It's so good to walk with Christ,
isn't it? And to know Him, and to know His Word, and to know
the purpose and design of His Word, to have a working knowledge
of the scheme of redemption, to kind of have an idea of what
our friend in heaven is doing down here on earth. It's a good
thing to know the Lord. It's even more so important that
we know Him through His Word And this becomes a dilemma for
this generation of people that really don't read that much.
I mean, folks are texting and folks are doing a whole lot of
the other newfangled stuff. But reading, you know, that's
going by the wayside. And so unfortunately, we've got
a lot of Christians today who are Christians apart from the
word of God. They are folks who don't have
a real handle on the scriptures. They are Christians by memory. They come to church and learn
some things and then they do their Christianity by memory.
They don't really study the word to know what the word means,
to know why the word was written. And so they, often when you read
Old Testament passages like Jerob, Joshua chapter seven, verses
one through 26 is long historical reading. Now the secular non-initiated
person, the person that is not a Christian will quickly raise
this question, what on earth is a 3500 year old story going
to do me any good in the 21st century. A person who is not
initiated in biblical truth and understand that the nature of
the kingdom of God is eternal and is eternally present, which
means God's word is relevant at all times. It doesn't matter
whether it's the 21st century are the 31st century for that
matter. Do you know if the Lord is around
another 10,000 years, this book, which we call the Word of God,
will be relevant then? It will be relevant then just
as it is now, just as it was 3,500 years ago when it was written. But often Christians are asking
the question, we just read a whole bunch of Bible verses, and what
in the world does that have to do with me? Well, let me remind
you of some fundamentals if you have forgotten, and if you don't
know, it's time to learn. That from Genesis to Revelation,
this book which we call the Bible, from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation
22 and 21 is the Word of God. That's what this book is. And
this book has a message in it. And that message is not about
you, and it's not about me, it's about Christ. The Word of God
really is about God's darling son and the scheme of redemption
that the Godhead drew up before the world began and is working
out in history. If you have forgotten, Jesus
said it himself in Psalm 40 verse 7, Lo, I come in the volume of
the book, it's written of who? To do thy will, O God. Therefore,
informed Bible-based Christians, whenever you open your Bible
and whenever you hear the word taught and whenever you hear
the word preached, this must be the question that emerges
in your mind immediately. Where is Christ in the reading
of the Scriptures? Where is Jesus in the narrative
of the text? Where is Christ in the message
that's being proclaimed? Otherwise, you are not in a Christian
environment. The whole of our celebration,
the whole of our worship, the whole of our reflection on biblical
truth is about the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
And then the next question we ask is, how does this text of
scripture, in its historical context, with all of its moral
and ethical implications, how does it apply to me? And how
does it bring me to a place where I come to know Jesus Christ better? Those are the critical questions.
Cause you can sit under teaching and preaching that talks about
everything and the third and never get to Christ. You can
hear preaching that will be moral in nature. It can be uplifting.
It can be psychological. It can be emotionally stirring.
It can be intellectually stimulating and it never talk about the glory
of God. You can hear preaching and teaching
that does not grab you by the collar and show you who you really
are by your nature. so that you go away from church
the same way you came unchanged. You ought never to go to a church
that proclaims to be a church of God and not hear from God
and not hear from God about God. So as we work our way through
the seventh chapter, there are a number of things that I want
to remind you of as we work our way through the book of Joshua,
is in a very strategic portion of the historical workings of
God's people, Old Testament people, that is Israel, because Joshua
is the transition period from the wilderness to the promised
land. We call this the transition period
from the wilderness to the promised land. Now, we also know that
the Bible teaches that that which has been is, and that which is
to be, even that has already been. You guys understand that?
You know what that means? There's nothing new under the
sun. We aren't hearing new things, seeing new things, experiencing
new things. They cycle over generation after
generation after generation. That's why we don't have a different
gospel to preach in the 21st century than we did in the first
century. Can I tell you why? God has never changed. His word
has never changed. Watch this. The need of mankind
has never changed. His problem has never changed.
And his problem is sin. See, that's what this generation
doesn't like to talk about. Sin. But God demands that his
people not only understand sin But deal with it appropriately
because it has radical consequences both for the believer and the
unbeliever Are you hearing what I'm saying? It's critical therefore
for us to know this this part of what we call biblical theology
ladies You will learn this the historical narrative of god's
redemptive scheme in the space-time Continuum that we know from the
beginning of creation to the end of time. God is working out
a redemption plan progressively, successively unfolding his redemptive
scheme. Now the wilderness was a 40 year
period where the people of God were called out of Egypt into
fellowship with God, where God would teach them for 40 years
how to worship the true and the living God. Let me help you again
with that. The wilderness is a place where
you learn to become dependent on God. Have you ever been in
the wilderness? Have you ever been in the wilderness
where God has brought you into it? Where in the wilderness ain't
nobody there but you and God. I mean, it seems that way. It
feels that way. I mean, you're trying to talk
to people, but it seems as if those people are miles away from
you. They can't hear you. They can't
understand you. They can't connect with you.
And you're wondering, why do I feel like I'm in a wilderness?
Because God has placed you there. Now why did he place you there?
So that he could teach you some things about himself in relationship
to you that only you and him must learn. Now that's what God
did when he took Israel out of Egypt. He took Israel out of
Egypt 1,500 years before Jesus, and for 40 years God let them
wander in the wilderness. And most people talk about how
horrible that 40-year wandering was, but I'm here to tell you,
God will leave you in the wilderness just so long as is necessary
to teach you another lesson. Now am I making some sense? And
then you know when the change comes, when he transitions us
from this solitary place called the wilderness, that's what it
is. Read it for yourself, Ezekiel 20. It's a solitary place where
God is dealing with you personally. He's dealing with your heart.
He's dealing with your mind. He's teaching you. It's that solitary
place where he took Israel and called Israel his son. He called
Israel his servant. He called Israel his army. And
in the wilderness, he taught them how to depend upon God. Now in the wilderness, you've
got to depend upon God. Because you have no resources.
You have no capability of providing water for yourself. You have
no capability of providing food for yourself. In the wilderness,
you have no capability of protecting yourself. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? In the wilderness, you are totally dependent upon
a sovereign God to cause water to come out of a rock. to send
quail by the east wind all the way from Egypt to meet your soul's
need in the middle of the wilderness, to give you hot biscuits every
morning by the grace of God so you can see his glory. You're
totally dependent upon God. And while he is providing for
you these rich, rich, symbolic emblems of Christ and his sufficiency
for your soul, he's teaching you that he is God alone. See,
when you get really rooted and grounded in God, here's what
you know, there is one God. And He is God alone. And He has
manifested Himself in three glorious triune persons, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. And we know this to be the true
God. He has revealed Himself to me. He has made Himself known
to me. He has protected me. He has kept
me. He has watched over me. He has
taught me who He is. That's what the wilderness sojourn
is about. But I've told you, in the wilderness, when God finishes
teaching you how to depend on Him, because that's what faith
is, depending on God, You know, God has to really strip us of
a lot of stuff to get to the place where we depend on him.
You know how we talk about depending on God and we really got all
kind of little caveats behind our back, little qualifiers behind
our back, like I'm trusting the Lord, but you're crossing your
fingers. We're in the wilderness. God's going to strip those two
fingers of that covenant that they made until you get to a
point where you depend upon God. Are you hearing me? And when
God takes his people out of that wilderness test, out of that
wilderness experience, he brings them into the promised land.
So we move from dependence on God to deployment by God. We move from dependence on God
to deployment by God. See, in the promised land, there
is a work to be done for God's glory. In the promised land,
there are goals to achieve. for God's glory. Whether you
like it or not, in the promised land, there are battles to be
fought for God's glory. There are victories to be won
for God's glory. There are enemies to be subdued
for God's glory. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
I know you don't like this, but see, when he brought Israel out
of Egypt, he says, this is my army. And in the wilderness,
he set them up strategically in troops. And when he brought
them into the promised land, the head of the army was the
tribe of Judah, because in the tribe of Judah, the king of the
tribe of Judah would be our captain, Jesus Christ. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? So when you come to Christ, you
come to God through Christ, God teaches you that not only is
he bringing you to a place filled with milk and honey, a land that
is overrunning with blessings and resources and benefits, but
in order for you and I to acquisition them, we've got to wage war. We've got to fight the good fight
of faith. We have to engage in those spiritual battles by which
the kingdom of God then subdues those areas and regions of the
world by which God gets glory when he subdues our enemies and
allows us to enjoy the resources and blessings of the field. Remember
what happened to Moses? Moses brought Israel all the
way up to the brink of Jordan. Remember that? And everybody
was hoping that brother Moses would lead them across into the
promised land. Cause you know, you hate leadership initially,
but when you have to be around leadership for 40 years after
a while, you fall in love with leadership. It took 40 years
for them to love that brother because they gave him problems
for 40 years. But moses got beside himself and he smoked the rock
twice when god said the second time speak to it And god said
you're going to die in the wilderness you and the the folks who were
over 20 years old who did not believe my word You're going
to perish in the wilderness. Only the babies are going into the
promised land And god took the babies and what that means is
except you become like a little child You will not enter into
the kingdom of god. He took the babies in the faith and he gave
them to joshua And he said, Joshua, you lead my people in. Now, Joshua
is a great type of whom? Jesus Christ. And what we learn
by this is that Moses is a type of the law, and the law can never
bring you into the promises of God. It can only bring you near,
but it can't bring you in. Only Christ can bring you in.
And Joshua brings him into the promised land. Now we're between,
listen now, we're between the wilderness and we are in between
conquering the land. We are in the days of Joshua.
I need you to hear this. Joshua's days uniquely, uniquely
correspond to the days of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. When Christ showed up, Christ
manifested the Father's glory in such unique, exquisite way
that everywhere He went, His fame was cast abroad. Everywhere
Christ went, Christ healed and raised the dead. Everywhere Christ
went, He subdued foes and enemies. The disciples enjoyed being with
Jesus for three and a half years Do you know why because everywhere
he went he was successful in battle and when you read the
book of Joshua Here's what you read that Joshua's fame went
through all the land You also read this that Joshua put his
foot on the necks of all the Kings in the land of Canaan You
also read this that all of the promises that God gave to Israel
were fulfilled in the days of Joshua You remember that time
when Joshua had gotten old and he decided to gather all the
people together, Joshua chapter 24. He says, I'm old now and
I'm getting ready to go home and I need to gather you folks
together and give you one last gospel message. And he told them,
as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. But I'm here
to tell you, this is what Joshua says, I'm here to tell you, listen,
ladies and gentlemen, you cannot serve God and idols too. You cannot serve God in idols
too. What Joshua was warning the people
about was when he would depart and that would be typical of
when Christ rose from the dead and ascended to glory and the
church was left to wage war and battles in that first century
to this century that the church would have to fight throughout
the 2,000 years to this point where you and I are to conquer
the foes of God, and to spread the gospel, and to establish
it in one country, and in another country, and in another region,
and in another place. So that after 2,000 years the
gospel has come to you and I. And by God's mercy we've been
saved, haven't we? All because Christ said, go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel. Preach the gospel
to every creature. He that believeth shall be saved. And that is a battle that the
church has been waging for 2000 years. But watch this now. As
I said, we've got battles to fight. We've got victories to
accomplish, but we've got lessons to learn. Are you hearing me? We got some lessons to learn.
So I'm going to share with you seven points today about lessons
to learn. Now I know when God first saved
you you thought you was going to be on a perpetual unending
eternal honeymoon I know it I know you thought once God saved you
that miraculously all your bills was going to be paid You thought
once God saved you that miraculously those pains and aches that was
in your life All you have to do is pray and believe and God
would heal you But God didn't heal all those pains and aches.
Did he he left some of them didn't he? Also, you thought just because
you became saved, your marriage was going to be better. Now you
learned something on that one, didn't you? Here's what you fail to realize
once God saved you. That he not only called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light, but he called you to be
taught of God. That teaching is critical to
advancement in the cause of Christ. That all that come to God must
be taught and learned of the Father. And that process is itself
a very difficult process. It's hard for us to really learn
anything that sticks. Am I telling the truth? It's
really, really difficult. I want you to grasp this as I
make the application, making our way through these points.
What the children of Israel Discover being brought into the promised
land and they've only been in the promised land now at the
most a couple of months This is a new experience. They cross
through the jordan by a miraculous work of god who separates the
waters and he leads them through With joshua and the high priest
and the ark of the covenant going before them and then they come
into the promised land And the first thing they do is they begin
to eat up the land. Remember the very day they set
their foot on ground, the manna stopped from heaven and the corns
were already budding. God had already caused the harvest
to be plentiful the day they entered into the promised land.
Doesn't God take care of us? We call him Jehovah Jireh. He
knows how to take care of us and his timing is exquisite.
Well, Israel started to feel kind of comfortable that they
had made it into the land, but God had already told them, now
when you go into the land, you got some enemies to fight. That
right you got some adversaries to overcome now watch this those
adversaries. God says are my adversaries But
because I have called you to myself my adversaries become
your adversaries Now if you don't start learning that you're gonna
have problems in your christian life If you don't start learning
that god's adversaries are your adversaries God's adversaries
are going to be very difficult for you to overcome And in the
promised land, Joshua is dealing with a situation where he has
to learn some extremely difficult lessons. So I'm going to run
through these very quickly. Point number one, boot camp is
over. You got that? Boot camp is over. We've done
40 years in boot camp. We didn't practice, and we didn't
learn, and we didn't been taught how to fight. But now it's actually
time to go to battle. I taught martial arts for years,
studied it. And I'm just using this as an
example for all the little kids and the young people that like
to watch these karate movies. You know how you watch these
karate movies of these brothers running up walls and jumping
across buildings, and then they get into fights with 20 dudes,
and they don't even seem to get touched. One punch knocks a dude
out, and it gets even more ludicrous when a woman is able to beat
up 50 guys. Right? And it kind of attracts you to
want to take martial arts because you want to be able to get down
like that. That's a couple of things they don't tell you about
these movie type wars and battles. Are you ready? They are choreographed. Stay with me now, I'm going somewhere.
And I could fight a hundred people if I knew where every person
was at every position and what kind of punch they're going to
throw too. I could prepare for every punch and look really good
too. But have you ever been in a real fight? See, when you're
in a real fight, it doesn't look good. It's ugly. It's nasty. And your mind is going in seven
different directions all at once. And while you are fighting, the
one thing you are desiring is that this thing get over with
as soon as possible. I'm going somewhere. Don't leave
me. I'm going somewhere. The delusion The delusion that
you are capable of fighting when you haven't been taught how to
fight is to our own undoing. Now God has called us to learn
to fight a good warfare, to fight the good fight of faith, to lay
hold of eternal life. And it is difficult. And sometimes
when we are waging war against the adversary, we get our butts
whipped and we go away licking our wounds. If you don't know
what I'm talking about, don't worry about this part. And we
have to go back to the father and ask him to help us understand
where we made our mistakes. Am I telling the truth? That's
what we're getting ready to learn right here. See, Joshua had a
great, great, great vision that was given to him when he entered
into the promised land, because Joshua was very much like your
pastor. Joshua was just a man that God had put in a position
of leadership. and qualified him to lead the
people in, but Joshua personally had no real confidence in himself. Be courageous and be very strong
for I, the Lord your God, am with you to devote your foes
and to give you the land whereupon I bring you. All of that was
told Joshua before they entered into the land. Joshua saw Moses
work for 40 years and it blessed Joshua's heart because he learned
a lot of things from his upline That's why you got to have an
upline. I'm here to tell you you need to upline and so Joshua
watched Moses Negotiate and win a lot of battles for the Lord.
Listen Moses is no joke to get the people from Egypt To the
borders of the promised land. That's a lot of work But now
it's Joshua's turn And as Joshua enters into the promised land,
you know how God blesses him? He blesses him with a revelation
of something that he had told Moses back in Exodus 33. You
know what he told Moses? He says, I will send my angel
before you into the promised land in order to subdue all your
foes and to give you the land that I promised you. Are you
hearing me? I will send my angel before you. And he will destroy your enemies
and I will give you the land that I promised you You know
when joshua gets into the land Guess what joshua sees in joshua
chapter 6 He sees an angel Standing with a sword drawn Which means
he was ready to go to war Do you know who that angel was?
It was the lord jesus christ Do you know what our Lord was
doing? He was going before His people. You know what He was
prepared to do? Fight battles for His people
in order for them to inherit the promise that God had given
them. Here's the lesson, watch this. God better go before us
or we will never win the battle. God better go before us. He better
be our forerunner. He better be our leader. He better
be our captain. He better be our hero. He better
be our king. He better be our shepherd. And
you better, you better echo what Moses says, Lord, if you don't
go with us, don't let us go. Why pastor? Cause you can't win
one battle by yourself. You can't win one fight on your
own. You can't subdue one foe by your
own strength, by your own intellect, by your own wisdom, by your own
knowledge. Are you hearing what I'm saying? You will never be
able to overcome your foes just because you know where they are,
just because you know how many they are, just because you know
what weapons they have. You cannot overcome your foes
if the angel of the Lord, which is Christ, does not fight your
battles for you. So they go and their first campaign
was against Jericho. And you know what God told them
to do? All I want you to do is march around the city six days
and keep your mouth shut. You got that? Those are simple
instructions, aren't they? March around the city and keep
your mouth shut. On the seventh day, I want you
to shout. And the walls came down and one
of the most formidable cities with a great military, walled
city, strategically set up to fight off all foes was demolished
completely by the children of Israel. No, by the Lord God himself. And all the children of Israel
did was to go in and enjoy the spoils. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Watch this. God fights our battles. He wins our victories and we
get to enjoy the what? Spoils. God fights our battles. He wins the victories. Thanks
be unto him who always causes us to what triumph always in
every way to God be the glory. Here's the problem. Here's the
problem in the spoiling of the plunder of the victory that God
causes us to have. We often get in trouble. So I
want you to stay with me because that's the way this text is working
out. See, When they won that battle in Jericho, and they knew
they had to advance into the land to take other territory,
Joshua said, now I want y'all to go up and take Ai. But Ai
is such a small little city. Look, just take a couple, two
or 3,000 men and you, you fellas run up and check it out. And
if you need to subdue the land, it didn't come on back. Cause
I mean, you know, with us being as large as we are, we got about
2 million people and we got, you know, almost a million, uh,
military men. We don't need all these folks
to go up and whoop little AI. Are you hearing me? This here
is the premise upon which the lesson is about to be learned.
They sent 3000 men up there and they got their butt with, they
came back with their tails between their legs. Didn't they? They
came back with their tails between their legs because there was
some lessons to learn. And that's, I think, one of the
points in our outline. And I want you to get this point
number four. Failure is necessary to know
that God is what? Yes, indeed, you know, God talks
to us a lot, children of God. He says a lot of things. I've
said this before to you. If God didn't mean to talk to
you a lot, you wouldn't have had a book this big and this
thick. And so for these folks that want
God to talk to them in some other way, would you first let God
finish talking to you through that big old book? And then you
can get in the code and ask for him to give you a vision, dream,
and revelation. But let him talk to you through that book first.
If you can get through those 66 books, then ask God to give
you more information. But I've been in the Lord 37
years, and I haven't even scratched the surface of God's voice to
me in that book we call the Word of God. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? And so what God told the children
of Israel was you got some lessons to learn that you failed to learn
in the first battle that you won. Joshua sent those boys up
all by themselves. They got their butt whoops. You
know, and sometimes until you and I lose some battles, we don't
learn the ways of God. Am I telling the truth? Until
you and I make some mistakes, I'm talking some major mistakes,
I'm talking major mistakes, even in the face of knowledge. Can
I get a witness? God had already told us and we
still messed up. And it becomes a mystery to us
because on one part of the equation, we have deceived ourselves into
thinking that we are really obedient to God. But on the other hand,
what we have failed to do is guard ourselves against presumption. And that's what happened here.
There's a danger of winning a battle, whether it's theological, whether
it's spiritual, whether it's moral, whether it's ethical.
It's a danger in winning the battle and not discerning what
the collateral damage of that battle left for you. It's a danger
in entering into a conflict with somebody and not being careful
to assess the wounds that you received and incurred in that
battle. See, to tell the truth, when two people enter into a
fight, I'm talking about for real, generally both people get
hurt. Am I telling the truth? To tell
the truth, you don't go into a battle win and don't come out
unscathed. And this is true both in the
physical realm as in the spiritual realm. Sometimes when you go
into battle, if you fight a skunk, when you come out, you're going
to end up smelling like a skunk. We're getting ready to learn
some things here. Can I talk to you for a little bit? It's
very important for you to learn this. This is why when you go
into battles, they are spiritual battles, theological battles,
ethical battles, moral battles, domestic battles, whatever battle
God calls you to go into, go into those battles with the greatest
of humility. Do not think that you're something
when you're nothing. When you enter into battles where
you are seeking to honor the Lord and to maintain His glory
and to establish the integrity of biblical truth, whether that's
on your job, whether that's at school, whether that's in your
home, whether that's in the realm of academics, whether it's in
church, make sure, ladies and gentlemen, that you remain humble.
The Lord exalts the humble. He protects the humble. Often
people that become good at fighting end up becoming presumptuous
and arrogant, and they fail to realize that there's always unintended
consequences in battles. Am I making some good sense to
you so far? We fail to realize that there are unintended consequences
to battles. Have you ever been in a situation
where at the end of that conflict, you came to discover more people
were hurt by it than you wanted? Here's what's going on in our
account. Joshua sends the people up in a very presumptuous way,
and they get routed by the country of Ai, so much so that it devastates
Joshua. Look at chapter 7, verses 3 through
6. And they returned to Joshua and
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, for they are but few. Do you see that? Don't
put everybody to work. Never mind what God said Let's
just do this one ourselves because you know lord we got this one
So there went up there people about 3 000 and they fled before
the men of ai and the men of ai Smoked them about 36 men. That means they killed 36 people
that day the gates Even unto shabirim and smote them in the
going down thereof and the hearts of the people did what? And they
became as what? Boy, what a difference a day
makes. What happened here? Well, three
things. They went up unadvisedly. They
went up arrogantly. And here's the third and most
important point. Are you ready? They went up without
God. Will you hear me? They went up
without God. God never told them to fight
one battle without him. The Ark of the Covenant didn't
go up. The priest didn't go up. Jehovah didn't go up. The mercy
seat didn't go up. The seat of propitiation didn't
go up. The throne of glory didn't go before them. And it means
that they didn't pray before they went. They didn't worship
before they went. They didn't acknowledge God before
they went. They didn't depend on God as they went. They didn't
trust that God would fight their battles for them. He had with
Jericho The ark went with them every day. On this day, we don't
need the gospel to win this battle. On this day, we don't need redemption
to win this battle. We don't need the captain of
our salvation to win our battle. We don't need the spirit of God
to win our battle. We don't need the grace of God
to win our battle. We can win this battle in the strength of
our flesh. And we only need 3,000. Am I
making some sense, ladies and gentlemen? See the horrible mistake
that occurs When we fail to assess the real grounds upon which we
win any battle, it's only by the grace of God that we win
any battles. And the next battle you fight,
you are no more prepared for that battle than the first battle
you fought. You still need the Lord for every
battle. I hope some of you get this.
Because there are some things that you guys are engaging in.
We are engaging in in our life struggles that we are not overcoming. And in fact, they are really
subduing us, truth be told. Ah, but on this occasion, God
has to arrest his own people to teach them of the failures
they made, because sometimes before we can advance, we have
to retreat in humility and reassess our motives. Isn't that right?
You know what we call that in theological terms? Repentance. Repentance. And so on this occasion,
when they come back, routed as they were, Joshua rent his clothes,
fell on the earth before the ark of the Lord. Now he's in
front of the ark. Until the evening time, he and
the elders of Israel, now they're in front of the ark. Put dust
up on their heads. Joshua said, Lord God, why have
you brought all these people over to Jordan to deliver us
into? Now they want to blame it on God. To destroy us, would
God we have been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan.
See, Joshua's faith shriveled up and disappeared too. Joshua
wants to put it way in reverse. He wants to go back past Jericho,
past Jordan, back into the promised land. God says, no, we going
forward. I'm like, God, I don't like going
backwards, but we got some lessons to learn. Oh Lord, what shall
I say when Israel turns their backs before the enemies for
the Canaanites and the inhabitants of the land here thereof and
shall circle us around and cut off our name from the earth?
And what will you do unto your great name? Oh Lord. Verse 10. And the Lord said to Joshua,
get up. Get up! All this crying, and all this
whining, and all this fear, and all this doubt, all this anxiety,
all this what-if-and-but, had absolutely no theological foundation
under it, and it was not rooted in faith. It was rooted in fear,
it was rooted in anxiety, it was rooted in defeat, because
it was rooted in rebellion. That's how we pray when we're
in rebellion. What-if, what-if. God knows everything. What Joshua
had to learn was that the battle that they won, they won a specific
way. And they had changed the course.
Now let me say this before I develop this point and move to the next
one. The same way God led Israel is the way he's leading you and
I. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. The same
way he is leading us is how he led them. And he led them by
faith. He led them by his word. He led them by his angel. And
he leads us by faith. He leads us by his word. And
he leads us by his spirit too. In the same methodology, in the
same techniques, in the same approach that he gave them, he
gives to us too. You and I are to follow God's
word if we want to experience the blessings of God in any aspect
of this warfare. Are you hearing me? We are to
follow his word. Now, what God was telling Joshua
to do is get up, go back to the book and find out what you made
your mistake. Because I can't lie, change or
fail, and I'm not going to change my word just to bless you. Now,
here's part of the problem that happens when you win wars. This
is why I think really when you get into fights, we actually
learn more when we lose than when we win. I really I mean,
I've fought for years and that's how I learned. I learned when
I fought formidable foes and I learned things about them that
I did not know. And I learned things about myself,
limitations that I had to be able to go back and work on because
I lost. When you win, you really don't
learn much. You are affirmed in what you know, but you don't
learn more. And we've got to learn more. On the occasions
of the battles and the campaigns that the people of God were engaged
in, whether it was in the wilderness or the promised land, God had
given them strict rules. You know what he said? When you
defeat your foes, I don't want you pouncing on them, their carcasses,
their materials, their goods, and plundering them like bloodthirsty
ravenous animals that have no king, that have no savior, that
have no Lord. When you win your battles over
your foes, I don't want you to be merciless to them like they
are to their adversaries. I don't want you cutting them
up in 50 different pieces and doing abominable things to them
that the pagans do. And I don't want you stripping
them of all their resources and taking it and hoarding it for
yourself. I'm Jehovah. I will take care of you. The
battles that you win are not for your glory. They are for
my glory. Now watch this. God has specifically
told Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 7 and in Joshua chapter 6. Now
when you get into the promised land, there are some things that
I'm going to let you have. as a consequence of the victories
that I achieve for you. And there are other things that
are for me. And yet other things I want you
to utterly destroy. We are talking now about the
law of prohibition and war called the accursed thing. It's in Deuteronomy
chapter 7. You can read it for yourself
verses 24 through 26 and 27 The Lord made it very clear when
you come into the land Deuteronomy 7 verse 24 25 26 and you defeat
your foes which I bring for you before you and I subdue them
before you Don't watch this now. Don't take their jewelry. Don't
take their silver. Don't take their gold. Don't
take their idols Are you hearing me? They are to be completely
demolished. They are to be extinct. And on
this day, guess what one of the brothers did? His name is Achan. Now what Achan did was as they
plundered Jericho. This brother is going through
the land and he's seeing all these folks subdued. And as he's
doing the will of God, enjoying the success of a battle that
God won, not him, he starts looking around and he sees gold here
and silver there. And he sees three-piece suits
over here. He sees a pair of nice leather
shoes over there. He sees a cane and a hat over
here. He looks around at all of his other brethren and he
starts just scooping up stuff, just taking stuff. Just taking
stuff. I mean, you know, we're in victory
mode right now. We're in plunder mode right now.
And this man, Akin, thought he had the right to take of the
spoils to himself and place them in his own tent. Now, I want
you to hear me now. This is tenth amount to you prospering
in your own flesh, in your own right, where God himself has
accomplished the victory. It's you taking the things of
God by which God allows you to be successful and using them
for your own aggrandizement, for your own blessing, for your
own success. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
See, the battles of the Lord are for His glory. They are not
primarily for your prosperity. See, this is why we despise prosperity
preaching. We abhor the message that God
has created you to keep on you and lavish you with material
blessings as if you are the object of worship, as if you are the
point and focus of blessing, as if all the members in the
church are to covet what you have rather than the God you
serve. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Akin was utterly distracted from the mission he was called to
do. You know, if God gives you the victory, your thankfulness
should be rooted in the fact that he gave you the victory.
And in fact, I'm going to tell you, the sin of Akin in this
is the sin of unthankfulness. Isn't that our theme ladies and
gentlemen in everything what give thanks because this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus Concerning you now here. God brought you
into the promised land here. God has already carved out your
inheritance He's promised to give it to you. He's told you
he should do your foes. He's feeding you every day You
are fighting the battles of the Lord. You are winning those battles.
What right do you have to steal God's glory? Are you hearing
what I'm saying? That's what's going on here And
it would be tantamount on a theological level for people to have a gift
from God, exercise that gift, and it redounds to their own
prominence, their own success, their own glory, to where people
are looking at them and not to Christ. This is why we preach
Christ in Him crucified, the hope of glory. Akin does this
and we read it in point number five of our Allah. What is the
sin of Akin? I'm going to share with you what
the sin of Akin is it's three things to Significantly one it's
covetousness covetousness chapter 7 verse 1 says But the children of Israel committed
a trespass in the accursed thing see that language this is what
I God had told Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 7 about the accursed
thing. He had told Joshua this back in the earlier chapters
of Joshua chapter 6 verse 17 through 19. Do not take of the
accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Kermi,
the son of Zebedee, the son of Zerub, the tribe of Judah, took
of the accursed thing. Now watch this. And the anger
of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. You guys
got that. Now, his anger was kindled for two reasons. The
first of which is Achan, plainly violated the covenant terms. You guys got that? He plainly
violated the covenant terms. Secondly, God's anger was against
them because in their arrogance and pride, they went up to fight
AI without seeking God's counsel. And all of this begins to be
for us a lesson of what happens when we move from faith to presumption,
from faith to presuming we got this. from faith to presuming
that we ought to be blessed by the resources that we get out
of serving the Lord, because this is where Achan is. Achan
is gonna serve as a model of absolute covetousness in this
context, because Achan is going to explain to us as we work through
the language what it is he did. He told Joshua, He told Joshua
down the line in verses 20 and 21 that he saw and that he coveted
those things He saw and he coveted verse 20 of Joshua chapter 7
and Achan answered and said unto Joshua I indeed have sinned against
the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus have I done now watch
verse 21 and 22 when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonia's
garment do you see and 200 seconds shekels of silver and and a wedge
of gold of 50 weight, then I did what? I coveted them, and then
I did what? I took them, and behold, they
are hid in the earth, in the midst of my tent, and the silver
under it. Three things I want you to mark,
and this is a motif. I talked to us on Friday about
patterns. I saw, I coveted, and I took. This is what we call
a pattern in scripture and it's rooted in the original mention
of Genesis chapter 3 when Eve saw the tree and she coveted
after the tree and she took the fruit thereof. That's what happens
when the heart is engaging in a thing in an idolatrous way
because you do know that covetousness is idolatry. She saw, she coveted
and she took. This was also true in Genesis
chapter 6. Where the sons of God saw the daughters of men
they saw them They coveted them and they did what took them wise
of all that they had I want you to hear what's going on in all
three cases Genesis 3 with the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil Genesis 6 with the ungodly women and Joshua chapter 7 with
the accursed thing watch this now all three of these objects
that they coveted after were forbidden They were banned by
God. See, you and I have been learning,
especially when we were in the gospel and sexuality class, that
God puts parameters and boundaries and limitations on us for our
own good, doesn't he? There are things that God says
to you and I we can't have. Because they will not be good
for us and when we break the boundaries of God's parameters
and limitations And try to take something to ourselves that God
says you cannot have we are only incurring damage on ourselves
Are you guys hearing me? And so Aiken did not realize
that he was bringing the wrath of God upon himself upon his
family and upon the whole nation and This is quite remarkable. In Joshua chapter 7, what we
come to discover is that when Achan commits this trespass,
what the text tells us is that God's wrath was not only on Achan,
but it was on the whole of the children of Israel. Do you understand
that? Look at verse 1 of chapter 7.
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing.
Do you see that? Well, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Wasn't it Achan that committed the trespass? How is it that
Jehovah is calling attention to the whole of the nation? Because
Achan represents the whole nation. We're getting ready to learn
something here about the nature of sin. See, when you're part
of a body, a physical body, when one part of the body defects,
The whole body hurts. It would be nice if we could
disjoint our foot from the rest of our body when it acts a fool
and say, suffer what you get. But the reality is the pain that's
in the foot also enters into the head and runs through the
body because the foot is connected to the body. And what God's getting
ready to teach you and I is the principle of the communication
of sin. Sin is a communicable disease
Sin is a communicable disease I'm going to share with us just
a few lessons here before we go on and understand the redemptive
message here Don't ever think especially you young people and
this you do this out of your ignorance that your sin only
affects you Don't ever think that when you rebel against God
personally that it doesn't have an effect on your family, on
your children, on the ones you love and care about. Remember
the unintended consequences of battles? Young people are often
very myopic, tunnel vision and think they can do whatever they
want to do. I'm talking young in numbers and young in mind,
ignorant, naive to the nature of sin. Akin thought that he
could sneak in the plunder and secretly and privately Abhorred
to himself the accursed thing and the attitude is what I do
is my business. You know, you hear people talk
like that But now I want you to follow this now that's never
the way God thinks God never thinks of a thing as only being
your business and especially when it comes to sin Sin is a
communicable disease It communicates itself to other people. Now,
on this occasion, God's wrath is against the children of Israel.
They lose 36 men. They are in danger of retreating
and having their foes to become bold against them, as Joshua
said. And now God has to help them
understand that what you did and being presumptuous against
me and what Achan did in taking their cursed thing is setting
you up to be destroyed. Now the accursed thing needs
to be understood a little bit before we go to our next point.
Why does God put prohibition on things? Because he knows those
things that he puts prohibitions on will destroy us. The word
accursed thing goes back to Deuteronomy 7. I've told you that before.
It's part of the Levitical code. When Israel went into the promised
land, this is what God knew. There were areas in Israel that
were unredeemable. There were things in the land
of Palestine that could only be utterly destroyed. In other
words, you know how you hear people talk today in the church
about being able to redeem everything. I'm going to take this back from
the devil and I'm going to use it for the glory of God. Have
you ever heard that? I'm going to take that back from
the devil. I'm going to take what the devil took from me.
Well, we hear that stuff. And I think it's very theologically
unwise. You better ask God whether or
not that thing that the devil has was yours in the first place.
Secondly, you better ask this question. Are you ready? Is it
redeemable? You know how we used to have
the Coke bottles? This is for us old folks. And
they had redeemed on it. Redeemed. And we could get a
nickel for it. and we could use it again to
repurchase some coke. Well, not every soda we bought
was what? Redeemable. Am I telling the
truth? And not everything in the realm of the kingdom of God
is redeemable. You better ask God what's redeemable
and not. Because if you take to yourself
something that has no redeemable value, it might only not be redeemable,
which means it will be useless to you. It might become an impediment
and worse, it might be a curse. Can I share with you something?
God knows everything. Here's another one. We don't
know anything. And what that means is in God's
house, which the promised land typified, God knew the vessels
that were good and he knew the vessels that were bad. He knew
the resources that were good and he knew the resources that
were bad. Watch this. He knew what lands in Palestine were
capable of bearing fruit. and wetlands in Palestine were
not only incapable of bearing fruit, but they were poisonous.
I won't stay here because in the choice gleaning series over
this year, I'll get back to it. But Jericho was a city that God
had cursed even before Israel got there. One of the reasons
God cursed it was because it had no capacity to provide healthy
water sources for the people. The water stream in this city,
Jericho, was toxic and it killed the children and it killed the
young people. The water stream was bad. This
is the same place that Elijah had to take a stick and throw
it in there, a tree to throw it in the waters, to heal the
waters. Remember that? But that's way down the line. See, Israel
does not know how to take the land without God. You can't take
the land without God teaching you where to go, when to go,
how to go, what to take, what to destroy, what to leave alone.
And I'll just hurry up and make my application. Everything that
you and I experience in the world is not redeemable. Flesh and
blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. We heard it this morning.
Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do you know
what that means? You can't take carnal things that God has assigned
to destruction and annihilation and bring them into the kingdom
of God. You're not gonna redeem the flesh. You're not gonna redeem
fleshly carnal things. The other reality is that when
God gave Achan the opportunity to confess, he was confessing
for us to teach us of redemptive spiritual realities. It was a
Babylonian garment. And that Babylonian garment was
from Shinar. And it was a wealthy garment
that was interwoven, not only with fine fabric, but with gold
and silver and precious things. But generally those garments,
I want you to hear this now, those kinds of garments were
also embroidered with idols on them. And the vestment, the garment
often represents a man's righteousness. And what Achan had done in the
midst of the battles of the Lord was secretly and privately engaged
in establishing his own righteousness that had its origins in Babylon. Now, Babylon is the architectural
enemy of God. Babylon is the ultimate arch
enemy of God. Now, follow me, saints. Can you
imagine three or four months after the campaign in Jericho
and everything settles down? You see Achan walking around.
with his long garment on. His silver and his gold. And
on his garment, he got all these real weird idols from Babylon
and Shinar. And it's glittering and shining.
And all the Israelites said, man, look at that. That's cool,
man. Can I get one of those? Are you
following me? And then he rolling. He got a
new chariot. Because he's got gold and silver
in his pocket. Man, A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A-
A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A- A-
A- A- A- A- A- and it places on men. It takes
man's eyes off of God and it places it on men and it causes
men to covet men rather than the glory of God. Are you hearing
me? There's more to be said there
but I want to wrap this up. It's very important that you
understand that when God smote Israel that Achan is teaching
us a great, great lesson. The title of our message is God
has a purpose and death is part of it. Did any of y'all miss
that? I want you to hear me now. Me
and one of our brothers were rejoicing this morning as we
contemplated the grace of God. We were rejoicing. And we were
talking, and my sister too, we were talking about how God has
revealed himself to be a God of all grace and able to raise
men from the dead. This is the joy and the hope
of the believer. Are you hearing me? I want you
to watch this now. I'm getting ready to show you
a truth. If I didn't have a God who could raise the dead, I would
be of all men most miserable because the wages of sin is what?
Stay with me now. You and I have been, since the
beginning of time, contaminated with the sin nature. We are sinners
by nature. We are sinners personally by
nature. We think sin. We practice sin. We commit sin. And we've lived long enough to
know that our sin has affected other people. Am I telling the
truth? Now watch this. The joy that you see in me and
believers around the world is not the fact that we acknowledge
that we're still sinners, but the fact that we have a God who
can raise the dead. You know what that means? No
sin is so interminable in my life that God can't raise it
from the dead. That's my only hope. When my
sin breaks fellowship with God and people because death is separation. Will you hear me now? This is
how you know you're in sin. Are you ready? This is how you
know. If you don't know it, listen to me. You can think you're all
right with God. You're not. When you are in sin,
you are killing everything around you. When you're in sin, you're
killing relationships. You're killing friendships. You're
killing marriage relationships. You're killing relationships
with your children. You're killing relationships with your parents.
Because sin separates. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
It separates. And the only hope that we have
for this kind of terminable disease is the God that can raise from
the dead. The God that can recuperate and recover the brokenness that
occurs because we want to be like Achan. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? It's very important for you to
get this sin contaminates That's why the bible talks about sin
being a disease And this is why it speaks to the heart of christ's
redemptive work. Listen as being a healing process
He came to bind the brokenhearted To heal our diseases and sickness
by his stripes are we healed? Because sin becomes a disease
This is what Isaiah chapter 1 says, from the soles of our feet to
the crown of our head, putrefying swords dominated the whole body
politic of Israel. And God says, I don't even want
to beat on you anymore because the more I beat you, the more
sick you become and you still don't repent. Incurable diseases. Incurable diseases. Incurable
diseases. Achan is going to teach us a
mystery of redemption. I'm going to close here. I want
to just say it again. God has a purpose and death is
included in it. God has a purpose and death is
included in it and Akin with all of his problems to those
of us who have been humbled by the teaching recognize that we
fit Akin's Portfolio to the T. I'm aching you're aching. We're
aching if it had not been for the mercy of God I would have
done just what they can do Don't tell me in the spoils of the
Lord that you wouldn't be inclined to take a little clothing for
yourself Just a bracelet some earrings. Come on sisters Brother
some sandals just a pair of slacks especially when you've been in
the wilderness for 40 years and and your clothes are 40 years
old, and you entered into the promised land, you'd be inclined
to put some suits on too, if it wasn't for the mercy of God.
Now, you know what this means? Watch this now. You can look
down your nose at other people all you want to, but the man
over there is you. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, which teaches us a critical truth, a critical
truth. that God had to teach Israel.
This is called the mystery of redemption in Achan. Are you
ready? The mystery of redemption in Achan. Our elder was talking
about this a little bit this morning in Sunday school. You
got to slow down in your teaching. Tell him. Tell him. Elder, you
got to slow down. 55 choice truths. You can't do it in 45 minutes.
So just peel off two or three and let people enjoy. How does Achan benefit us? He
was the one who did it. God told the whole nation to
take Achan, him, his family, his children, all his cattle,
all his goods, everything he had, stone him and burn him. That's severe, isn't it? Severe! God, you mean! No, he's not. He's merciful. He's merciful. See, this is what we call the
painful mercies of God. My message is God has a purpose
and death is included in it. Death is painful, but it's necessary
and it redounds to God's glory when God is in it. See, Achan
here not only represented his own family, But he represents
the whole human race. See, God sees the whole human
race in one man. For by one man did sin enter
into the world, and death passed upon all, for all have sinned
in Adam. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So when we look at Achan, what we see is Adam. And if we're
honest, we see ourselves. Now, do you know what that means?
We got problems. The whole lot of us, because
I'm no better than Achan, and this is wild. God tells the whole
nation to stone this brother, and they all participate, that
is the heads of the tribes, in destroying this man. And you
know when they destroyed Achan, watch this now, guess who they
were destroying? Themselves. Themselves. When they were stoning Achan,
they were stoning themselves. When they were burning up Achan's
stuff, they were burning up themselves. You know what we call this in
biblical theology? Confessing our sins. Acknowledging
our sin. Acknowledging our rebellion,
our disobedience, our grievous crime against the God of holiness. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Let me go on. When they killed Achan, they
were also fulfilling a great theological truth. And it's two
sides of the coin. The one we call the doctrine
of imputation. You know what that means? The
acts, the character and the person's attributes and deeds get placed
on somebody else and to their account. So Adam serves as a
federal head of the whole human race and his sin is passed on
to all of us, and as a consequence of his sin passing on to all
of us, we all what? Die. In Adam, all what? We call this in theology, traducianism.
It means in Adam, the whole human race existed. You meet Adam.
And when he sinned, we sinned in him. That's why God will tell
parents, you better behave and act right when you got babies
in the womb. Because when they come out, all
the stress that you were engaged in gets put in their DNA. Remember
when God told Manoah and his wife, now you're going to have
a young man named Samson, stay away from the wine. Why? Because
that wine would enter into his DNA and that boy was consecrated
to God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
When we affirm the doctrine of traditionism, we are affirming
the doctrine of sins, transference, legally, judicially, spiritually,
and physically to the whole human race. So that as Adam died, so
I die. As Adam thinks, so I think. This
is the doctrine of imputation. Now this doctrine would be horrible,
horrible if there wasn't another glorious doctrine on the other
side of it. Do you know what we call it? The doctrine of substitution. Are you ready? Imputation would
make it horrible if you and I were dying merely for Adam's sin being
communicated to us without any hope. But because of the doctrine
of substitution, there's another Adam who is able to now take
my place and bear my judgment. my sins being imputed to him.
Are you ready? Watch this. My iniquities and
transgressions being imputed to him. My rebellion of taking
the accursed thing being imputed to him. He now is experiencing
the imputation of my sins. And do you know what must happen
to him? He must what? Die! He must come up under the
wrath of God. He must be punished for my sin. He must come up under the judgment
of God. He must endure the wrath of God
for my sin. Achan, therefore, teaches us
that Jesus Christ is the last Adam. See, the first Adam brought
sin in. The last Adam took sin out. And
the people that were stoning the first Adam was also stoning
the last Adam because God had a purpose and death was included
in it. In order for the children of
Israel to continue to progress in their purpose of accomplishing
God's will in the promised land, guess what? God had to deal with
death. Now you and I have a problem.
It's your sin. You got it from your daddy, Adam.
You can blame him, but you're guilty as he is. Cause if you
was in the garden, you'd have did the same thing. You'd have
probably did it faster than Eve. But God in his mercy provided
the last Adam, that's Romans chapter 5. For by one man sin
entered into the world and death came upon all, for all have sinned.
Even so, by the obedience of one, have God justified many. When you look at the death of
Achan here, I want you to see the death. Jesus Christ Are you
hearing me? Just the last two verses of chapter
7 just I want you to see it for yourself I want you to meditate
on this for yourself. I want you to see it for yourself
and Joshua said in verse 25. Why have you troubled us? The Lord shall trouble you this
day. Do you see that and all Israel stoned him with stones
and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones
verse 26 and And they raised over him a great heap of stones
unto this day. So the Lord did what? Turn from
the fierceness of his anger. Now, how does God turn his wrath
away from sinners? Only by the substitutionary atoning
work of Jesus Christ. When God turns his wrath away
from me and he turns his wrath away from you, is because someone
else took your place and God's wrath and justice was satisfied
on him in order to let you go. And this is why the place is
called the Valley of Acre unto this day. Pastor, what are you
talking about? Remember three weeks ago, we
were in the book of Hosea chapter two, Verse 18, 19 or so. And God has said to his hardhead,
stubborn, obstreperous, adulterous, whore-mongering wife. Remember
who that woman was? That's us! He says, I will allure her into
the wilderness, and I will speak comfortably to her. After she
wears herself out with her lovers, and she realizes that I'm the
only good thing in her life, I will bring her back into the
wilderness where I was with her before. See, in the wilderness,
you're in that solitary place with God. We're back in the wilderness
now. In the wilderness, God can talk to you now. He can get your
attention because he stripped you of all of those carnal distractions
that you should have never got wrapped up in before. And now
he can speak comfortably to your soul. That's what the text says.
And I will speak comfortably to her. The word means, and I
will change her heart I will change her heart. I will show
her her sin. I will forgive her of her sin.
I will show her my mercy. I'll show her my grace and I
will give her a door in the valley of Acre. A door in the valley
of trouble. A door in the valley of trouble. Yes, that trouble is our sin. That door is Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes unto the Father
by me. Christ is the door through the
depth we got ourselves into because of our troubles, by which we
can come out on the other side and once again be brought back
into the book. Listen, let me tell you something.
Those people was happy in chapter eight, happy. Because God had
a way to resolve this problem of sin, which brought about death. And the way he had for them then
is the way he has for us now. Death will separate you from
God for all eternity. But God has a plan. And that
plan is to redeem death and hell and you and me through his son,
Jesus Christ. So that while we go in, We also
come out on the other side in the righteousness of God, by
the mercy of God, by the grace of God, standing in favor with
God. He was able to overcome my doubt
and yours through Christ, who is our aching. Amen. Amen.