be sinless or to be holy in order to be redeemed. God actually, the whole point is that he looks at us all and he says, everyone's a sinner. Everyone's rejected me. And I, in my grace, God says, I'm going to save you. The father sends his son to die on the cross on behalf of us, sinners, so that the judgment that we deserve for our sin is put upon Jesus Christ, and therefore we are then declared forgiven, and now we can live as his holy people. You don't need to clean yourself up today in order to be God's people. You need to believe in Jesus Christ and that He's forgiven you of your sin so that you can now live a new life as one of God's people. I want to look at the big narrative, because we're not going to read every word of chapter 6 today. We're going to look at the narrative, and I'm going to give just a big picture overview, and then we're going to have our four points to the sermon. Israel was wandering for 40 years or waiting for that previous generation to die. Now the new generation with a new leader, Joshua, they've actually entered the promised land. As we talked about last week, this is a big deal. For 400 years from God's first promise in Genesis 15, Israel, God's people, is in God's land. And what we see here is Jericho is the first fortified city. It's the most southern city. So after they cross the Jordan, they're in the land, this is the first battle. And it's remarkable because God says destroy everything. We really wanna make sure we see the significance here. God says this entire city is gonna be devoted. There is no bounty. There is no looting. Everything must be destroyed except for that which is gonna be in my treasure. So we see that in verse 18 and 19. I also wanted to highlight, Rahab is mentioned three times. Verse 17, verse 23, verse 25. She is saved. She's supposed to be destroyed. She's supposed to be devoted to destruction, but we see here a glimpse of God's great grace to save those who believe in him. God's instruction to destroy Jericho, let's just face it, it's intentionally kind of odd. It's not a typical military campaign. A march around the city, a number of days, blow trumpets, and the walls come down. I don't know if anyone's actually tried to replicate this military strategy. I doubt it succeeded. But it's God making it clear, I'm with you, I'm for you, it's not your might or your strength that gives you the victory. It's your obedience to me who's going to win the battle for you. Now let's look at verse one real quick. But the people of, verse six, sorry. Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, none came in. So we see here that Israel is gonna have to fight a nation that is shut in. And verse two, the Lord said to Joshua. He gives instruction. God says, this is what you're going to do. And they win the battle by marching and blowing trumpets. Now, chapter seven, verse one, let's just keep looking at the narrative. Chapter seven, verse one, this is a narrative background. There's a break in the storytelling so that the narrator can tell you something that you need to know, the reader, to understand what's gonna happen next. Look at the conjunction. But the people of Israel, they've broken faith in regard to the devoted things. For Achan, the son of Karmi, the son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against his people. If we look at verse two. Something that's missing from chapter six. God said, Joshua, this is how you're gonna win Jericho. Notice chapter seven, verse two. Joshua does not consult the commander. There's no word of the Lord. He's acting on his own. He's not listening to God, he's not obeying God. He just decides, hey, one victory, let's go after the next. That seems fairly familiar. how quickly we jump in pride to go do something after God's done something for us. Verses three and four, they show how Ai, which the translation for Ai is a heap of ruins. That's the Hebrew for Ai, a heap of ruins. This is a dinky city. It's not strong and fortified like Jericho. There are gates, but it's not a mighty city full of men of valor. And so after God gives him a victory in Jericho, he sends some men to iron and they get defeated. 36 men die. And so Joshua in verses five to nine, we'll look at this in more detail. He complains about this to God. He blames God. And then verses 10 to five, a harsh rebuke for Joshua. Get up. Get up. Israel has sinned against their God. God reveals to Joshua the sin. Israel has to obey God in putting now Achan to destruction. Because Achan has stolen the devoted things, he now himself is devoted to destruction. Israel has to obey him, destroying Achan, and then God gives him victory. And then in chapter eight at the end, he renews his covenant. So we see here just a real kind of up and down. A great military battle. A great military victory without much of a battle at Jericho. A horrible defeated eye. And what we see here is when they obey God, they have great success. When they don't consult God, when they disobey God, they have embarrassing, dangerous failure. But God is faithful. He keeps his people. So here's the outline for what we're gonna look at today. God's command, this is chapter six, mainly verses 18 and 19. God's command, chapter six. God's command broken. God's command broken, that's chapter seven, verses one to nine. God's command broken. God's command obeyed. This is verses 10 to 26. And then God's covenant renewed, chapter eight. God's command, God's command broken, God's command obeyed, God's covenant renewed. In order to really appreciate what is taking place here in chapter six, we've gotta go back to Genesis 15, so just turn back there with me quickly. Genesis chapter 15, if you're using a Pew Bible, this is found on page 10, And I'll read here just a brief few verses, verses 12 to 16. This is part of the covenant that God gives to Abraham. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. And the Lord said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. He'll be servants there, and they'll be afflicted for 400 years. That's referring to their time in Egypt. But I will bring judgment on that nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in great old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet been complete. There's two things I want us to see in this passage. One, God has made a promise to his people that you will be in this land. That was from Joshua 1, it's in Joshua 2, it's in Joshua 3, it's in Joshua 4, it's in Joshua 5, here it is, Joshua 6. I'm giving you the land. Israel, God says, I'm giving it to you. I'm going to give it to you. I've made a promise, I keep the promise. He's destroyed Egypt, he's brought them out of Egypt, he's now bringing them to the land. Now, the second thing we see is in that last verse of Genesis 15, verse 16, that the time of the Amorites is not yet complete. The Canaanites were a wicked people. They had been worshiping other gods, they had been committing human sacrifice, even infant sacrifice. They were a wicked, nasty people. And God, for 400 years, had been mercifully waiting for them to repent. And now, the time of the Amorites is complete. God is not going to wait any longer. He is now executing His justice. He's executing right judgment. You see, these people, while we can be disgusted by a lot of the things they did, and I'm not gonna go into detail, I mean, human sacrifice is gross enough, but we have to realize they committed the greatest sin. They hated God. They rejected Almighty God and refused to worship the true God in the true way. That is the greatest sin. So we see here in chapter six, devoting every human life. God is saying yes. I've been waiting for 400 years with mercy for them to repent, and they haven't repented, and now he's going to execute just judgment. Let's look at that judgment, verses 18 and 19. But you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble on it. So there's a warning. but all silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord and shall go into the treasury of the Lord. There's two basic commands here, right? Don't take anything for yourself. Devote everything to destruction. There isn't a lot of need for interpretation. Devote everything alive to destruction. Take the silver and gold and put it in God's treasury. In no way is there any room to say, I'm going to take something for myself. Does everybody see that? There is no way that you could possibly try to interpret what God's saying here to say, hey, you know, this isn't mentioned here. I can take this. It's devoted. Destroy it or give it to God. Now why would God say don't take anything for yourself? Because typically when a military campaign wins, to the victor gets the spoils, right? That is a typical pattern and we're actually gonna see it later in Joshua. It is okay to take stuff. It is okay for them to get goods. He's already given them the goods of Egypt. They got to take all the gold from Egypt as they left. You remember what they did with that gold though? They made a golden calf and they worshiped it. I believe God, especially in light of how he warns them in Deuteronomy 20, he's telling them, devote everything to destruction because if you keep pagans around, if you keep idols around, you're so prone to idolatry, you're going to forsake me. He's trying to protect them. It's not that God doesn't want his people to have nice things. God wants them to worship Him alone and to recognize that He is God. Now I don't want us to forget Rahab here because she's mentioned intentionally. She is supposed to be devoted to destruction. Because she, not because she's a prostitute, because she's an idolater. Up until the time she professes faith to these spies, she is an idolater. She has been rejecting God and not worshiping the true God, and she should be devoted to destruction, but we see here this picture. God is rich in mercy. God saves sinners. Yes, he is a just God that we should have great reverence for, but what a rich, loving, merciful God. The story is meant to show us how much we should have reverence and fear for him and how great his grace is. Let's look to a second point. We've seen the command, do not take anything, give silver and gold to God. Let's look at the broken commandment, chapter seven, verse one. Again, the narrator's insight, just so you know, the people of Israel, They broke faith. They did not obey God regarding the devoted things. One person of the tribe of Judah, he took something that was devoted, and now the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel. God is going to see them as one people. One person's sin corrupts the whole nation. Israel broke faith. They rushed into battle without the consultant or their commander. This is on Joshua. And again, it's a dinky, it's a dinky city. They should have easily defeated this city. But God is not with them. God is not for them. God is against them because they've rejected him. 36, men die. Now, we've gotta pay some, spend some time here in Joshua's response, verse six. Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening. He and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads, and Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all? To give us into the hands of the Amorites? To destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan. Oh Lord, what can I say when Israel's turned their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, will surround us, and cut off your name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name? It sounds fairly pious because of how he ends, but this is a sad prayer. God, What are you doing? We were perfectly happy eating manna in the wilderness where everybody died off previously. Why have you brought us here? This is a lapse of faith. This is exactly what Israel said when they're standing in the Red Sea and Egypt's army comes, they looked at God, was it not better for us to just die in Egypt than out here? Were there no graves? Joshua is following in the line of failed faith, of faithlessness. What are you doing God? Why have you brought us over here to die? And he appeals to the great name. Now look and see how God responds to Joshua. Get up. Get up. Why have you fallen on your face? I have not failed you, God makes very clear. Israel has sinned. They've transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. They've taken some of the devoted things. They've stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore, the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies because the only way you can stand before their enemies is if I stand with you and you've rejected me. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more. That's terrifying. That is terrifying. This is grace. Unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Notice the second time. Get up. Consecrate the people and say, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, they are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you. It's pretty harsh. God isn't really, he's being very clear and upfront with Joshua. You failed to recognize the problem. Joshua's trying to ask God, what are you doing? And God says, I'm doing the same thing I've always done. I am here to be your God. You obey me, I'll give you success. I've made it very clear. God is a great communicator. That is not a failure in communication. When he tells them of the real problem, notice how clear it is. Israel has sinned. They've transgressed my covenant, therefore I will be with you no more. I will not be with you. I will not fight for you. You will be destroyed unless you obey me, God says, the commander. Now as we see what happens next, Joshua, he rises early. The lots fall to Achan, and we see here in verse 20, if you'll jump down, Achan answered Joshua, truly I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel, And this is what I did. This is a good confession. When you confess sin, it's supposed to be precise, like this. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and I took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath. This is a good confession of sin. It isn't some kind of general, you know, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I'm sorry God that, yeah, I may not have obeyed sometime, I'm not sure, you know, I'm a sinner. No, it's this is what I did, this is how I, this is what I desired, this is what I did. I've lied and I've stolen. And you have to, love is self-awareness of sin. I coveted Therefore I took. Achan is at least aware of his sin. I coveted and I took. What you see here is that Achan, he's disobeyed God and he's stolen from God and he's lied about it. He saw what he wanted. His desires were more important than God's command and so he took what God told him he couldn't take. Again, we can go back to chapter six, verse 18 and 19. Destroy everything or the silver and gold goes in the treasury. Well, they can say that, I kind of want something. My desires are more important than God's decrees. This is what James teaches us. James chapter one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. The desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth Death. Disobedience starts within us. Sin doesn't happen to us. Sin comes out from us, and then we act upon it, and then we die. Sin brings the judgment of God upon us. So why do we sin? It's because our desires, they tempt us and they lure us. Think about it. Our desires for sexual satisfaction outside of God's design causes us to bend and break his clear call to purity. God's design is very clear. You can enjoy and you should enjoy sex within marriage, not before marriage, not outside of marriage. It's clear, but we break these rules. But we bend them because our desires are more important than God's commandments. Or another way, we desire vengeance and satisfaction in someone else's pain, so we gossip and slander. We know we're not supposed to talk about other people, but it sure is entertaining. Our desires are more important than God's decrees. Or we desire attention. So we wanna make a big deal out of something we've done, or we want pity because of something done to us, so we let our desires lead us to actions and words. Friends, I wanna make something very clear. Every Christian has sinful desires that lead us to sin. God has not removed all sinful desires. We're supposed to constantly be putting our desires to death, as Ron said earlier. We're simply putting these desires to death so that we can acknowledge God's decrees. A mature Christian is just someone who has more self-control. We should be striving to have self-control over our eyes, what we see. We should have self-control over our tongue, what we say. We have self-control over our wallets, how we spend and what we buy, and over our time. Well, we prioritize. The mature Christian orders his life more and more in these particular categories than others. We have to realize that our devotion to God should cause us to destroy the desires that keep leading us away from him. Now, let's just back up for a moment and think about what Achan took. Verse 21, a coat. He didn't take drugs. He didn't take some kind of weapon he's going to use to harm somebody. He didn't take a God, an idol. He took a coat. He took some gold and some silver, some things that God is going to give them. The issue here isn't in what he took. The issue here is that he said, God, my desires are more important than your decrees. He said, I'm going to stand here and I'm going to be my own judge, not you, God. Now, what I also like about Achan is that, notice he doesn't blame anybody else. Well, God, you know, my parents raised me to be selfish, just doing what they told me to do. You know, God, it's the social construct that I'm in right now that I just didn't understand that I shouldn't take these things. He doesn't blame other people. You know, it was Billy, he tempted me. He makes it clear, I'm guilty. The mark of a mature Christian is that they don't talk about other people's sins, they talk about their own. Achan here, at least, is talking about his own sin the way God designs it. So, we need to ask, can we relate to Achan? Because really, in order to get in this story, we need to appreciate Achan. We need to realize that our sins are reflected in Achan so that we can be terrified of our sin, repent of it, and cling to the glory of God. So, do we break God's commandments? Specifically, it's asked, do we steal? Are we thieves? Do we specifically steal from God? Now, Paul in Ephesians four makes it very clear, if you're a thief, stop stealing, get a job, so you can give away. It's a great transition, it's not just stop stealing, it's stop stealing, get a job, so you have something to give away. See, that's what repentance looks like. It's not just stop stealing, it's give away. And we can all look and say, I don't take stuff. I don't take people's physical belongings, so I'm not a thief. I'm not sure we can stop there. Because what I want us to meditate upon is what Ted Tripp calls being a glory thief. A glory thief. This is something that is important for us to think about. We are all guilty of glory theft. Think about it. We steal somebody else's privacy when we gossip. That's a glory. When we gossip about something they've told us in private, that's stealing their privacy. We steal somebody's dignity when we slander them. We steal somebody's right to the truth when we lie. So we can actually think about, all right, how do I steal other people's dignity and glory horizontally here? But again, we've got to think about how do I steal from God? Achan has committed the same exact sin here that Adam and Eve committed in the garden. I mean, think about the parallels. God gave Adam and Eve all kinds of fruit. And he just said, don't eat that fruit, that one tree with that one fruit, just don't eat that one. And they said, ah, God, I want to take that one fruit you said I had to take. I wanna pretend that you're not God and that I'm autonomous and I can make a judgment. Again, that's why it's important to realize, Achan, he took something that's fine to have, a coat. But he took it outside of God's will. He took it over against his clear command. He's saying to God, you're not going to be God. He's stealing God's right to be the commander, the ruler, the lawgiver. And he's taken that glory upon himself. Another way that we see Achan here as a glory thief is that he wants to take what is not his. He wants to focus on what is not his. And I think one of the things that we really need to wrestle with is this. God's glory is made great in our weakness. We can make much of God in our weakness. I want you to see something that goes before what I read earlier. Look at verse 19 of chapter seven. Joshua said to Achan, my son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him. Tell me now what you have done, do not hide it. Achan is called to glorify God by confessing his sin. This is one of the most counterintuitive things for us as sinners to think about. Because what we do in our glory theft is we want to hide what's wrong with us. We want to hide how we've lied and how we've stolen. I mean, think about how ridiculous this is of Achan. God just let him cross a river on dry ground, and he's hiding things from God in his tent. This sin is making him illogical, foolish. And here, this is counterintuitive to us as sinners, but it's so true. Joshua says, give glory to God, confess your sin. Something that we need to see throughout scripture is that we make much of God when we make less of ourselves. But what we wanna do as Christians is to let God make much of us and then we'll make much of him. For example, football season's about to start. You're gonna see a lot of people pointing to God when the score touchdown. But how many are gonna say, God is praiseworthy when I fumble? Think about that for your own life. We're quick to say glory to God when somebody gives us a compliment, but are we going to say God is always so glorious and worthy of worship regardless of my failure? Actually, let me tell you about how sinful I am and about how I failed so that I can make much of how God is so great. This is the pattern that permeates all of scripture. We want God to share his glory with us. God doesn't share his glory. God wants us, we want God to be glorified as he makes us great. God doesn't work that way. He doesn't share his glory. He wants us to use all of our lives, our weaknesses and our strengths for his great glory. Now something we need to see here is he wants his name to be made great. We make the name of Christ great when we make him the clear savior of our sins. And what a challenge this is, Jefferson Park, because I hear this a lot. I hear folks saying, Jefferson Park Baptist Church needs to be a place where there's more transparency of sin. I couldn't agree. I couldn't, I absolutely agree. Yes. And so when people say that, I ask, who are you sharing your sin with? If we want to be a church where it's okay to talk about sin and weakness so that the greatness of Christ is made known, we need to see that. So I ask people when they say that, who are you sharing your weakness with and your sin with? And here's the underlying issue I think we need to come to grips with, Jefferson Park, as a church. This needs to be a place so focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ that it's a safe place to talk about weakness and sin. It's a place where failing is actually somewhat expected in the sense that we all know we're sinners, we all know folks are gonna fail, and we're quick to say, we're going to restore you. We're going to be armed with grace so that when people confess sin, when people fail, they're going to be restored. The folks who don't confess sin, they're going to be disciplined. That is a gospel church. We need to focus on how we're going to be a safe place where the gospel permeates our language and our actions. Let's look at our third point. God's command obeyed. If it hasn't already been terrifying enough as our passage continues, this is difficult. I just wanna be honest, this is a difficult passage, but it tells us about God's holiness and who we are as sinners and what we deserve. Verses 22 to 26. So Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent and behold it was hidden in his tent. with the silver underneath and they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel and they laid them down before the Lord and Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold and his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his donkeys and his sheep and his tent and all that he had and they brought them up to the Valley of Acre and Joshua said, why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you. today. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day, the name of that place is called the Valley of Acre." This is a difficult passage. It shows the consequence of sin. Let's go back to James. This is New Testament. This isn't just Old Testament. Your desires cause you to sin, and sin causes you to death. That actually goes from Genesis to the end of the New Testament. That is a simple, clear, true thought throughout all of the Bible. When you are tempted, you sin, and then you die. And here, Achan, after being warned in chapter six that you'll have trouble if you disobey this simple, clear command. And trouble has been brought upon him. The Lord brings trouble on you today, verse 25. By sinning against God, Achan made himself devoted to destruction. That is the clear teaching here. We should be terrified of defying God, denying God, because by sinning and taking the things that were devoted, Achan makes himself devoted. Now, a real question we have to ask is this, why his family? Why everything he possesses, his spouse, his children, his animals, why everything? Well, at some level, I wanna say there is a tribal way of looking at people in the Old Testament, but I think we could possibly hypothesize if the families living in the tent with these devoted things, have they conspired? When we look at this and we think, God, how could you do this? And I want us to be very careful. Let's not second guess God as if we pretend to know better than him. When we ask a question like that, we have to say, God is just. He's righteous. We can see he's merciful. He has a good reason for everything he does. And I want to make it very clear as to why he must destroy Achan. First, it's just because Achan clearly transgressed the law. God said, don't do this, and he did it. He hid the things. He stole the things. God is just because God gave a clear command. Secondly, God wants Israel to learn something, that he is holy and worthy of worship. That heap of rocks that's there over Achan and his family is a constant reminder, be aware. God is holy, he is worthy to be worshiped. This is something that he constantly teaches his people. He is holy, he must be obeyed. And third, the people need to learn this. God is holy, and they represent him. They have to be ready to obey as they take over the promised land, because all the nations are gonna be looking at them, and they're gonna see God, and they're gonna judge God, Yahweh, the one true God, based upon how they act. And if they're lawless, if they're disobeying God's law, they're going to misrepresent God. As we think about transitioning this to us in the New Testament, One, I want to make us assured, especially if you're visiting with us, there is no command anywhere in the New Testament for any church to ever destroy human life. This is no longer a command in the New Testament. But there is a parallel. You see, Israel, as the holy nation of God, is supposed to represent Yahweh to all other nations. We, so much more, as the church, have the name of Jesus Christ, the name above every name, on us, so that the way we live, the way we obey, has to be taken seriously, because we're supposed to be showing the world how to have reverence for the one true Savior, Jesus Christ. As we build into this, I want us to think about something regarding Achan. Achan wasn't a stranger. Looking back, you can see he's the son of Zabdi and the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah. They knew him. He had wandered in the wilderness for years with friends. His friends had his children playing with their children. He's a part of the community. He was known, he was beloved, he was a friend. And what Israel is having to do here is to say, my commitment to God and His holiness is more important than my commitment to a friend. He wasn't a stranger. As we transition to the New Testament, We have to see that there is no more eye for an eye. We don't put people to physical death, but we as a church, we're called to discipline. Believers who are members of a church who are no longer walking according to Christ. And what that means is we simply say, your life no longer matches that of one worthy of the name of Jesus Christ because you're disobeying regularly. You refuse to repent. And it is by definition somebody that we know. It is by definition somebody who's a friend. It is by definition somebody we've loved and shared our lives with, but this is the reality. We know from New Testament, we know from our own history, that there are those who are of us, who are those who are among us, but not of us. There are going to be those who come in and proclaim Christ, and they're going to profess faith, but they're going to reveal by their rejection of Christ, by the rejection of His commandments that they never knew Him. And the church is called to say, your life does not reflect Christ. The church is called to tell those who are refusing to repent, you're no longer with us. You're welcome to come and worship. You're welcome to come and hear about Jesus Christ. You're welcome to come and hear the word of God. We hope the gospel will change you, but you lose the privileges of membership, which is the Lord's Supper, something we'll take next week. That meal that says we are united because of the name of Jesus Christ. You lose the opportunity to rejoice in Christ. You cannot rejoice in Christ with somebody who's disobeying regularly. And you lose the privilege of serving. These are the privileges of membership, that's it. Anybody can come. But church, I want you to hear this. Christ clearly commands in Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5, we are not supposed to remit those who will not listen to Christ and will not obey him. These commands are largely ignored in most churches because they seem harsh. And this is what happens, we think, oh, but Billy, we know Billy, Billy's a good guy, but no, Billy won't listen to Jesus. And here's what we say, Billy's relationship with us matters more than the glory of Jesus Christ. We prefer our friends over the name of Jesus Christ, the great name. Now, church discipline is hard. It's painful, it's difficult. It's not something we talk about lightly, it's not something we do lightly. I hope you dislike it more than I do. And I hope you dislike it so much that you'll actually do what I'm going to say next, because if you dislike church discipline, and you should, because it's painful, you're having to tell somebody you used to love and walk in, supposing they're rejoicing in Christ, and you're having to tell them, no, your life is so against Christ, you can't keep professing to be a Christian. If you dislike that, here's what you should do. Proactively pursue the other members of this church with prayer and Bible study and watchfulness. That's God's cure for church discipline. To be a preemptive strike, to practice that preventative medicine that doesn't allow sin to grow and fester and make the whole body sick. So we talk about this, and again, it's supposed to be terrifying. It's supposed to be sickening. And it's supposed to lead us to say, we need to trust Christ, we need to believe in Christ, we need to obey Christ, and we need to proactively seek and pursue one another for the purpose of making disciples of Christ. Quite frankly, church discipline usually happens when somebody's been ignored, or when somebody refuses the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's look at our last section, God's covenant renewed. I'm not gonna read the entirety, what we see here in large part is God giving them victory over I. They've had a great victory, they've disobeyed, they've had an embarrassing defeat, now they've consecrated themselves and removed the devoted things, now they have a victory. And God, because he's rich in his mercy, he's already given instructions for them at this point. In Deuteronomy 7, he says, when you enter the land, I want you to go to these specific mountains, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and I want you to practice this particular covenant renewal. You're gonna go to Shechem. That's where Abraham first sacrificed and built an altar. You're going to go and you're going to perform sacrifices so that you are forgiven for your sins. And then, notice what much of this passage has to talk about. You're going to read the commandments of Moses. the commandments of the Lord. You're going to read the blessings, you're going to read the curses. God isn't giving Israel a second chance right here. He's just being God. I have committed myself to you, he says. I am with you. I do expect you to be my holy people because I put my holy name upon you. But he's not a God of second chances. He's just saying, I am the God of grace who's going to keep my people. You need to obey me. What's amazing about this passage is that he makes his word clear. He doesn't give him a new word, doesn't give him a new commandment. He says, read Moses' law. Church, God's word is sufficient. His word is sufficient for us to hear now that we have heard of Christ, we believe in that great sacrifice. His word is sufficient. And as we look at this one sin, God makes a big deal out of that one sin because every sin is an offense to him. So that we will truly be terrified. We're supposed to be terrified of our sin. We're supposed to be watchful over our lives, really watchful of one another, because that one sin can cause all kinds of destruction. And here's the beauty of being a connected church. Our sin is gonna cause other people great pain, and disunity, and discouragement. One sin, it affects the whole body. As Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians five, We need to be terrified of our sin, we need to be terrified of other sin. And we need to be committed to clinging to Christ, being dependent upon His grace, and obeying His commands. So as we consider this, we have to ask, has God given us clear commands? Do we love our sinful desires more than His decrees? Are we truly going to live for Him, or are we going to bring trouble upon ourselves and those we love? Let's take a moment of silence for reflection. Father, I thank you that you have given us stories like this that show us the great weight and danger of sin. And it shows us the great mercy and kindness that you show to your people who believe. We thank you that you keep us. We thank you that you persevere us. I pray that we would be terrified of our sin. Those desires that linger, those desires that we protect even, those desires that we choose over your decrees. Help us, Lord, to see the danger that we have in loving these desires and not worshiping you and not obeying you. I pray we as a church will be a place where we know we are all sinners coming together ready to show grace, ready to show forgiveness, ready to reconcile, and ready to restore. We praise you that your grace is efficient. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.