If you would, turn with me again
tonight to Joshua chapter 7. This is our fourth or fifth study,
I guess, in chapter 7. And in past studies, we've seen
the sin of Achan, and we've talked about sin in general. And that's
somewhat our subject again tonight. Let's read the first nine verses
of chapter 7 again. Joshua chapter seven, verse one. But the children of Israel committed
a trespass in the accursed thing, for Achan, the son of Carmi,
the son of Zaddi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah,
took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled
against the children of Israel. And Joshua sent men from Jericho
to Ai, which is beside Beth-Aban, on the east side of Bethel, and
spoken to them, saying, go up and view the country. And the
men went up and viewed Ai, and they returned to Joshua, and
they said unto him, let not all the people go up, but let about
2,000 or 3,000 men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the
people to labor thither, They are but few. These spies come
back and basically say, we got this. We don't have to put a
whole big effort into it. We got this. Just send two or
3,000 men. We'll wipe them out. So there
went up, verse four, so there went up thither of the people
about 3,000 men, and they fled before the men of Ai. And the
men of Ai smote of them about 30 and six men, for they chased
them from before the gate of Even unto Shebarim and smote
them in the going down, wherefore the hearts of the people melted
and became as water. And Joshua ran his clothes and
fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord unto
the eventide. He and the elders of Israel put
dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, alas, O Lord
God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan
to deliver us and to hand the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we had been content
and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. O Lord, what shall I
say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For
the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it,
and shall environ us around, and cut off your name from the
earth. And what wilt thou do unto thy
great name? You know, one thing that God
has revealed to all his chosen people is their sin. Every true
child of God has been made aware of their sin. And in seeing our
sin, we see our need of Christ, the one and only Savior. And
what a mercy it is for us to see our sin. It's not a pleasant
thing, but it is a great mercy that God shows us our sin. And
we'll not only see that the sins that we commit, but God shows
us that sin is what we are. And you know, we say that a lot.
We talk about that a lot. And if you remember Sunday, we
looked at Psalm 51, verse three, where David confessed. He said,
I acknowledge, and that word simply means I admit, accept,
and confess my transgressions. And there the word is plural. I confess my sins. And then he
says, and my sin, singular, is ever before me. David acknowledges
his transgressions. His sins were many, and so are
ours. But he confesses that his transgressions,
plural, are caused by his sin, singular. In Romans 5, verse
12, Paul wrote, wherefore, as by one man's sin, singular, entered
into the world, and death by sin, again singular, and death by sin and so death
passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Because of Adam's
disobedience, sin, sin, singular, entered into the world and death
came by that sin. Death came by that state of being
a sinner. This is what I want you to see.
Adam died spiritually and we all died in him. So death passed
upon all men, that's what he said. Because in Adam, everyone
actually became sin. I want us to see that sin is
what we are. We're not sinners because we
sin. We sin because we're sinners.
Sin is what we are. We all commit sins, plural, because
of who and what we are. And we are sin and we are sinners. Sin is our state of being. We're
alienated from God by our sin nature. That's why we, as sinners,
drink iniquity like water. It just comes natural to us because
of what we are. My sin, singular, is ever before
me. My state of being, my fallen
nature is ever and always before me. That word ever, in the Hebrew
means continually. My sin is continually before
me. Our state of being is constantly
before us. What we are is perpetually brought
to mind. You know, I wake up in the morning
and I, you know, I'm thinking, you know, it's a new day. And
before I get out of bed, the things that go through my mind
and my, that's because of, Our sin is what we are. We're constantly,
continually, perpetually reminded that sin is our state of being. We commit sins, plural, because
sin is what we are. And I mean to be redundant. I want us to see that. It's been
revealed to us that we were shaped, we were formed in iniquity. We were not shaped in iniquities,
we were shaped Many sins did not shape us, but our state of
being, our nature of sin most certainly did. And by God's grace,
we see that it was in sin that our mothers conceived us. We
took on the same nature as our father, Adam, and we took on
the same nature as our earthly parents. And we see and we admit
and we confess that we were born in sin. And we came forth from
the womb speaking lies, plural, because sin's what we are. Because of our state of being,
our sin nature, none of us are capable of doing good. None of
us are righteous, not a single one. All of us have gone and
sought our own way. Because of who and what we are,
we're not sinners because we sin. No, we sin because we're
sinners. And I believe that in knowing
that, or having some small understanding of it, helps us to understand
ourselves a little better. I often say, how can I do that? You ever ask yourself that? Because
sin is what we are. Now in verse six, we find Joshua
renting his clothes and falling on his face before the ark of
the Lord, which was the closest thing to represent God upon the
earth at that time. You think about that. Joshua
fell down before the mercy seat. That's where we fall down, from
the mercy seat. Where else is there for us to
bow? Who else can deliver us from our nature of sin but our
sacrifice upon the mercy seat of the Lord Jesus Christ? And
it's here that Joshua and the elders put dust upon their heads.
We talked about that a little bit Sunday, showing us that they
had some understanding of who and what they were. They came
from the dust, they were formed out of the dust. Adam was, and
God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living
soul. And then Adam is our federal head, just threw that life away. God said, in the day you disobey
me, you'll die. You shall surely die. And he
lived for 900 plus years, but he died spiritually and we died
in him. And I'm reminded of what Sonia said today. She said, if
you're wrong about the fall, you're wrong about it all. And
she's so right. At this point, Joshua is still
unaware of Achan's sin, but he does know that his army has been
defeated by the enemies of God. And oh, this broke his heart. What he knows is 36 men have
lost their lives. And by his actions here, we see
that there's no question into him as to why. It's sin. Sin is the reason for all our
troubles in this life. The result, the penalty, and
the wages of sin being death. Joshua sees that these 36 corpses
are the evidence of Israel's sin against God. He knows that
sin is the cause. Look at verse one again. But
the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed land. For Achan, Achan, one man, The son of Carmiah, the son of
Zabdiah, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah took of the
accursed thing and the anger of the Lord was kindled against
the children of Israel. So here we see Joshua and Joshua. shows us, here Joshua shows us
something of what the true attitude and reaction of what every believer
should be when they realize that their sin has brought about great
consequences. There are great consequences
for sin. We've seen that very clearly
in our study of Achan. They know this because the consequence
of sin has been manifested with some kind of death. whether death
of body like Achan's or these 36 men, whether death to worship
or whether death to prayer or death to love, trust, and fellowship,
there's always some kind of death in the course of sin when committed
against God. And the first thing that Joshua
does here is to assume that the problem is within himself. That's
the first place that every true child of God looks. They look
within themselves. That's the total opposite of
human nature, isn't it? Human nature, the sin nature
within each of us looks in others to blame. We look to others to
blame. Boy, I am the worst at it. All of us are good at playing
what I call the blame game. After Adam sinned, the first
thing that he did was to seek to blame someone else, and he
ultimately blamed God. He said, the woman whom thou
gave me gave this to be with me. She gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. If you hadn't given me the woman,
I wouldn't be in this predicament. So really, God, it's all your
fault. Men, you ever blame your wives? Why did you ever blame your husband? But the true believer realizes
that when something has brought about death, they immediately
place blame upon themselves. That's what we should do. We
don't have anyone to blame but ourselves. A believer knows themselves
to be a sinner and they can think of a thousand reasons why they
deserve the wrath of God. And every child of God would
be hard-pressed to come up with one reason as to why God would
be gracious and merciful to them. God teaches them that it's only
for Christ's sake. Paul said, forgive others even
as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Not knowing who
was responsible for the death that entered the camp, Joshua
didn't know why it had entered. And it was because of sin and
knowing that, he looked no further than himself. You know, honestly,
I can look back on all my failures and knowing also that the ones
that are yet to come are all my fault. They really are. And
they're all because of my sin, my state of being, my nature. Do you remember and their last
meal together before Christ our Lord was crucified. The Lord
said to his disciples, verily I say unto you that one of you
shall betray me. And every single disciple, except
for Judas, was exceeding sorrowful, the scripture says, and they
began, every one of them to say to the Lord Jesus, Lord, is it
I? Is it me, am I the one? Suspicious
of sin and betrayal always should start with us. Lord, is it I? But to avoid this suspicion in
himself, it was later that Judas asked, and I find it a bit ironic
that he asked it this way. He said, master, is it I? And the Lord said, thou hast
said. Well, how had he said? By him being the last to ask,
I believe, proved Judas to be the guilty one. And in our text
here, we find Joshua renting his clothes. We talked a little
bit about that Sunday, what that is. That shows signs of great
humiliation. Why did he show this humiliation? Why did he rent his clothes?
Because he knew that he was naked before God. And in some humility,
the renting of his clothes was showing God that he knew he was
naked before him. All of us are naked before God.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do. We can pull the wool over others'
eyes, and sometimes even convince ourselves that we're not wrong,
but not God. He sees all things. Joshua fell
to the earth in the dust, and he knew this was where he belonged,
and he did so before the presence of the ark. And he took the place
of a sinner, the place in the dust of humility. The only place
where mercy is to be found. You know, that's the place mercy
is found. in the dust. God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace unto the humble. And then he said, submit yourselves
therefore to God. There's no higher place to come
for forgiveness than at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
word submit means to yield, to yield to a superior force, to
back down to the authority or will of another. That takes God-given
humility. It doesn't come to us by nature,
does it? Who do we submit to? Submit yourselves
therefore to God. All sins against Him. And this
is the response of the child of God. They take the place of
the guilty sinner and seek mercy at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And this is not done in pretension
and insincerity. There's an understanding within
the child, within the regenerated heart that sin is what we are,
and that only Christ can do for us what God requires for us. If something goes wrong, we place
ourselves as the first criminal in the lineup. You remember the
old lineups? I guess they still do them, I
don't know. But we'd have to put ourselves first in the lineup,
wouldn't we? That's what humbling yourself
before the mighty hand of God is. Joshua being a type of the
Lord Jesus who freely took the blame for all the sin of his
elect. Joshua falls before God looking
to put the blame on himself alone. But when Christ became guilty
for our sin, it was not out of suspicion of his own sin for
he knew no sin and he had no sin. He took our sin freely upon
himself and he bore the full punishment of it. And that's the only reason that
any of us are reconciled to God. Here in verse 7, Joshua speaks
as if he's the one to blame. Did you notice how he approaches
God? It may not be easy to see at
first glance, but he addresses Him as Adonai. That means Lord
of all. And then he addresses Him as
God, all capital letters. He addresses the Lord as Adonai
Jehovah. There's no higher name that men
can address God with. Lord of all, Jehovah, Savior. That covers what we need. He's everything that we need.
And this is done from a place of humiliation and reverence.
And it's here that Joshua lays hold of the only one who can
help him and give him peace. There's no place else for us
to go for that. What a lesson we can learn from
this. In considering his sin, Joshua does not flee from God,
but he flees to God. Because of this, I think of the
words of John the Beloved, who said, my little children, these
things I write unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin,
and it's not if, it's just when, or when we sin, there are no
ifs, ands, and buts, and we will, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. The sinner that's in Christ will
find The Lord Jesus Christ is not their judge to condemn them,
but their advocate to represent them to clear their name. Years
ago, I had an advocate, a lawyer who represented me in a case. And I was a bit frustrated that
this mediator of law didn't tell me everything about my case.
I'd call him up and I'd say, well, what about this? What about
that? say anything. I wanted a minute-by-minute update. I was complaining about this
to a friend of mine, and he said, David, he doesn't have to tell
you anything and everything. He's your advocate. He's representing
you as if he is you. He's standing in your place as
if He is the one who's accused of being guilty. You remember
that, Larry? You see, friends, when the child
of God sins, they have an advocate with the Father. And their advocate is the judge. And He's out to clear their name.
and he's out to do them good. Will we ever learn that our advocate
is standing in our place, made guilty for us, so that we might
not be judged? He is Jesus Christ the righteous,
and oh, what an advocate he is. So rejoice in that, you've got
an advocate. When you sin, you've got an advocate
with the Father. Fall on your face before God,
ask Him to forgive you. And He always will. He always
will. Now we find Joshua here questioning
his own motives concerning the divine providence of God. He
didn't desire to stay on the wilderness side of Jordan, though
he said that. He most definitely wonders if
in his heart there was something more in his desire for the promised
land than the honor and glory of God. We should be suspicious
of ourselves. We all have good reason to question
our motives because of the sin that so easily besets us as we
read in Hebrews 12. And at first Joshua seems to
be blaming God as Israel did when they were in the wilderness.
You remember what they said to Moses, did you bring us up out
of Egypt to let us die here in the wilderness? And then verse
seven, Joshua does say, did you bring us over Jordan to deliver
us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? And no doubt that
Joshua's words here display some weakness and indifference and
even distrust. But Joshua says these things
for the concern and the good of the people and the glory of
God. And they're not resented at all by the Lord. And this
is what Joshua is saying in verse seven. Have we lost the lives
of these men because we were not content with the state that
we were in? Did we simply grow weary and
impatient in our waiting for the hand of the Lord? It seems
as if they did. I didn't read anything in that
account where the Lord told them to just send two or 3,000 men. That's something that they seem
to decide upon their own. Did we simply grow weary and
impatient? You know, this exposes two great
problems that every believer to some degree struggles with. Contentment and patience. Unbelief and impatience. However
you want to say it, same two things. Lord, I want it and I
want it right now. Isn't that the way we are? Joshua
doesn't blame God, he blames himself. Often when believers
find themselves in sin, the first thing they do is distance themselves
from the worship of God and the fellowship of the church. It's
sad, but it's true. But here Joshua gives us a great
example. If and when we find that we've
sinned against the Master, now hear me on this, draw nigh unto
God, and He'll draw nigh unto you. You have no reason to be
afraid. He's your advocate. He's out
to do you good. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord and He shall lift you up. The rest of Joshua's
words teaches something of confessing our sin before the Lord. That's
what true confession is. It's giving glory to God. You
ever thought about that? That's what Joshua told Achan
down in verse 19. Look at it. 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. Confessing our sin is giving
glory to God. Confessing our sin to the Lord.
Because we're saying, Lord, I've sinned against you and you alone.
You're right when you judge me. You're clear of any wrongdoing
when you condemn me. I'm pleading for mercy. And mercy
He always gives. Every time. Every time. What a God we have. If we confess
our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Joshua here speaks to the reputation
of God's faithfulness. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. Why? For He, God, is faithful
that promised. He's faithful. I don't want to
talk much about my faithfulness, but I sure do love talking about
His. Through faith, also Sarah herself received strength to
conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past
age because she judged Him faithful who had promised. God had promised
to deliver His people and destroy all their enemies. This was the
promise and testimony that God had given to Joshua. And what
does Joshua say in verse eight? He says, what shall I say? What
Joshua is saying is, what shall my testimony of you, my Lord,
be when Israel is seen fleeing from their enemies? What disgrace
that brings to you, God. We don't want to bring disgrace
to you. If God promises something, friends, it's for sure. You can
count on it. It's for certain. God doesn't make things possible.
God makes these things He promised certain. And a child of God should
never bring reproach upon the Lord's name or his reputation
by acting in such a way that's contrary to his sovereign ability
and what he's promised. The Lord said it, that settles
it. Joshua's speech is one confounded. He asked, what shall I say to
comfort your people when the enemies will say that the God
of Israel is unable to deliver them? Will you, Lord, be charged
with weakness and unfaithfulness to your promise? You see, Joshua's
interest here is plainly in the glory of God's Word. Will we
ever learn? I wonder if we'll ever learn
that to act in unbelief is to bring reproach upon the name
of our sovereign Lord, who can do everything that He's promised. Why do we doubt Him? Shame on
us when we do. When the enemies of Christ and
His cross see the children of God in trouble and when they
fall into sin, you can count on the fact that God will be
ridiculed and defamed by those who hate Him. The chief priests
with the scribes and the elders mocked the Lord saying, well,
He saved others, Himself He cannot save. Let Him now come down from
the cross and we'll believe Him. And then they said, He trusted
in God, let His God deliver Him now. And they said this, if He
will have Him, He is God. For He said, I am the Son of
God, if the Father will have Him. Will God have you now? Look at you now. And yet he was
hanging there for your sin and my sin. Unbelieving he would
have him. Unbelieving men and women will
say, I thought your God was sovereign. I thought your God was out to
do you good. I thought God was working all things together for
you. He is. He is. May not look like it now,
but he is. You say that God doesn't punish
the sin of his people because Christ has been punished in their
place. Why then are you experiencing the trouble that you are? We
read it in Hebrews 12. He chastens those that he loves.
Chastening often seems like condemnation to others, but it's an act of
love to his people. Why then are you experiencing
trouble? I know this much, it's my fault, not God's. As we've
seen from past studies with the sin of Achan, there's consequence
to our sin. Yet our sin's against the glory
of God, and when a saved sinner's brought to confess their sin,
their interest will not only be in their forgiveness, but
in the honoring glory of God's person and character. No doubt
the question Joshua asked in the last part of verse 9 shows
us just that. He says, what will thou do unto
thy great name? That was his interest. This is
about your honor and your glory and your reputation, God. Don't
let me bring shame to it. And that's what the believer
asks when he sees the reputation and glory of God's in question
by their enemies. He doesn't look outside of himself
to find fault. He first assumes that he himself
is the one to blame, or that she is. They view themselves
as a chief of sinners. They see themselves as less than
the least, and they know that wretched men and women is what
they are. Lord enable us to have that attitude. and cause us to
lean wholly upon you and you alone to put our way our sin. You know, I'm convinced that
if we could truly see ourselves as we really are. And boy, this
is more for me than anyone else here tonight. If we could truly
see ourselves as we are, we would never judge anyone else for anything. I'm so guilty of that. Lord,
help me. Knowing that we ourselves are capable of the most horrific
things, God help us to be forgiving and long-suffering and patient
with others, knowing that apart from God's mercy and God's grace
to us, it could be us guilty of the very thing that we're
judging someone else of. You've heard the story of the
English evangelical preacher and martyr John Bradford, one
day he saw some convicted criminals being led to the scaffold to
be hung. And he said, there but for the
grace of God goes John Bradford. Well, Mr. Bradford didn't enjoy
that grace for long. Not very long later, it is said
that he himself was burned at the stake. before he was made
a martyr, it's recorded that he spoke to a fellow victim and
believer, these very words, tonight we shall have a merry supper
with the Lord. You know, we never know what
might come our way, but we know who sent it, and we know why,
don't we? The child of God knows that it's
for our good. He works all things, all things
together for our good. For them that love the Lord,
who will be called according to his purpose. God has promised
it to be so. And he's faithful, that promised. He's not a man that he should
lie. He's not a man that he should repent, change his mind. And
I think about how diminished our troubles in this life would
be if we would learn to give God the glory that's constantly
due Him. Even in the confession of our
sins, we can't hide anything from Him. Lord, forgive me. Help me. Save me. Don't you love those little prayers?
Lord, help me. Lord, save me. May God be pleased
to make it so for His glory, for our good, and for Christ's
sake. I sure appreciate your attention. And I pray that God will continue
to bless you and keep you and cause you to grow in the grace
and in the knowledge of Him. That's our only hope, friends.