Joshua. Joshua chapter 7. Joshua chapter 7. I've entitled this message, A Picture
of Grace in Achan. A Picture of Grace
in Achan. In verse 1 of chapter 7 of Joshua
we read, "...but," this is in conjunction of what went before,
"...but the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed
thing. For Achan the son of Carmi, the
son of Zebdiah, the son of Zariah, of the tribe of Judah, took of
the accursed thing. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against the children of Israel." Now just before this,
we have in chapter 6, the glorious victory the glorious victory
of the children of Israel over Jericho. The nation of Israel
that conquered that mighty city of Jericho and God had laid flat
the walls of Jericho. You remember they had marched
around that city one time a day for six days. And on the seventh
day they marched around the city seven times and on the seventh
time When they finished that seventh circumference of the
city, God commanded them to shout, and when they did, the walls
of the city fell flat. God wrought for them a mighty
victory. A victory without their help.
A victory without their work. It was the work of God that wrought
the victory at Jericho. So then, God claimed the spoils
of war. To the spoils, to the victor,
go the spoils. And remember, it was God who
conquered Jericho, therefore God said, Touch not the accursed
thing. Don't take anything from Jericho. You did not merit it. You did
not earn it. It is accursed in my sight. If
you take it, it belongs to me. You take the gold and the silver
and the precious things and you put them in the treasury of the
temple. They're mine. I've won the battle. taking off the accursed thing.
You see that in chapter 6 and look at verse 17, this is what
God said. He said, the city shall be accursed even all that are
therein to the Lord. Who does this belong to? The
Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live,
she and all that are in her house because she had hid the messengers
that we sent. And ye in any wise keep yourself
from the accursed thing lest you make yourselves accursed
when you take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel
a curse and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and
the vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury
of the Lord." So then the Lord in chapter 6 when they took the
spoils, when That he said in chapter 6, all
the spoils were cursed. And this is the reason. He said,
if you take this thing, now we know this, that a piece of cloth
is not anything. A cloth itself cannot bear a
curse. The curse was, if you took it,
You received a curse because of disobedience to God. God claimed
it. It was God's. You took it and
you would be accursed if you took the thing that belonged
to God. But in chapter 7, we read of someone We read of
something taking place here, it says, but they had a great
victory. God said, don't take anything,
it belongs to me. They had a great salvation over
Rahab and her family, great time of joy, don't you suppose? Great
time of joy. Victory had happened, just like
God said, but, but, something else happened. But the children
of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing for Achan."
Achan took the accursed thing and the anger of the Lord was
kindled against them. Now listen, Achan took this thing
and I'm sure he had plenty of reasons in his own mind to do
it. I'm sure he had plenty of reasons
why he said, well this would be wasteful. Surely it would
be wasteful for us to destroy all of these fine things. He thought surely no one would
miss this and God won't see this. But God did notice this. God
did notice this. God who tries the hearts and
reins of all men knows all our sins. Is that not amazing to
you? That we don't even know half of the sins we've ever committed. We cannot count even the ones
that we have known of. Much less the thoughts and intents
of our heart that are so deceptive God knows this sin. God here
in this text pronounces that because of the sin of Achan,
notice what happened. It didn't say, but Achan committed
a trespass in the accursed thing, did it? It says Israel who committed
a trespass. And God's anger was kindled against
not just Achan, but the whole nation of Israel. And so then
God set out to manifest this anger. And He does this in these
next few verses. And Joshua sent out men to Jericho
under the next city called Ai, which is beside Bethhaven on
the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up
and view the country. And the men went out and viewed
Ai, and they returned to Joshua and said, let not all the people
go up. Let about 2,000 or 3,000 men
go up and smite Ai. And make not all the people to
labor thither, for they are but few. And so there went up thither
the people, about three thousand men, and what happened? And they
fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote about
thirty and six men, and they chased them before the gate,
even to Shebarim, and smote them, and
going down. Wherefore the hearts of the people
melted and became as water." He said, look, this little town
of Ai, it's nothing. It's like Henryville. It's a
small little town. Nothing there. Not a big deal. Just grab a few thousand men,
go down there and whip them. Ain't going to take nothing for
this town. We did Jericho. They didn't. God did. But they
accounted themselves strong enough to go without God. They neither asked God to be
with them, nor was God with them. And they
retreated. And I tell you this, it wasn't
because of the small number they sent. They could have sent everybody
and the result would still be the same. Why? Because God was
against them. Israel had a curse. Israel had
sinned against God. And God was not allowing this
victory. And so then in verses 6 through
12, Joshua now begins to bemoan this. He said, Joshua ran his
clothes and fell on the earth on his face before the ark of
the Lord until eventide. He and the elders of Israel,
and they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord
God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan,
to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content
to dwell on the other side. Does that sound familiar? Does
that not sound exactly like the Israelites who were not allowed
to go over? Is that not exactly what they
say? Lord, you sent us out here to die in the wilderness. Better
we were left it at Egypt. O LORD, what shall I say when
Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites
will and the habitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall
envelop us round, and cut off our name from the earth. And
what wilt thou do unto thy great name? O LORD, all is lost. Surely now your great name will
fail." Look what God said. He said, Joshua, get up. Get up! Get thee up, wherefore liest
thou on my face? Here's the cause Israel have
sinned, and they have transgressed my covenant which I commanded
them. For they have taken of the accursed
thing, and have also stolen, and disassembled also, and they
have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children
of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their
backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will
I be with you any more, except," here it is, "'except you destroy
the accursed thing from among you.'" Sanctify the people, say,
sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, for thus saith the Lord of Israel,
Lord God of Israel. There is an accursed thing in
the midst of thee, O Israel. Thou canst not stand before thine
enemies until it has taken away the accursed thing from among
you." So he says, There's a man that's caused trouble. There's
sin among you. And then the next verse is what
they do is begin to cast lots. They cast lots and the lot fell
on the man who sinned. It finally came down, came from
Judah, it went down that tribe to his family and finally it
fell on this man, Achan. In verse 19, Joshua said unto
Achan, My son, give I pray thee glory unto the Lord God of Israel
and make confession unto him. And tell me now, what hast thou
done? Hide it not from me." And Achan
answered to Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against
the Lord God of Israel, and thus have I done." Achan sinned against God. He took the spoils. He took that
Babylonian cloth and that shekels of silver, and he took the wedge
of gold, and he hid it in his tent. And you know what happens to
this man in the end of this chapter is that verses 24 through 26,
I'll tell you this, just to make it brief, he took that wedge
of gold and that shekels of silver, took that fine linen from Babylon,
and he took Achan and he sent him out in this valley called
Achar. And all the nation of Israel
stoned him and his family to death. And they buried him, his
family, the gold, the silver, and the cloth. And as soon as that was done,
God said, Now, go take the city of Ai, for I have given it unto
you. Now, I've just read through this
history of this man Achan, but I want you to see there's, oh,
there's so much here. There's so much here. Every time
we read the Old Testament, Please, yes, get the history. It's important
to get the story of what happened. But as soon as you understand
that, it is vital for us to see that this is a gospel message. It is a message of Christ and
Him crucified. It is a message of God to His
Church. And that's my intent this morning,
is to take this that you have, this history, and show you what
how Christ is pictured and how his church is pictured in this.
First of all, I want to see that this man, Achan, is a two-fold
picture. First of all, he is a picture
of Adam. He is a picture of Adam in his
sin. And secondly, he is a picture
of Christ in his death. picture of Christ in his death.
Let's see this. Let's see this. First of all,
Achan is a type of picture of Adam in his transgression. As
in this first verse we see the sin of Achan pictures our father's
sin as Achan took of the accursed thing. Remember, God says it
was stolen These things belonged unto God
and Achan stole them. He took of the accursed thing. He robbed God of what belonged
to God. And that's exactly what Adam
did in the garden. Go over to Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis chapter 2. Look at verse 15. The Scripture says, And the Lord
God took the man, and He put him in the garden to dress it
and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die." God by divine right as creator gave man every tree. At this time don't you know that
every tree produce fruit? Is that not amazing to us? How
many trees do we see now that do not produce anything but leaves? It's fall. And you're going to
just see that what they produce, nothing but dead leaves all over
the place. No fruit whatsoever. I got a
tree in the yard, big tree. I don't eat anything from that
tree. Adam did. He could have. All of the trees
produce fruit. Fruitful. And God says, I give
you every tree for food except one. Now why did God withhold
this one? Because it's God's. God said,
that is my tree. Don't eat it. Don't eat it. And He gave a very stern warning
in the day, Thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And so
then we know in the next chapter exactly what happened. Adam fully
understanding. Eve was deceived. Adam was not
deceived. Fully understanding what he was
doing. Adam in full rebellion against
God. Loved the woman more than he
loved God. He took the fruit and he ate
it on purpose. He stole that which was God's. And he became accursed. He died, spiritually died, and
physically began to die. But notice in your text that
when Achan sinned, the sin was not just accounted to Achan. Why did God do this in Scripture?
We know this, that when I sin, that's not going to be accounted
to you. But yet God sees this as a corporate
thing because the covenant was made with all the people. But
this was intended to be a picture. This was intended to be a type
of Adam to show this, that by one man, sin entered into the
world. And death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, for all have sinned. By the disobedience of one were
many made sinners. Just as Achan took that which
belonged to God and robbed God of His glory, so Achan's sin
was accounted to the whole nation as Adam's sin was. Therefore,
friends, all men by nature being born dead in trespasses and sins
because of the sin of Adam. By this one man, sin entered
into God's creation and death and hell and justice that passed
that death along to every one of us, and our children as well.
Our children received this from us. So every man by nature and by
birth, the result is true. And you know what men say about
this. They say, that's just not fair. I don't like this idea of representative
doctrine that you're preaching. That his sin was accounted to
me. Alright, let's just talk about
you then. How'd you do? Have you not sinned? So what's your excuse? There
is no excuse. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And I have you know this, I like
representative headship, federal headship. You know why? Because
I'm saved by a federal head. I was doomed by a federal head,
but praise God I was also saved by one. Friends, the Scriptures are very
clear that all men are guilty before God and have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And by our love for sin and rebellion
against God, we too, like our Father, have taken that which
belonged to God. Can you not see this rebellion?
I see the rebellion of man more clearly in one aspect than anything
else. Religion. Religion. This rebellion is seen very clearly
in those who try to rob God of His glory, these religious men
who think it possible to be accepted with God by their works. Any
man who believes that is robbing God of His glory. Free will, works, religion, they're nothing but thieves and
robbers. Always trying to steal glory from God. Listen, salvation
is of the Lord. And the moment you put anything
to it, you rob God of His glory. You are manifesting exactly what
our Father did. What did our Father do when He
died spiritually? What's the first thing He did?
He ran and hid from God. And then He tried to cover Himself
with His own works. That's what man does by nature.
Always seeking to rob God of His glory. Because all we do
is sin, all our works are full of sin, therefore we cannot be
saved by our own righteousness. Listen friends, God will not
be robbed. If any man strives to earn his favor with God, he
too will find himself like Achan. cursed and doomed to die. If you face God in your own righteousness,
you will die. I'm warning you. I am warning
you. If you face God in your works,
you will die. If the Lord should mark iniquity,
oh Lord, who should stand? And you pay attention because
God does mark iniquity. God does count iniquity. And He doesn't miss one. Now
you got that? He don't miss one. He sees all
our sin, all our thoughts, all our motives of the heart, and
He counts every one of them. So then who shall stand? Who
shall be able to face God, seeing we have all sinned? I tell you
this, as Israel was defeated by Ai, even so, because of sin,
we shall never overcome this nature. Think of one man against an army.
Just one man, one small man against an army. You would think that
that would be easy to defeat. But listen, you set a whole nation
against him, you can't change his nature. Can't change his nature. You
cannot change your nature and neither can anyone else. No man can overcome his nature. He cannot save himself. He cannot
redeem himself from the curse of the law. Therefore, he must die. Just
as Achan died, he will surely die. Just as they could not defeat
Ai, you will be defeated. If you seek to be accepted with
God by your own strength. If you, by the grace of God,
have seen this about yourself, good. Can anyone identify with
Achan? Because this pastor can. I can
identify with Achan. I know exactly what it is to
rob God. My father robbed God and I robbed
God. By nature that's what we are.
Now if you've seen this, if you know this, good! Because only by this does God
bring us to see any hope. And there's hope in this text.
There's hope because Achan is not only a type of Adam, I want
you to see that Achan is also a type of Christ. Look at verse 26. Let's read verse 25, and Joshua
said he brought him to that valley of Achar. He got his family together,
got all that cursed thing together, all of his sheep and asses and
oxen, brought them to Achar, and he said, Why hast thou troubled
us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned
him with stones, and buried them, and burned them with fire, after
they had stoned them with stones. And they raised up 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 Achar unto this day." It is an awful thing to behold
the effects of sin, isn't it? You want to see any of the effects
of sin, go to a hospital, can't you? Look at the war. Look at a battlefield. You want to see the effects of
sin? Death is the result of sin. It's an awful thing. This man
and his whole family were out there and they were stoned to
death. What an awful effect sin has. Death. But look now at the precious
type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here in this valley of Achar. I want you to go to the book
of Hosea. Hosea. Hosea chapter 2. You remember this is the book of
Gomer and Hosea. God sent his prophet Hosea to
marry that harlot, Gomer. And he married her, they had
children, and she ran off and went back to her lovers. And in chapter 2, he begins feeding
her. He's feeding her with the corn
and the wine and she thinks it's her lovers doing this. And so,
he then seeks to draw her back and he takes away that corn and
that wine from her and all of her good things. He makes her bemoan her false
gods. Look at verse 14. therefore behold I will allure
her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her
I will give her her vineyards from thence and listen here it
is and the valley of what? Achar as a door of hope how in the world is the valley
of Achar a door of hope? Remember, Gomer is a picture
of the church. Hosea is a picture of Christ.
This is how he draws us. He begins to take away the love
of sinning. He begins to show us the effects
of our nature in sin. He makes us bemoan ourselves
and do away with our gods. And then what does he say he's
going to do? He said, I will draw her. I will allure her into
a wilderness, a solitary place. To do what? Destroy her? No.
To speak comfortably to her. And to tell her what? I'm going
to tell her about Achar. I'm going to tell her about Achan
in the valley of Achar as a door of hope. Listen, if God will save a sinner,
this is where he's got to do it. He's got to lure you in.
He'll bring you in. He'll pin you in and you can't
go anywhere else. He'll pin you in the wilderness
and expose your sin. He will manifest that there's
no hope. And in meriting God's grace,
there's no hope of earning heaven. He will bring a man to the end
of his ability. And if any man would try of his
own strength to believe on Christ or of his own power to come to
God, he'll be defeated like Ai. He'll be defeated. Isn't that
right? You tried. Did you succeed? and all your strength, I'm gonna
do it!" And then what? Nothing. You retreated. I know
this my own self. How many decisions have I made
for Christ? I remember going as a little
kid to those emotional ceremonies, and my friends, and visiting
their churches, and boy, they'd get you all teary-eyed, scared
to death of hell. You'd run down to the front,
and I left the same way I came. Empty. I was defeated! I was retreating! Because I came
in my own strength. Man can't do the smallest of
spiritual tasks. Natural man cannot believe on
Christ except God allure him, except God teach him, except
God draw him. And when God draws you, He's
going to speak this word to you, a word of comfort by the door
of hope, the Valley of Achor. And here's what God says about
Achan as he was killed. It was the place where God poured
out His justice that the door of hope was given
to Israel. Look at this again in your text.
Look at chapter 7 and verse 26. After His death, after His death,
they raised up stones and so the Lord turned from the fierceness
of His anger. The Valley of Achar is a door
of hope because it's here that the justice of God was satisfied.
It is here that God's anger was turned so that the nation of
Israel could conquer their foes. The sin of Achan was a picture
of the fall of man, but the death of Achan is a picture of the
salvation of man. Achan here pictures our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now how can that be? Achan was
a guilty man. Is that not right? Achan deserved
what he got. It was justice. How can this
sinful man picture Christ? Jesus Christ truly was not a
sinner by nature. Christ himself never robbed God
of his glory. He came into this world and lived
according to the righteousness of God. He honored the law of
God in every word, thought, and deed. He said, which of you convinces
me of sin? But in order to redeem his people,
In order to turn the wrath of God as a representative man,
and that's what he was, as Adam was a representative, so Christ
was, in order to turn the anger of God from His people, He must
have died. He must have suffered in the
stead of His people. And you pay attention to this,
He must have been made sin. He must have. Why? Because He was no sinner. He
must be made sin. See, He never stole from God,
yet He Himself must be made a curse for us. As Achan was sentenced
to death and counted as a cursed thing, even so was the Son of
God counted as an accursed thing on the cross. Our Father in love and grace
toward us, toward Israel, was not willing If God can ever get us grace
to give a hold to that. He was not willing to impute
your sins to you. They were your sins. But He was
not willing to impute them to you. Do you know He was never willing
to impute them to you? There was never a time God was
ever willing to that you be charged with your sins. But in great mercy He was willing
to impute those sins to His own Son. Now we see this in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Read it with me. 2 Corinthians
5. Read it with me. Verse 19, God was in Christ. Reconciling
the world to himself. And what was he, how was he doing
this? Not imputing their trespasses to them. That's how he was doing
it. He was a representative man. He came to represent them. God
not willing to impute their sins to them. He sent Christ to reconcile
us. And he committed to us the word
of reconciliation, now we are ambassadors to Christ, though
God did beseech you by us. We pray you be in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled to God. Now on what grounds? On what
grounds could you be reconciled to God? Well, you just said,
Pastor, God was reconciling us in Christ, that's exactly what
it is. How was he doing it though? On what grounds do you have to
stand? Here it is, for God hath made
him to be sin for us." Made him sin for us. "...that he might turn his anger
from you, and you might be made the righteousness of God in him."
Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought
it down to man, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.
God imputed the sins of His people to His sinless Son. He took our
sins and our sorrows and made them His very own. God hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. In his own body he bore our sins
on the tree." Here is the message of hope,
the message of the gospel of God's grace is that Christ stood
in the stead of sinners. Now you think about that lot.
That lot was cast on everyone until it came to who? That lot
fell on Achan. You listen to me, the lot fell
on Christ. He was chosen of God for this
specific work to save his people from their sins. He was chosen
for this and as such the righteous judgment of God fell on him without
mercy. I declare to all men, behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away, beareth away the sin of the world. Look and see, the only hope to
turn away the wrath of God is found at the valley of Achar,
which pictures the death, burial, Resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You think about that. They stoned him, they burned
him, and then they piled stones on top of him. What a picture
this is. Your sin is burned, buried, and
cannot be brought up again. It's gone. It's gone. I know you see it, but it ain't
there. Our Lord bore that away as that
strong man bore that scapegoat away, never to be seen of men
again. So did Christ our Redeemer bear
our sins in His own body and as God's justice was extinguished
on Him, extinguished by His blood, your sins are forever buried. My sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole. My sin
yesterday, my sin today, my sin now, and oh my sin in the future. I will bear it no more. Praise
the Lord. And what does God say after the
death of Achan to his people? Look at chapter 8 then. Go back
to your text. Look at chapter 8. After this
was over, what does God now say to his people? The Lord said unto Joshua, Fear
not, neither be dismayed. Take all the people of war with
thee. rise and go up to Ai, I have
given into thy hand the King of Ai and his people and his
city and his land. Fear not, nor be dismayed." What
a message for believers. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Do you ever fear? Do you have
fears? Believer, what is your greatest
fear? Your greatest fear is always
to be without Christ. Is there any greater fear than
that? All my sin when it comes over me, surely Satan whispers
in our ear, you cannot be a son of God now. Surely he has abandoned
you and left you to yourself. Surely Christ's work is not effectual
for you now. Fear overwhelms my soul. I seem to look at AI in fear. But God says, fear not, I have
given you AI. I have given you. Don't be dismayed. Have you ever struggled hard
with sin? With your enemies? Have you ever struggled with
your circumstance? Or your providence? Fear not. Don't be dismayed. I have given you your enemies.
Don't you know that God has put your feet on the neck of all
your foes? That includes your flesh. Your
greatest foe is your flesh. And God has said, I have put
my foot on the neck of your flesh. It is crucified. Come, put your
foot on it. You'll be victorious. Why? You have the Valley of Achars,
a door of hope. Behold the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
law in their hearts and in their minds will I write them, and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where the remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Guess what? There's
no more offering for sin. It's already done. I'm preaching to you the gospel.
That's the work of God. God called me to the work. This
has nothing to do with the atonement of my sin. That offering's already
been made. And so even the sin in my preaching
is already atoned. Therefore, Paul says we are victorious
whenever we preach. There's no more offering for
sin. We must always then look to Christ.
This is the lesson, isn't it? This is the message. We should
always, continually, perpetually look to Christ. Always remember
the valley of Achar as a door of hope. That God's anger is forever turned
away. And the experience of Israel,
what is our experience is this. What you can't forget, God won't
remember. I can't forget my sins. Can you?
But God says, I will never remember them. Never remember them. The valley of Achar is a door
of hope. Always look to the blood. Arise then! Go! For I have given thine enemies
into thine hand. Go fight the good fight of faith.
Go preach the gospel to the world. Boldly proclaim that the accursed
thing is forever removed. Jesus bore our sins and all who
believe on Him are accepted of God. Isn't it amazing what you can
get out of a small text of Scripture, isn't it? All of Christ. all of Christ. I pray that God will bless this
to your hearts.