Turn back to Joshua chapter 7. I titled the message, The Sin
of Achan. The Sin of Achan. When Adam sinned, He did not sin alone. He brought down the whole world. This is how devastating sin is. And I want you to notice, as
we go through this, the devastating effects of sin. As I said, when Adam sinned,
he brought down the whole world and even creation. to this day,
groans and prevails under the burden of sin. When you watch the news and they
say we had a six point something on the Richter scale, an earthquake
or a volcano erupts, you have creation groaning under
the burden of sin. That's what you have. And we know that we never sin
alone. Someone else is always affected
by it. Now, getting into this, I want
to give just a little history lesson. The children of Israel
have been under Egyptian bondage for 400 years. And God sent them a deliverer,
Moses. And they traveled through the
wilderness for 40 years. And God delivered them as they
went through the wilderness. Their shoes didn't grow old,
their clothes. Can you imagine that? They had
a manor. He took care of them. He took
care of them. But now they're going to enter
the promised land. And they're going to enter the
promised land with a new leader, Joshua. And all they need to
do is cross the Jordan River and conquer the cities of Canaan. And the first city, one of the
first cities they come to is Jericho. You see that back in
chapter six. The Lord gave them this city. You know, they marched around
it. You know, so many times. Then on that last day, the seventh
day, they blew the trumpet and the walls fell down. And they
went in. And they just destroyed the city. They took it over. But the Lord
said to them, back in chapter 6, look in verse 18, 19. And ye, in any wise, keep yourselves
from the accursed thing. lest you make yourselves accursed
when you take of the cursed thing and make the camp of Israel a
curse and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and
vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord. They
shall come unto the treasury of the Lord." And that's what
you're supposed to do with it. You're not supposed to go in
there and loot the city. He said, all that gold and brass
and iron, That is to be brought into the treasury of the Lord. But one man, one man, and let me point this
out also going through this. You see a strong example of representation. Here's a strong example of representation
in this chapter here concerning Achan. So this one man in the
whole army of Israel, he looked He coveted, he took,
sounds like he took the nature of his father, doesn't it? Adam. Adam and Eve. He looked, he took,
he coveted, he hid, and he died. Put to death. But he thought
he could get away with it. He thought he could get away
with it. He thought he could take just a little silver, a
little gold, And that beautiful Babylonish garment, that robe,
it was a robe is what that was. It was a beautiful robe. And
he saw that robe and he thought, boy, I've got to have that. One
of the writers that I was reading said it was probably the robe
of the King of Jericho. I don't know. But that robe or
the robes of the Babylonish people were highly prized. They were
beautiful, beautiful robes. And he eyed that robe and that
gold and that silver, and he did what he was commanded not
to do. That's what sin is. It's doing what you ought not
to do. God said not to do. And here
is the first sign that something's wrong. He hid it. If you have to hide it, don't
do it. If you have to hide it, don't
do it. If you can't tell it, don't hear it. You say, well, that's no real
big deal what he did, what he took. It was idolatry. I want you to notice one thing
here, but you'll notice this throughout the Scripture. When
God brought fierce judgment, it was always against idolatry. Noah got drunk. He gets off the
ark. He plants a vineyard, and what
happens? He gets drunk, but he didn't
die, did he? God didn't condone his sin, but
he didn't die. Lot committed incest with his
two daughters, but he didn't die. Uzzah reaches up and touches
that ark, and God killed him. God killed him. Takes of the accursed thing. And God killed him. Idolatry.
Idolatry. Now, Israel had just defeated
Jericho. And they could have taken this
stuff and put it in his tent now. And the next city was Ai. And they say, let us go up and
spy out Ai. Joshua says, go up and check
out that place. And so they go up, and they come back, and they
say, you know, AI is not very big. You know, we just whipped
Jericho. And it's a lot bigger city than
AI. All we need is 2,000 or 3,000 men. So Joshua says, well, we
won't send everybody up. We'll just send 3,000 men up.
And that's what they do. So they go up to that city, up
to AI, and they get whipped. They get whipped. And they come
back, and Joshua is just, He just, he just, he falls down
before the Lord. And he can't, he just can't believe
that this has happened. It says in verse six, and Joshua
ran his clothes and he fell to the earth upon his face before
the ark of the Lord until the evening tide. He and the elders
of Israel, he put dust upon, upon their heads. And Joshua
said, last Lord, wherefore hast thou at all brought this, this
people over Jordan to deliver us to the hand of the Amorites?
Listen, the trouble's never with the Lord. Oh, if we could learn
this. It's never with Him. Joshua said,
Lord, what are you doing? He said, You're going to deliver
us into the hands of the Amorites who destroy us? Would the God
who would have been content and stayed over on the other side
of Jordan? Oh, if we could just trust our
Father. He knows what He's doing. He sees what we can't see. He
knows what we don't know. Oh Lord, what shall I say when
Israel turns their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites
and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear it and shall
environ us around and cut off our name from the earth. And
what wilt thou do unto that great name?" And the Lord said, Joshua,
get up. Get up off your face. And this is, I said, listen,
I said, we never sin alone. Look back in the first verse.
Well, let me go back here. Let's go back to chapter six.
Look in verse 26. And Joshua adjured them at that
time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord that rises up
and builds this city Jericho. He shall lay the foundations
thereof, and his firstborn and his youngest son shall he set
up the gates of it. So the Lord was with Joshua,
and his fame was noise throughout all the country. But the children
of Israel committed a trespass. Who committed that trespass? You say, Achan did that. Whatever my arm does, this body
is going to feel it. A member never does anything
that the body doesn't feel it. He said Israel has committed
the trespass. Now look back over in verse 11.
Verse 10, And the Lord said to Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore
liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel has sinned. Israel has
sinned. We never sin alone. We're a part of a body. He was
a part of Israel. He was from the tribe of Judah.
You know, Judah was to get the biggest portion in the land of
promise. All you had to do, aching is
weak. You belong to the tribe that's going to have the greatest
portion in the land of promise. He said, Israel has sinned and
they've also transgressed my, now here's the problem, my covenant. My covenant. You know, if he'd have went out and
just got drunk, God wouldn't have killed him. Not that that
would have been right, but he wouldn't have killed him. But
he committed idolatry. He transgressed the covenant
of God. And that is something you don't
trifle with. We do not trifle with the covenant of grace. We
never mix works with grace. Never at any time. So this is
what happened. God said to Joshua, is there
a sin? And 36 men, now listen, 36 men
died because of this one man's sin. And it didn't stop there. His wife, which stayed back at
home, his sons and his daughters, all of his animals, his asses
and his cattle, his sheep, all of them were stoned. He was stoned
to death. His family was stoned to death.
And he was burned. They burned up the family. You
say, man, that's just, that is so, so hard. You don't trifle with the covenant
of God's grace. You don't trifle with the covenant
of God's glory. What was his sin? It was a sin
of idolatry. It was a sin of his heart. Now, he confessed this. We'll
get to that in a minute. He said, I looked. I coveted. I wanted it. I wanted it. My heart was set on it. He took of the accursed thing.
The first thing he took was that Babylonish garment. That's a
beautiful garment. That Babylonish garment. And
you know what that represents? That represents all the false
religion in the world. That Babylonish garment. Babylon,
listen. Babylon is spoken of as the great
whore. It says in Revelation 17, and
upon her forehead was the name written, Mystery Babylon, the
great, the mother of harlots and abomination of the earth.
He was coveting and lusting after all that Babylon represented,
and Babylon represents all false religion. And the angel cried mightily
with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen,
is fallen, and has become the habitation of devils, and the
hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and
hateful bird. Is that not false religion? Does
that not describe false religion? False religion is the habitation
of devils? It's the habitation of every
foul spirit. And that's what he coveted. Babylon. Babylon. You can't mix them. You cannot mix them. That was the problem the Galatians
had. Trying to mix works and grace. It can't be done. It can't be done. And Babylon
comes from the word over Genesis, Babel. That's where it comes
from, Babel. And that word Babel means confusion. Confusion. And that's the religion
of the world. There is nothing more confusing
than the religion of the world. There's nothing more confusing
than false religion. You hear them on one side, they're
saying this, on the other side they're saying that. You know,
you hear the free willers. That's just your life. It's confusion. And Achan's heart was drawn to
the religion of the world. He was in love with Babylon.
He loved that garment. He took the gold and the silver,
which is the commerce of false religion. You know. you can turn
on the television. And 99% of all those preaching
on television, if they don't start with it, they end with
money. They get to the money. It's like, show me the money. I was watching Hour of Power
the other Saturday. I caught a portion of it, turned
it on, and the first thing was, his daughter now is taking that
over, and she's begging for money. so they can stay on television. It's the commerce of false religion.
It's money, money, money. That's the commerce of false
religion. Achan looked at that garment,
that beautiful Babylonish garment, the gold and the silver, all
that represented Babylon, which Babylon represents the religion
of the world, and he coveted His heart went after it. Idolatry. It was idolatry. And then you know what happened
from there. And I'm going to give you the process of sin in
four points and what we are to do. First of all, here's the
first process of it. It's gradual. You know apostasy
is gradual. No one ever just wakes up and
says, you know what, I'm not going to believe that anymore.
I'm going to do something else. It's a gradual erosion of truth. That's how apostasy happens.
That's how the gospel is preached in a place. And over a period
of years, it's not preached there no more. Somewhere along the
way, there became an erosion of truth. There became toleration
of error. It might have been just a little
bit at first. But then a little while, and a little more, and
a little more, and the next thing you know, it's gone. Oh, you
still have religion going on. You still have people showing
up, religion, but you don't have the gospel. You don't have Christ. You don't have truth. It's gradual. Most people don't plunge headlong
into sin. They do it gradually. It starts
out a little here, a little there. Before you know it, it's got
you. Before you know it, you're gone.
Aiken just, he's fighting this battle, but he's got his eye
on this garment and the gold, and he's fighting with a different
motive. They're up there fighting to
whip Jericho, and Aiken's up there fighting, and he's got
his mind like, I'm going to get that before we get out of here.
I'll take a souvenir. Alcoholism. It starts with a
drink, doesn't it? You don't start with a guzzle
at first. It just starts with a drink, one drink, and before
you know it, somewhere down the road, the man's an alcoholic. Harlots start with one time.
Gamblers start with one bet. It's gradual. It's gradual. The process here. Look over in
chapter 7, verse 21. He said, When I saw among the
spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, two hundred shekels of silver,
and a wedge of gold, and a fifty shekels weight, I coveted them. You know, when Eve looked at
that tree, she saw that it was a tree Desired to make one wise. She desired it. That's what covet
is. To covet is. It's to start to
desire something. Your heart goes after it. I coveted them and then took
them. You know, one look is, one look is okay, but it's that
second, third look that gets you. That's the one that got
the hook in it. That second, third look. That
long look. David up on the wall looking
at Bathsheba. You know, if he could look down
and say, you know, that's a good looking woman, he'd go back in the house.
But he didn't, did he? He just looked, and he looked,
and he thought. Next thing you know, he's in
trouble. He's hooked. And he took them. And then, He
hid the same thing Adam did. Adam hid. Sin reaches its climax when you
take. When you take. As I said earlier,
no one sins alone. First of all, all sin is against
God. All sin is against God. It's
not like I sinned and it didn't hurt. It's against God. It's
an assault on God. That's what it is. Thirty-six
men, thirty-six brave, fighting men of Israel died because of
what this one man did. Listen, representation is very
serious business. I will visit the iniquity of
the fathers upon the third and fourth generation." That's representation,
and that's serious, serious business. Over in Romans 5, look over there. You know this one very well.
This is representation taught here. Verse 12, Wherefore, as by one
man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. That's representation. That's how serious this matter
is. And then, here's something else about sin. It's gradual,
and then sin will find you out. It will find you out. Israel should have defeated Ai
easily, but instead they got defeated because God is going
to discover this sin of idolatry, of the accursed thing in Israel. He's going to deal with it. Sin
will find you out. Look back here in Joshua. Verse 13, "'Up, sanctify the
people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, for thus saith
the Lord God of Israel.'" And I imagine up to this time, some time has gone by, you know,
I've gotten away with it. You know, the Scripture says
that God's going to bring into judgment every idle word. Every
idle word. For thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O
Israel, thou canst not stand before thine enemies until thou
takest away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning,
therefore, thou shalt be brought according to thy tribes, and
it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according
to the families thereof, and the family which the Lord shall
take shall come by households, And the household which the Lord
shall take shall come man by man, and it shall be that he
that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire,
and he in all that he hath, because he hath transgressed the covenant
of the Lord, and because he has wrought folly in Israel." So
Joshua rose up early in the morning, and he brought Israel by their
tribes, all the twelve tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. It's starting to get serious
now. He belonged to the tribe of Judah, and he brought the
family of Judah, and he took the family of the Zahrites, and
he brought the family of the Zahrites man by man. And Zabdiah was taken, and he
brought his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of
Zabdiah, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah was taken. Sin will find you out. Nathan
came to David, and he said to David, Thou art the man. God was saying here to Achan,
Thou art the man. No one, no one can escape the
all-searching eye of God's justice. Can't do it. The Word of God
says that every idle word shall be brought into judgment. Here's another thing about sin.
Sin's debt has to be paid. It's got to be paid. Achan paid
with his life and the life of his family and those thirty-six
men that died in battle and all the animals he owned. The wages
of sin, it says, is death. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. God is good for His Word. God's
good for His Word. Now, after I read this and I
looked at this, and this has been on my mind for a little
bit, I thought, what's a sinner to do? What's a sinner to do? Turn over to John chapter 1,
the Gospel of John. If sin is going to find me out,
and God's going to bring every sin into judgment, what am I to do? Look in verse 29. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming
unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world. There is no other way to escape
judgment, the wrath of God, death, Except by the Lamb. Except by the Lamb of God. Behold,
the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. 1 John
1.9. Listen. If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Go back to Joshua. Now look in verse 19, Joshua
said unto Achan, now listen to this, listen to how tender he
is. He says, my son, he didn't, I don't, he don't believe he
scolded him. He knew what was going to happen and it had to
happen. But he says, my son, give I pray
thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto
him. Confess unto him. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Spurgeon said this. Spurgeon
believes Akin was saved. Now, I don't know what Spurgeon
believes he was because if you'll notice here, over in verse 25, And Joshua said, Why shalt thou
trouble us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. This day. This has to be dealt
with. This has to be dealt with. And I've said this before. The
Lord can forgive us of all sins, but sometimes the consequences
follow us all the way through life. Sometimes things, you know,
I got a scar on my arm from something I did when I was a boy. I ran
a knife through my arm. I was cutting a piece of what
we call a cigarette string, a belling, cutting it, and I ran the knife
through it. I've got a scar on that arm. You know, there's things
that we've done in our youth, done in our life. Lord, forgive
us of it. I mean, forgive us of it. Cleanse
us. But the scars of it's there, the consequences of it, and the
Lord had to deal with this. I assure you, he got Israel's
attention. He got their attention. He said, the Lord troubled thee
this day. I do know this. I do know that
sometimes God's children can fall hard. They can fall hard. But the blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. All sin. Turn to Isaiah 53, and I'll close. In Isaiah 53, Mike read
this back in the study. Verse 4. Surely he hath borne
our grief and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him strict
and smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was
brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers
is done, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken." Verse 10, "'Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He was innocent, he was pure,
he was holy. Yet we know in 2 Corinthians 5, he was made to be sin for
us. He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It put him to grief. Thou shalt make his soul and
offer him for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. For he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, he shall divide
the spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his
soul unto them, and he was numbered with the transgressors. He bare
the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." I've committed adultery, I know
I have. There's probably not a sin we
haven't committed. In our hearts, in our thoughts, in our minds,
we're guilty. I was, one time I was complaining,
talking to Paul Thacker. You know, he was one of my business
partners at the time there. He put me in my place. I was
complaining about the guys not working. I said, those guys,
they're not doing anything. He said, and you don't? And you
do? It was like, are you any different? Are you any better? And I said,
all right, I get it. I get it. There's times I don't
work either. But the blood of Christ cleanses
us from all unrighteousness. Amen.