If you will, turn with me to
Joshua chapter 6. We've read this text several
times over the last couple of weeks, but I want to read beginning
with verse 20 through the end of the chapter. That's where
the message is centered this morning. Now, here's what's going on.
is taking the tribes one by one, and their families one by one,
and the individuals one by one. He'd call the father of the house
in, and then each one of his children, and he would address
them, and basically say the same thing he said to Achan, he says
to all of them. So, and here's what that means.
What God says here, he says to all his church. Every one of
his elect. And Joshua said unto Achan, My
son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and
make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me. And Achan
answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord
God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among
the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment, and two hundred shekels
of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, I coveted
them, took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in
the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. Joshua sent
messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was hid
in his tent, and the silver under it. And he took them out of the
midst of the tent and brought them unto Joshua and unto all
the children of Israel. What's going on here? He's talking
about the evidence. Evidence, just like proof in
a courtroom. He's bringing the gold and the
garment and the silver and he's bringing it all. It's a public
trial. It's going to be established
in the mouth of two or three witnesses. God's going to be
justified in this thing of condemnation. And Joshua and all Israel with
him took Achan, son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment,
and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and
his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and
all that he had. And they brought them unto the
valley of Achor, the valley of trouble. And Joshua said, why
hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee.
this day. And Israel stoned him with stones
and burnt them, talking about his family and his ashes and
all that he had, burnt them with fire after they had stoned him
with stones. And they raised over him a great
heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness
of his anger, wherefore the name of that place was called the
Valley of Achor. unto this day. If you will turn back with me
to Joshua chapter 7. I was reading through one of
Paul's prayers in Ephesians 1 and his request was that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory, God's glory. God's glory is seen in everything
concerning salvation, creation, judgment, all things. His glory
is preeminent. That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. What's going
on here in Joshua chapter 7 is that very thing. The eyes of your understanding,
he said, being enlightened that you may know what is the hope
of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power which he brought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places. And then again, his prayer in
Colossians chapter 2, he said, for I would that you knew what
great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and
for as many as had not seen my face in the flesh, that their
hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto
all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and the Father of Christ, in whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And many other
prayers of the apostles and prayers shared by every man whom God
pleased to set over his people. This is the conflict that Paul's
talking about. It's so much I pray and want
you to understand what I see in the scriptures. It's so hard
for me sometimes to get down to an understandable message. It matters little to me. I'm
not going to stand up here like a college professor and rehearse
the doctrines. I want to get down to the heart
of the matter and that's the way I want to preach from my
heart to your heart. and pray that God the Holy Spirit
will accomplish that. My intent when I come to this
pulpit is to point you to Christ and to set him before you in
such a way as that the living God will be manifested in him. We'll see God in Christ and worship
God as he manifested in Christ and manifested in his gospel. And seeing him as he is, you'll
be given the full assurance of understanding. What's that mean? That means that you will be assured
that what you're hearing and what you're understanding is
of God. That's what he's talking about
there. I can't explain that. Only a believer can understand
what I'm saying. But that full assurance of understanding. That's it. You ever said that? Preacher's preaching and all
of a sudden he'll hit on point? Man, that's it. That's what Paul's
talking about. That's his prayer. That's his
conflict. And I share that. I think every God called preacher
shares that in his prayer. Assured that your understanding
is truly of God and according to His Word. and whatever doctrine
you're being taught. Understanding of God as He's
manifested in His Son is eternal life. That's what eternal life
is. Listen to this, 1 John chapter
5, you should know this by heart, I've quoted it so many times,
verse 20. And we know, now what he says
in verse 19 is we know that the whole world, we are God and the
whole world lies in wickedness. And then he says this with an
and. And we know that the Son of God has come and given to
us an understanding that we may know him that is true, that we
are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This
is the true God and eternal life. That's his godly understanding. I don't want folks to come here
and go home fascinated by some facts. I want them to go home
rejoicing in Christ, understanding what was said from the heart,
being affected by it. I want you to go home anxious
to come back. Boy, I can't wait till next week.
I was preaching through the Psalms the Psalms of Ascension, and
quite a few people would text me, I can't wait for the next
message. They sang these Psalms as they
went to Jerusalem to worship, and they ascended up to Jerusalem.
We go to worship, we're always ascending up, aren't we? I want you to go home motivated
by the love and mercy of God, determined more than ever to
serve Him in whatever capacity He's pleased to put you. That's
my inward conflict. That's what Paul's talking about.
This is where I struggle as I study to preach. And I would ask that
you pray for me that God will give me and help me to be faithful
in my calling. It's a struggle. All preaching
is just the easiest job in the world. Try it. Try it. It's not easy. There's nothing easy about it.
Nothing simple about it. Now I want to teach one more
lesson from Joshua chapter 7. I don't feel as though I've really
gotten under the marrow of this subject here concerning Achan. Everything that I've told you
so far is true. The chastisements of our father
can be severe. It's not always just a... My
dad sometimes would just cut his eyes down at us and we knew
what was coming next. But if you didn't and you persisted
in what you were doing, you find out what comes next. Chastisement
is very real from God. It's not just a thing that we
talk about. It's real. But as I read these verses again,
I was reminded that this attack on Jericho is a picture of God's
assault on the heart. God's going to assault every
chosen sinner. When His time has come, when
it pleases the Lord, Paul said, that's when it will come, when
it pleases Him, not when it pleases you. Not when all of a sudden
you feel like this is something I need to do or some decision
I need to make. No, it's of God. And in His time,
every chosen sinner is going to be visited by the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel, and he's going to come
under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The story of Achan is the story
of the conviction of a sinner. That's what this whole chapter
is all about. That's what this battle, death,
judgment, all these things, this is a picture of the conviction
of a sinner. Our Lord said in John 16, 7,
It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come. The Holy Ghost. He's not going
to come. There's no need for Him to come while Christ was
there. What the Holy Spirit's going to do when He comes is
kind of in His place, He's going to reveal to you all things that
are in Christ. Everything that Christ is doing,
has done, He's going to reveal God to you in Christ. But the
Holy Spirit's not going to come unless He goes to the Father.
He said, but if I go away, I'll send Him to you. Christ will
send him to us. If I depart, I'll send him unto
you. And when he's come, now listen
to this, he will reprove the world of sin. Of what? Of sin. And of righteousness. And of judgment. This is what
the Holy Spirit does. People that dance around and
talk in tongues are not demonstrating the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. Gives us the full assurance of
understanding. We know that that's it. This
is the message of God. There's no other way to know
it except by the power of God's Spirit. And he works in conjunction
with the preaching of the gospel. Explain that. I can't. I just
know it so. The language in John 16 uses
the word reprove. It's two words, re-prove. What's that mean? Prove again. That's what it means. When the
Holy Spirit's come, He's going to prove to you again what Christ
already told you. What the Word of God's already
told you. What example after example's already declared. He's
going to re-prove the world of sin. Now listen to me, that word
means prove again. Let me add something to it. Again
and again and again and again. This thing of conviction of sin
is not a single act. There's a first time, and that
first time is generally very dramatic. It's an experience
that we'll never forget. But he's going to do it every
time you hear the gospel preached. These three things ought to take
place in your heart. Conviction of sin, conviction
of righteousness, If I'm the sinner that he says I am and
I confess that, then I'll know that I need this righteousness.
It's his righteousness alone that makes me presentable to
God. It's not what I do. What I do doesn't do anything
for me. I'm a sinner. Everything I do
is sinful. His sacrifice has to cleanse
my work, made acceptable. by Jesus Christ. Isn't that what
it says? Your reasonable service made acceptable. My service,
whatever it is, preaching this morning, is not fit to present
to God apart from that sacrifice of Christ and His righteousness.
Are you with me so far? These three things the Holy Ghost
does within chosen sinners as they hear the gospel. conviction
of sin, righteousness, and satisfied justice. Now, I want us to see Achan this
morning as the sinner being convicted of sin. God puts him on trial. Now, here's Christ in the person
of Joshua, and he falls on his face before God. Say, well, we
were ignorant of that. We didn't know what was going
on. He's not going to say that. No, he's going to fall on his
face as though he were guilty himself. And he's going to, what's
he going to plead? He's going to plead the glory
of God, His name. And plead for mercy. And so he goes
and begins to question by By the Lord of Glory's instruction,
he begins to question family by family until he comes to Achan. Now, Achan is put on trial. And
he said, my son, give glory to God. What's that mean? That means
confess your sins. as they are against God. David
said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. My sin is against God. What's
that mean? It's against God's love, His
person, His perfection, His mercy, His grace. It's in the light
of that. I've sinned against God. That's
what Aikens confessed. It wasn't just that he broke
some rules. Everybody breaks rules, don't
you? You don't ever stop at a stop
sign, do you? You just kind of flow up and go on through. If he limits it to 55, I can
do 60 and they'll let me go. Yeah, it's not just rules. No, He takes your sin and He
shows you what it is. He puts a man on trial. The Holy Spirit will put you
on trial. And you'll think everybody in the room can see your heart
just the same way you do. Huh? Oh yeah, he'll strip you
bare. Think about Achan. He was a man
who went to war, had the sword in his hand, people laying dead
at his feet. He was part of Israel. He was
positive, he was. He was a saint of God, and he
was the victory king. The people were lying dead on
the ground, and he's standing among the dead when he commits
his sin. And when he comes before all
Israel, Joshua ascends and gets the evidence. And it's brought
before him. Here it is. The gold. What's
that? That's the deity of God. God
didn't put him on trial for a mineral. God put him on trial for what
that mineral represented. The deity of God. The perfections
of God. All the things involved in the
salvation of a sinner. The silver has to do with his
redemption. The work of Christ. And he's
got this thing wrapped up in a Babylonian garment. Now I can't
explain it, but I know when the old king represented Satan in
Jericho, and Satan's always whispering in the ears of the sinner, this
is okay because you're doing this for the good of your family.
This is okay because this is glorifying to God. And I'd hate
to think how many aisles have been walked over the years. People
come down an aisle thinking this is part of being saved, kneeling
down at a mourner's bench and saying some words, and a man
right beside them telling them what to say. You say, people don't really
do that. Oh, yes, they do. I've had them do it to me. Talk
me down an aisle, kneel down, and somebody's kneeling down
right beside me, one of the elders of the church, pray this, say
this, do this, and then tell me I'm saved. One time I did it, and I knew
that what I'd done didn't accomplish anything. And they asked me,
said, is everything all right? I said, no, it's not. Not all
right. Well, you just have to believe.
Well, you have to have something or someone to believe. This thing
about just believe. Believe what? If any man shall call on the
name of the Lord, he'll be saved. We don't just shout out the word
Lord. We understand His name. His name's
been declared to us. And what we're doing, we're doing
in that name. It wasn't so much the minerals
that God forbid for them to take, but what they pictured. If a man hides the idea of free
will in his tent, in his body, that's what he's talking about.
The place where he lives, this hollow shell, this flesh. If
a man hides the idea of free will in his tent, he's robbing
God of his sovereignty. If he hides silver in his tent,
he's hiding the redemptive work of Christ as though he did it. It was my decision that saved
me. It was my giving, my promise
of giving. He made deals, you know. So here's the picture. The gospel
horn was blown. The walls crumbled. The saints
came in the power of God. God assaulted this Jericho, this
hiding place. He assaulted. Sinners were slain.
But Achan saw a goodly Babylonian garment. And that's what the
old king does. It's OK to take the gold. You
can wrap it up in this garment. Nobody will know what you got
it. I don't know that anybody knew that he picked up the gold,
but they saw the garment that he had in his hand. And that's
what we do under false religion. We hide this stuff. What's that
garment represent? You, the sinner. And it's in
a goodly. Self-righteousness, to make it
plain as I can. That's what it is. And He hides
all these things in there, and you think that this is a righteousness
making you acceptable to God, your decisions and hour walking
and pledge card signing and whatever else it is that they tell you
to do, going in the church. Christ told the Pharisees, He
said, you go learn what this means. I'll have mercy and not
sacrifice. For I am not come to save the
righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. Well, you say,
Achan didn't repent. Sure he did. Sure he did. He confessed what he did. And
let me tell you something. When God puts you on trial, the
Holy Spirit convicts you in such a way that you think everybody
in the world can see what you are and what you've done. And
the saints do. People in Jericho couldn't see
anything. They were dead. That's the picture. The world
can't see it. You can talk about it all you
want to. They can't see anything. But Israel could see what was
going on and they were gathered there for that purpose. A sinner
comes under conviction and God brings in the evidence. and let
them see it. You've sinned against love. You've
sinned against life. You've sinned against mercy.
You've sinned against the free gift that's being given you right
now. Your inheritance is coming to you right now. And here you
are over here gathering up stuff that belongs to God. The glory
of God is trying to hide it in your tent for yourself and for
your family. Oh, my soul. This conviction
of sin, what you do, it makes you despise yourself. What happened
to Aitken when he was put on trial? When he was convicted,
they took him out and killed him. What happens to a sinner
when he's under conviction of sin? He dies. He dies. He sees himself worthy of death. And he sees himself dying in
a substitute. Christ wasn't suffering for something
he did. He's suffering for what I did.
He bore our sins in his own body on the cross. Well, how awful
must my sin be to kill the Son of God? How terrible must I be? Well, this is what Holy Spirit
conviction does. It shows you your crimes in the
light of His love and His mercy and His grace and God's gift
to you. And you sin. You go ahead and
sin anyway. I'll tell you, spiritually, you
understand what I'm saying? This is a picture. Achan actually
died. But so does the sinner under
Holy Spirit conviction. Paul said, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and what? I
died. He didn't die, he kept on living.
No, he died spiritually. What's that mean? That means
he quit looking to the flesh for anything to do with life.
He looked to Christ. You're dead. That's what the
scripture said. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. And when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall
we appear with Him. If you're believers here this
morning, I'm preaching to a church full of dead men. That's right. Our life is hid with Christ. When He was raised from the dead,
we raised up with Him. Where are we at? Seated with
Him in glory. That's where we're at. But I
tell you, you'll never serve God or walk with God, and God
won't bless a work until the sinner's dead. He's gonna put
him on trial, and He's gonna put him to death, and everybody's
gonna see it and say, Amen. Huh? We died in Christ, spiritually. I buried with Him, spiritually.
Took Him out and made a monument. Huh? Marked it. Valley of Trouble. Oh. He said, Why hast thou troubled
us thus? The Lord shall trouble you this
day. You think the Lord don't trouble a sinner when he's under
conviction? My soul. He pronounces his own
judgment. God ought to send me to hell.
You're going to get on God on this side of condemnation. Achan
knew what was coming. Death. And he still agreed with
God. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying to save a sinner, God has to kill him. That's what
I'm saying. Just to kill them. You're going to have to die out
to this world. Death. One man heard me preaching,
went home and he told his friend that invited him, he said, dead,
dead, dead. That's all that preacher knows
is dead. Well, I am dead spiritually. I can talk to you about death.
If you're a believer, you're dead spiritually. We die. We see there's nothing in us
to recommend us to God. You know, sometimes I'll use
that phrase, shut up to Christ. That's what that's talking about.
That man on the cross, dying right beside the Lord. He was
shut up to Christ, wasn't he? We ought to die. We're guilty. That's right. But here's the
part that ought to help you. We see ourselves dead in Christ. Here's sin. in the crucifixion
of Christ. I learned what sin is, and I
hate sin. I hate what I am. I don't want
to do what I do. I may still do it, but I don't
love it. I don't lust for it. I don't
want it. Am I making any sense at all? Sometimes I feel like I ain't
going anywhere. That's what this story is all
about. The conviction of a sinner. God puts him on trial. How does
he do it? In the gospel. Christ must die. He must die. Peter said, far
be it from thee, Lord. Everybody else may forsake you,
but I won't. Huh? That's a sinner. Achan probably
felt secure. He had a little something tucked
back in his tent, you know. That's when we feel the most
secure, when a sinner hides stuff that he thinks he's done. Oh
boy, I really got a hold of the horns of the altar. I heard a
man say that one time. It made me shiver. I really got
a hold of the horns of the altar last night. I don't know whose
horns it was, but it wasn't the horns of the altar you got a
hold of. Oh my soul. Conviction of sin.
Well, I've already went through that. Yeah, but you're going
to go through it again and again and again. The Holy Spirit is
going to keep on reproving us of sin, reproving. In that message,
you'll see yourself as nothing. Man at his best state, altogether
vanity. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption of Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you this, once
he's convicted you of sin, he'll have to convince you of righteousness.
Because you won't find anything righteous in yourself. He shuts
us up to Christ. He said, Paul said, listen to
what this man preached. He was a self-righteous Pharisee.
God convicted him of sin and he died. Now he preached conviction
of sin by the Holy Ghost. At resurrection in Christ, he's
preaching the righteousness of Christ. Reprove. What a word. He's going
to reprove those who have sinned. And he uses that word world.
That word world, if you look at it in the picture of Jericho,
here's the world. Who's in it? His saints. Who's going to inherit it? His
saints. So it's really about the saints.
It ain't about the whole world. And here's Rahab. That's his
elect. And he's chosen her out of the world. And he's going
to save her. This whole thing is a picture of God's assault
on the heart through the gospel. Convincing us of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. And once God has taken what's
demanded. The death of the sinner. Everything's
alright then. There's nothing left but the
blessings of God. That's why we pray for Holy Spirit
conviction, because that's what it leads. The death of the sinner
and the satisfaction of God. We died in Christ. Oh my soul, you hath equipped
who were dead. Now we are dead, no doubt about
that. But seeing yourself dead, that's
a whole other thing. And I'll tell you something else.
I can sit here and read to you over and over and over. I can
probably quote you at least ten scriptures that have to do with
sin that's just awful. And you may have already memorized
those things from all the repetition. You're my preacher. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. You can know that.
Man has his best state to all together manage it. You can know
that. All his righteousnesses are his filthy rags. You can
know that. But it's not until the Holy Spirit
sets these things in such a way that the heart sees them. You
know, this man, whatever honor and integrity, whatever Assurance,
whatever this man had, was gone after the conviction of sin.
After the trial he was put on, he was worthy of death. That
was it. And Israel participated in it.
Took the stones and stoned him and fired and burned him. Oh my soul. Is that real conviction? It is when the Holy Spirit does
it. It's as real as though you were aching on trial. And I'll tell you this, you can't
walk with God and serve him. This is what makes a man humble.
And God strips him of everything. Shows him his guilt. Now he's
a humble servant. And he walks by grace. And it's
the love of God that constrains him. Because we once, we judged
that if one dies for all, then all were dead. And if they live,
they live to do what? To serve God. If He gives you
life after that, that's what it's for, to serve Him. And that's
how we see ourselves. Now I hope I've been successful
in preaching this to you in such a way that you can understand
it at least in your head. Holy Spirit conviction is necessary
and it's common to all of God's elect. Am I trying to push you
to an experience? No, but you'll have an experience
if he does it. You really will. You'll hate
yourself. And you'll quit looking to yourself
for this, that, and the other. You'll start looking to Christ.
I don't have anything left in this world but a grave. That's
all I got. I got a grave coming. I may be
able to sing a few songs or preach a few messages, but other than
that, what I got coming is a grave. Everything that I hope for is
in Christ. Everything I hope for is in heaven,
not earth. You see what I'm saying? Holy
Spirit conviction. You have to have it. You have
to have it. And once you've had it, He leaves
you then with a true hope in His righteousness and in that
satisfied justice. And we walk away not feeling
condemned, we walk away being thankful for God's mercy and
justice being satisfied. forgiveness of sins. But without
it, it's just a word game. It's just like memorizing mathematics
until you have the situation where you have to use it, but
it don't do you any good.