Sin in the Camp

Why don't you go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter 7, and let's stand. We read, "But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel."

Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Avon, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke unto them, saying, "Go up and view the country." The men went up and viewed Ai. They returned to Joshua and said unto him, "Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai. Make not all the people labor there, for they are but few."

So they went up there, the people, about three thousand men, and they fled before the men of Ai. The men of Ai smote about thirty-six men and chased them from before the gate, even unto Sheberem. They smote them in the going down; wherefore, the hearts of the people melted and became as water. You can be seated.

Maybe last week, as you left, your faith was involved. As we looked at the falling of the walls in Jericho, perhaps you saw in your own life, as we prayed last week. Some of you took a knee and asked the Lord to remove some things that were hindering you or to strengthen you in a certain area. You may have seen some walls in your own life fall down. You were blessed and went away from here kind of pumped up and excited.

But then Monday morning came around, and again you woke up, and it was just you, again, normal. As I've said many times before, the flesh of the Lord is not the flesh of the flesh. The flesh always wakes up first. Before I even open my eyes, it seems that my flesh has woken up and is ready to go for the day, pursuing its own things.

We know that all that is in the world, as 1 John chapter 2 says, is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The world caters to those things that our flesh so desires, the longings of this wicked flesh that we hang on to. Paul the Apostle would say that he has been crucified with Christ; he no longer lives. Some of us have had a glimpse of that before, and we've seen that life where we've laid down our lives, as Jesus told his disciples in Luke chapter 9.

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Some of you have experienced that, even last week. But like I said, you woke up Monday morning, and it was like, well, it's just another week. Here we go. Right off the bat, there was another battle. The same is true in our story this evening with the children of Israel. As Jericho has fallen and they took this great stronghold, the very next day, there’s another battle.

It says in verse 1 that the children of Israel committed a trespass on the accursed thing, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing. We saw last week how the Lord had said that this whole city was to be devoted unto the Lord. All the goods in the city were to be given over to God, but all the things that were wicked, all the gross, immoral things of the city were to be destroyed. They were to be cast down. They were accursed. The children of Israel weren't to touch them. Only Rahab and her family and all those that were in her household were to be saved from the city. Everything else was to be destroyed or devoted unto the Lord.

The children of Israel went into this city, everyone straight before them. In the very first verses of chapter 7, we see that one of the people of the children of Israel, Achan by name, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, of all the tribes in Israel, the tribe of Judah. We know that Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Yet here we have another man from Judah named Achan. As he goes into this area of Jericho, he sees something that catches his eye. He takes it and hides it. No one else knows but him and his household. He takes something from the accursed things, the things that were devoted and banned unto the Lord.

Because of that, notice what the Lord says: the children of Israel have committed a trespass, not just Achan, but the entire nation of Israel has committed a trespass in the accursed thing. The anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel, not just against this man, Achan, but against the entire nation of Israel. God's anger was kindled.

So the children of Israel, Joshua not knowing this, sent the men from Jericho to Ai to spy it out. This second battle was coming. They had taken Jericho, but now they were going right on into the land, cutting across the west of the land to go after this next city, Ai. He sent a couple of spies in there to check it out, to consider the city of Ai and see what was going on there. They came back to Joshua and said, "Well, there are really not very many people in this city of Ai."

And so we should send up a little bit of the army. In our lives, there's a tendency to begin to think that we're strong after we've had some sort of victory. I know in my own life, as I've seen victories and as I've seen walls fall in my own heart, some of you saw that last week in your own lives. Still, there was a great defeat right after the great victory. Many times in Scripture, we see great victories brought about by the power of God, and then the very next thing, we see the children of Israel falling into sin.

Throughout the book of Judges, if we finish Joshua and go on into Judges, we will see that the children of Israel, after they would be freed from the bondage they were in, would fall back into sin after the judge died. It would say again, "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." They would be defeated and sold into the hands of another wicked king.

We also see this in the story of Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 18. When Elijah got rid of the 400 prophets of Baal, he experienced a great victory. The fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice on which he had poured out water. Yet, the very next chapter tells us about how he ran away because he was fearful that Jezebel was going to kill him. He ran down to a cave in the very south of the nation of Israel and hid out, defeated in his spirit. Many of you have experienced that as well, where you've seen a great victory. Something has fallen, some habit that you were stuck in, the sin that so easily ensnared you, and you've been able to let it go. But right the very next day, something else is right there.

The enemy works like that so often, and you get beat down. The children of Israel had a great victory and began to trust in themselves. The interesting thing to me is that they did nothing in Jericho. They just walked around the city. It's not like they actually fought for the city or came up with a plan, taking up swords, shields, and battering rams to break through. God broke the walls down, and yet they started to trust in themselves.

So often, we do the very same thing. We think, "Gosh, I'm really doing a great job here," and then in our next step, we think, "Well, I got it from here, Lord, thank you very much." The Lord takes off the training wheels in our lives, guiding the bike along, and we say, "All right, let go, now I can do it." Then we take off and fall down. The children of Israel were in that very same situation; they began to think, "Well, we got it going on. We know what's up." But they didn't, because there was something secret going on in their nation that they had no idea about.

As we talked about a little bit last week in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, Paul the Apostle told the people in the church of Corinth that a little bit of leaven, a little bit of sin, a little bit of yeast will leaven the entire lump.

And that little bit of sin in this camp, in this nation of Israel, caused a great breakdown for everybody. Again, in Galatians, chapter 5, verse 9, Paul said the very same thing to the church at Galatia: a little bit of leaven will leaven the entire lump. Many of you have heard the verse before in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 12, which says to take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

I've been in those times before when I thought, "Yeah, I know what I'm doing. I've got this going on. I'm ready. Let's go." Yet, in the very next step, I fell into a ditch. This happens because you're not relying upon the Lord; you're relying upon yourself. That's exactly what the children of Israel did.

Maybe you remember several months ago when I taught from the book of Genesis, chapter 12. We talked about how Abraham, in Genesis 12, began to follow the Lord. He came into the area of Bethel, the house of God, but immediately he started to sense a lack—a famine in his life. He began to turn south and headed towards Ai, which means "heap of ruins."

Now, the children of Israel were going into this place in Joshua, chapter 7, to get rid of Ai, this heap of ruins, this stronghold. The other name mentioned is that Ai was next to Beth-Avon, as stated in verse 2. Beth-Avon means "the house of vanity." It was right next to the house of vanity. How many of you have read "Pilgrim's Progress" before? This was Vanity Fair—a heap of ruins. The children of Israel were headed towards that place.

They sent some spies in to check it out and said, "You know what? We really don't need the whole ark. We really don't need the entire army here. I don't think we need to belabor the entire army. Just send a few people up there. We can take these guys. Look what we did to Jericho." But remember again, it was God who did it.

It was God who did it. Remember when Peter walked upon water? It wasn't his power. Peter wasn't some amazing guy who could muster it up to walk on water. It was when his eyes were upon the Lord that he was able to walk upon the water. As soon as his eyes and focus changed to the wind and the waves, what happened to him? He began to sink.

The same is true for you and for me. When we begin to think, "Well, I'm doing okay," but we look at the circumstances around us, that's when we sink. That's when we fall. The children of Israel were looking at circumstances. They viewed the situation through their own lens and thought, "We've got this licked."

We can do this. So, Joshua, just send about two, maybe three thousand people up there to take these guys. It's not going to be a big deal. But take heed when you think that you stand, lest you fall. Paul told the church at Galatia in Galatians chapter 6, verse 3, "Don't deceive yourself thinking that you're something when you're nothing."

There are those times when we just think, "I really have got it going on." It's a temptation for every single one of us, and it's a big temptation for me. There are times when people come and talk to me and say, "Wow, that was a great teaching." I start to think, "Yeah, it really was, wasn't it? You liked that little parallel there? Yeah, that was great. I spent a lot of time on that."

There's that temptation of the enemy to think, "Well, yeah, I'm doing a really good job here." It's right there that the Lord just goes, "Okay, well, let's just kind of take your feet right out from under you and see how you are able to stand on that water now." We start to sink, and hopefully we cry out to the Lord. Hopefully, we do just like Peter did and say, "Lord, help."

You can pray for me, and you can pray for Pat. You can pray for every single one of the teachers. Pray for your pastors who teach. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount to be careful when you do your works before men to receive the praise of men because then you have your reward. There are times when you just kind of walk away from a study, and people come up and say, "That was just incredible." It's like, "Yeah." And the Lord just says, "Well, there's your reward. There you go. If that's what you're looking for, the praise of men, then you've got it."

It's not really easy to make people go, "Wow." It's not hard to make people say, "Wow, that was great." We can get up and put on the little song and dance thing, and people can just go, "That was just incredible." We can be puffed up in ourselves and say, "Yeah, it was."

But Paul told the church at Corinth that he came to them in weakness, trembling and with fear. He came not with incredible words so that they would take strength in the power of God, not in the power of man. Right before he went to Corinth, right before Paul had that experience, we read in the book of Acts that he went to Mars Hill. It was there in Athens that he really showed everybody how smart and intelligent he was. Those guys up on the hill at Mars Hill were like, "Wow."

You're really smart, and we'll hear you again on this matter. However, there was really no fruit at all; nobody came to the Lord. I think Paul realized at that point in time that he could dazzle them and wow them with his words and all this different stuff, but no one was going to come to the Lord. If he came to them and simply declared Jesus Christ and Him crucified, decreasing and getting out of the way so that they could see the Lord, it was at that point that the Lord could do a great work.

The temptation is so great for us to fix our eyes upon ourselves. When we do, we think that we can stand. But take heed, because you'll fall. The children of Israel thought, "We can stand. We can do this because, look, we just had a victory." Victories are wonderful, but right after victories come great valleys and great defeats. Always after the mountain is the valley.

I've gone to many Christian camps over the years, so many that I can hardly remember how many, with the kids in the youth group. At these camps, you see the kids come and kneel down in front of the sanctuary at Green Valley. They worship with their hands in the air, and you think, "Wow, this is incredible." Hearing a junior higher give a testimony about what the Lord is doing in his heart is something special.

Then, about a month later, you see them down the mountain, and they really couldn't care less. They had a great time at camp, but as they go through high school, you hear them say, "I can't wait to go back to that camp again so that I can have that mountaintop experience again because I need to get right with the Lord." I used to look at it and think, "What about when you go back down the mountain?" Yes, mountaintops are great, and victories are fun, but be careful. Every day is not a mountaintop.

The children of Israel had their great mountaintop at Jericho. Then they went and said, "We only need to send a couple thousand people up to Ai, maybe three, because there are not a lot of people up there, and we can take these guys." So they went up there, about 3,000 men, and they fled before the men of Ai. The men of Ai smote them, about 36 men, and they chased them from before the gate even unto Shibarim. They smote them in the going down, wherefore the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

Maybe you remember just a couple of weeks ago when we were in Joshua chapter 2, verse 11, when Rahab was telling these two spies...

About what's going on in the hearts of the people in Canaan, we turn to Joshua chapter 2, verse 11. Notice what she says: "As soon as we heard these things, when we heard about how you guys had gotten rid of the Egyptians, how you'd crossed the Red Sea, and how you got rid of Og and Sihon, these two Amorite kings on the other side of the river, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath."

Rahab said that the people here in Canaan were afraid of the Israelites, and their hearts melted. However, just a few chapters later, after the children of Israel had taken Jericho and then faced Ai, they were defeated and lost thirty-six of their men. They ran down the hill and returned to the camp, where it says that the hearts of the people melted, and they became as water. They didn't know what to do; they felt like they were falling apart. They thought they could do this in their own strength.

Last week, as I was teaching and going through that portion of Scripture about devoting yourself to the Lord, I encouraged everyone to devote themselves to the Lord or to destroy whatever wickedness was in their hearts. Many of you probably agreed and thought, "Yes, I'm going to do that." But then, by mid-week, you might have thought, "I can't do this. I'm getting beat." Your heart melted, and you wondered why that message didn't help you as you had hoped. You thought you could manage this whole Christian life thing on your own.

The Lord never intended for you and me to live this Christian life by ourselves. Remember, Jesus told His disciples that it was good for them that He was leaving so that the Spirit could come, who would guide them in all truth and teach them all things. The Spirit is the one who will strengthen you. The Lord doesn't want anything more from you than to recognize your failures. And you know what? That's good, because we're all just a bunch of failures.

He wants us to realize this and to throw ourselves upon Him, saying, "Lord, I give myself completely into Your hands. Now take my life and please use me." And you know what? He will. But we fail, we fall, and we falter because we are failures. I think the best thing in the world is to come to that point where you can actually realize this truth.

I'm just a failure. There's really nothing good in me, just like Paul said in Romans chapter 7. I have found that in my flesh dwells no good thing. He could agree with Jeremiah when the prophet said that the heart of man is deceitfully wicked. Some of you in this room might think, "I'm not wicked," and you may disagree with that scripture. Just like Mike Rozelle, you have heard his testimony before. He would talk about how he is a potter and works with clay. When he reads that verse in Jeremiah, "I’m the potter, you’re the clay," he gets offended by it. He thinks, "Lord, I'm not clay. I know that clay is good for nothing. I'm not clay; I’ve got to be good for something."

Until you come to that place where you can say, "I'm good for nothing," and acknowledge that you are just dirt, just clay, there’s nothing that the Lord can do with you because you are rock hard. In the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus was speaking to His disciples in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, the very first words that came out of His mouth were, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Until you come to that place where you are poor in spirit and say, "I can't do this," the Lord can't use you.

You may see some little victories here and there. You might have a Jericho where God bursts through, and you think, "All right, we got it." But then the very next day, you might say, "I can take it from here, Lord. I got it now. Thanks for the help there. That was a good plan, walking around the city. I liked that. That was pretty interesting, that blowing of the trumpets thing. But I think we can take this next one. Just send a few thousand people up there." And they got spanked.

Maybe you've been doing that thing where you think, "I've got it from here. Thank you, Lord. Thanks for last week; that was great, but I can do it." And you fall flat on your face every single day. Until you come to that place where you say, "I'm poor in spirit. I can't do it," and until you begin to mourn for it, as it says in verse 4 of Matthew chapter 5, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

You see, until you come to that place where you are poor in spirit and realize it, and then begin to mourn for it, you will not hunger and thirst after righteousness. Only then comes the filling. But if you are in that place where you think, "I don't really like that song, 'Empty Me,' because I think I’ve got enough. I'm doing just fine," and you came to the Lord thinking, "Well, now you’ve got me, Lord. You're going to win the world through me," there was a time when I thought that too. Then the Lord made me a junior high pastor, and I realized real quickly that that wasn't the case.

There are times when we start to think, "I've got it under control. I can do this." But that's not the case. Until you finally come to the realization that you have failed and that you can't do this on your own, you are of no use to God. The children of Israel had not come to that point where they realized they couldn't do this on their own.

Why can't we do this on our own? Because we are sinners. There is wickedness and sin in our hearts and in our flesh. There is no good thing. My righteousness, as the Bible says in Isaiah, is as what? Filthy rags. It's filthy rags. The Lord would say, "Just get rid of your filthy rags. Throw in the towel, as we talked about a few weeks ago. Get rid of it so I can clothe you in my righteousness."

Until you come to the realization that it is just filthy rags, you are still relying upon yourself and trying to justify and sanctify yourself. You can't clean yourself because you are dirty. Have you ever tried to clean dishes or something with a dirty rag? It doesn't work. If you try to clean yourself with dirty rags, you will never get anywhere. You will just spread the dirt and make it worse.

Until the Lord is able to come in with His pure hands and cleanse us, giving us a pure heart and removing that rock-hard, solid heart we have, we will struggle. He wants to replace it with the heart that He has made in His image. However, many of us fight and struggle, thinking, "I can do it. I've got it going on." The children of Israel thought they could, but they couldn't because they were filled with sin.

There was sin in the camp. There was a mark, an unholy blemish that had to be removed and taken care of. As a result, the children of Israel fell before their enemy at Ai, and Ai smote them. The hearts of the people melted within them. Then, in verse 6, it says that Joshua rent his clothes. He tore his clothes and fell down before the Lord on the earth, upon his face before the ark of the Lord, until the evening. He and the elders of Israel put dust upon their heads.

Joshua and the elders of Israel came together, tearing their clothes because their hearts were breaking. They fell down before the ark of the Lord and threw dust upon their heads, saying, "Lord, we're lower than dirt. We just want to get below the dirt." What is going on here?

Joshua is crying out. In verse 7, he says, "Alas, O Lord, wherefore have You brought this people over the Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God that we had been content to dwell on the other side of the Jordan." That is such a sad verse to me because here Joshua, the leader of this nation who had such great faith before, expresses his despair. He says it would have been better if they had stayed on the other side, on the east side of the Jordan. Why have You brought us over here, Lord? Just so we could be destroyed before our enemies? What's the whole purpose of this?

Joshua begins to falter in his faith. He is on the ground, crying out, "Lord, what's going on? Wouldn't it have just been better for us to dwell on the other side of the Jordan?" In verse 8, he continues, "What shall I say when Israel turns their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land are going to hear of it, and they will surround us. They will circle us and cut off our name from the earth."

Then he says something interesting: "What will You do unto Your great name?" You see, Joshua again has his eyes focused upon himself. He asks, "What are You going to do when these people hear about this and come in here? They're going to wipe us out. Then what are You going to do? Your people will be gone. What are You going to do, Lord? How come You brought us in here? How come we fell before these enemies today? Where were You? What are You going to do when these people come and cut us off? Then what are You going to do, Lord?"

And the Lord said unto Joshua in verse 10, "Get thee up." I can't tell you how many times the Lord has said that in my heart when I've been feeling down. "Oh, Lord, what am I going to do?" And the Lord responds, "Get up." I think the Lord looks at us and asks, "What are you doing? Get out of this muddy mess. Get up. Stop crying and throwing dust on your head. Get up. Why do you lie there on the ground upon your face?"

In verse 11, the Lord says, "Israel has sinned, and they have transgressed My covenant, which I commanded them. For they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and deceived. They have put it even among their own stuff." So the Lord tells Joshua to get up off the ground, explaining that Israel has sinned. This is why they have fallen.

Because there's sin in the camp. There's sin in the heart of this people, in the very tribe that was to be the leader of this people, the tribe of Judah. There's sin. Get off the ground. Stop crying. You need to take care of this. Israel has transgressed. They've stolen. They've deceived. They've taken of the accursed thing and put it in their own stuff. They took what was mine, God says, and they've taken it for themselves. They've done wickedly.

Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies. They turned their backs before their enemies because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore except you destroy the accursed from among you. So there's Joshua lying before the Lord, and he's saying, "Lord, what's going on here? How come you didn't defeat those people for us today? The people around us are going to hear about this, and then they're going to come and circle around us. They're going to kill us. And then what are you going to do for your great name, Lord?"

The Lord says, "Get up. There's sin. You need to take care of it. I can't be with you. I can't be in your midst if there's sin. Unconfessed sin will separate you from the Lord and His provision. Your sins," God told Isaiah and the children of Israel in the book of Isaiah, "have separated you from me. Your sins have caused this division." And that's what the Lord tells Joshua here. There's sin in the camp, and you need to take care of it. I can't be with you. I can't be in your midst, and you're not going to be able to stand before your enemies. You're going to turn your backs from your enemies because you're accursed. I'm not going to be with you until you take care of this, until you destroy it. This unconfessed sin has to go.

If there's unconfessed sin in your life and you're wondering why you don't see the blessing of God and you don't see the abundance of God, that's why. Until you lay it down and you're poor in spirit, mourn over it, and hunger and thirst after the Lord, you can't be filled. Until you say, "Lord, I don't want this anymore," He can't use you, and you'll be defeated. You'll be defeated before your enemies, however small they may be. Ai was the small city. "Oh, just send two or three thousand people up there. We got it, no problem." And yet they were defeated. They were turned around. They had to run away with their tails between their legs. This nation, who boldly walked through the Jordan River just a couple of weeks before on dry ground, then boldly walked around Jericho.

Now they're running. What a sad picture it is. Yet in our lives, we do the same thing. We boldly come into church and say, "All right, we can do this. Let's worship the Lord. Drum it up. Yeah, all right. Clap your hands." Then we walk out of here and get beat up all week long. You come back in, "All right, drum it up." Then you go out of here, and you're running from the enemy all week long, getting beat up.

Maybe it's just the smallest thing in the world that everybody else would say, "What? You fell into that? Are you kidding me?" But it gets you every time. That sin that so easily ensnares you. Until you come to the place where you're on the ground and say, "Lord, I've sinned," then He can't take it away. Until you give it to Him and He is able to take it away, you can't be used.

The Lord says, "Until you get rid of this accursed thing, you're not going to be able to stand before your enemies, and they're going to destroy you." In verse 13, the Lord says, "Up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel." There's sin in the camp, God says. There's an accursed thing in the midst of you, and you can't stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.

God tells Joshua in verse 14, "In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according to your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to the families thereof. The family which the Lord shall take shall come according to their household. The household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man." It shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has wrought folly in Israel.

He's brought foolishness about in Israel, God says. "Tomorrow you're going to bring the tribes, all twelve of them, before me," God says. "I'm going to show you. I'm going to separate maybe by casting of lots, the Urim and the Thummim." You can read about that in the book of Exodus, chapter 25, somewhere around there. The lights and perfection—God casts light upon it and says, "This is the problem."

So the children of Israel were to pass before the Lord, all twelve tribes, and God would say, "All right, that tribe." And so they did, and the Lord said, "Judah."

And then they were to take all twelve of them and all the people in Judah, and they were to pass by all the households of that tribe. The Lord was going to say, "This one." Then that household was going to pass by, man by man, and the Lord was going to say, "This one." When you find that one who has the accursed thing, then you are to take him, and he is to be burnt with fire.

Now see, the Lord could have said, "You know what, Joshua, it's Achan. He's the guy who did it. Go get him right now." But the Lord gives us every single chance to confess, to repent, to turn, before we come to the end and He wipes us out. The Lord gave Pharaoh, there in Exodus, every single chance to turn and to say, "Alright, the Lord, He is God, and you can go." But he didn't, even after ten plagues—one after the other, after the other, after the other. He hardened his heart, and God made it stiff. It came to the point where he was broken. The Bible says in the Psalms that he who stiffens his neck often will be obliterated in an instant. The person who hardens their heart and hardens their neck and says, "No, I'm not going to give in to the Lord, and I'm not going to do what He's told me to do," that person is going to be the one who is destroyed in a second.

There is a sin, the Bible tells us in 1 John, that leads unto death. There are those who have committed sin to the point where the Lord said, "You're out of here." In the book of Genesis, I don't remember which chapter—probably around chapter 30, somewhere in there—the sons of Judah were wicked men. The Lord killed them because they were wicked. We look at that and wonder how the Lord could kill someone, but they were so wicked that the Lord said, "You've stiffened, you've hardened your heart and your neck, and you're out of here."

Every single one of us is being watched by someone. You have kids that follow you; you have other adults who look to you. If you are leading them astray, then you are leading them to hell. If they look at your life and see that you claim to be a Christian, yet you don't live like one, you are leading them in the wrong direction. I remember telling some of the kids in the junior high group a couple of years ago that there were some kids who were natural leaders—people followed them. I would tell them, "You have to be very careful where you lead people because they will follow you no matter where you go. You're just popular; they like you. You can lead them to the Lord and closer to the Lord, or you can lead them to destruction. It's your choice."

There are people today who are following every single one of us in here. There are people who are dependent upon your life and your witness, and mine as well.

And they're watching us. There are people, co-workers of yours, who every single day observe you. They wonder, "Well, that guy says he's a Christian. He carries his Bible and has a fish sticker on his car. How does he live?" They notice when you participate in the office pool or when you join in on those dirty jokes. They see you leave early and take things with you. They think, "I thought that guy was a Christian."

There are times when we can lead people astray. The children of Israel were walking in the wrong direction at that point in time, and it had to be addressed. In verse 16, it says, "Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken." He brought the family of Judah, took the family of the Zerites, and brought the family of the Zerites, man by man, until Zebedee was taken. He brought his household, man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zebedee, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give, I pray thee, glory unto God, the God of Israel, and make confession unto Him. Tell me now what you have done; hide it not from me." You see, this guy had chance after chance—like four chances—to come forward and say, "All right, it's me. You don't have to do this anymore." Yet he waited until the very end when they said, "Achan, you are the man." They stood him right before Joshua, who said, "Make confession now. Tell us what has happened. What have you done? Give praise to the Lord and make confession. Don't hide it from me."

Finally, Achan answered in verse 20, saying, "Joshua, indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done." You see, finally, when he was found out, he confessed. Have you ever been around people like that? Once they're caught, they finally tell you, "Oh, I'm caught. All right, this is what I did. I'm sorry."

I don't want to get too political, but I'm reminded of Bill Clinton. After he was totally found out, he said, "Okay, yeah, all right, whatever. Let's go bomb Afghanistan. All right, let's get out of here."

And you see, there are those times when we know we're caught. You're speeding down the freeway. The Lord convicts you; you need to slow down. You don't. You just keep going. You're flying around, and then all of a sudden, you find yourself saying, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to speed. I'm sorry. Please don't give me a ticket. This is my sixth one this month." You confess because you're caught.

That's what Achan did. There's a book in our bookstore by a guy named Damien Kyle. He's a pastor of Calvary Chapel Modesto, and he did a study on brokenness. One of the things he says in there that is really interesting to me is that the time that lapses between the moment you sin and the moment you confess will show if there's brokenness in your life. If the time is long, there's no brokenness. But if the time is short, then there is brokenness.

He talks about David and how David sinned with Bathsheba. For seven months, he hid it because there was no brokenness in his heart. Finally, when he was caught, he admitted, "Yeah, you're right. I did it." He was broken then. The time between when you sin and when you confess shows if there's brokenness. If it's short, it's good. If it's immediately after you sin, you realize it, fall on your knees, and say, "Lord, I'm sorry. Forgive me. Please remove this sin," then there is brokenness.

But if not, you might think, "Well, nobody saw me speed. All right, let's keep going. Nobody saw me run that red light." There is no brokenness. Achan didn't show any brokenness at all, and because of that, the whole nation of Israel was accursed. Our sin does affect people, as we talked about last week. A little bit of leaven, a little bit of sin will leaven the entire lump.

This church can't afford that, and we can be totally sidelined from the work that God desires to do in and through us. If just one of us is in sin and we think, "Well, nobody sees this. Nobody knows about this," it's dangerous. The Lord will bring it into account one day. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:13 that all things are naked and laid bare before Him, before whom we must give an account.

There is coming a day when we will give an account for every idle word and every idle thing that you and I have done. I have to be honest with you; that causes a fearful reverence in my heart. There is coming a day when I'm going to stand before the Lord, and He’s not going to judge me and say, "Well, you're out of here because you said that."

But there's coming a day when my sin is going to lay right before Him, and I'm going to say, "Yeah, I am the man. I'm a wicked person, Lord." I haven't brought You the glory that I desired and wanted to. I hope on that day that every single one of us, as we stand before the Lord, can offer to Him great, awesome gold and riches. We can lay down the crown before Him and say, "Here it is for You, Lord. My life was given completely to You."

The Bible tells us that there are going to be some who come in by fire because their life yielded nothing but wood, hay, and stubble; they lived for themselves. The person who has no fruit has nothing to give to the Lord. As Josh was talking about a couple of Sundays ago, there was a guy who was given one talent, and he did nothing with it. He squandered it. His Lord, his Master, said, "You wicked servant, you're gone." I pray that every single one of us in this room would be those who are faithful and wise servants.

We've got the wicked trim who are watching for the coming of the Lord. "Lord, when are You coming? We're ready. We're expecting." But until You do, we're serving. We're waiting for You, doing what You've called us to do. But Achan was not that man. He was a selfish man. It's interesting; his father's name, I think it was Carmi, means "my vineyard." His grandfather's name, what was it, Zabdi, means "my music." I was looking at that today and thinking, well, it was just kind of passed down, this selfish nature. His grandfather was, "That's my music." Then his father was, "Well, that's my vineyard." Achan was like, "Well, I'm just going to take this little gold thing here, and all right, let's go."

You see, the sins of the father are visited to the third and the fourth generation. Many of you know, as you look at your own children—and I don't have kids yet—but you look at your own kids and start to see the bad things that you don't like about yourself. When you look in the mirror and say, "I don't like that," then you look at your kid and think, "I don't like that." Because that's me. "Don't do that." I remember I heard a preacher a couple of years ago say, "If you see bad things in your life, you better start praying now that the Lord would deal with them within you so that they don't show up in your kids." Because that sin does get passed down, that selfishness—this is mine, mine, mine, mine, mine—and then you start seeing your kids. Their first words are "mine." No.

Those were probably my first words. I don't know. But Achan was like that. Achan finally comes and falls down, saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry," with all this pomp and circumstance. I think of Esau. The Bible tells us in Hebrews that he sought the blessing bitterly with tears, but there was no place for repentance in his life. He wanted the blessing, but he wouldn't repent and turn from his wicked ways. Achan is much the same way; he says, "Indeed, I've sinned against the Lord," as noted in verse 20. He made a mistake.

Notice what he says in verse 21. When I saw, under that, I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment, a gorgeous garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, fifty shekels in weight. Then I coveted—underline that as well—and then I took. Behold, there in the earth, in the midst of my tent, the silver is under it. He saw it, then he coveted it, and then he took it. The lust of the eyes: I see it. The lust of the flesh: I want it. And in that pride of life: I'm worth it; I can take it. That's exactly what he did. He saw this and said, "Oh, that looks really good."

The foolishness of sin sometimes is evident because here he sees this Babylonian garment. He can't wear it. What is he going to do? Put it on and walk through Israel? They're going to say, "What are you doing wearing that? That was supposed to be burned in Jericho, right? Why do you have that?" He can't wear it; he's got it buried in the middle of his tent. How foolish sin is! We get enticed by such foolish things. We look at something and go, "Oh, wow. That looks neat. Hmm. That would look good on me." Yet, we can't do anything with it.

So he saw it, coveted it, wanted it, and took it for himself, hiding it in the midst of his tent. He says, "Hey, it's in the midst of the tent. The silver's underneath it." Joshua sent messengers, and they ran into the tent, as noted in verse 22. Behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver was under it. They took them out of the midst of the tent and brought them to Joshua. The children of Israel came, and they laid them out before the Lord.

I want you to remember something, and I want you to take this and plant it in your hearts: your sin is very clearly seen before the Lord. As I mentioned a couple of minutes ago, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 13, says that our lives are naked and laid bare before Him who sees.

And we will give an account before Him someday. There is coming that day, but the Lord sees. As Hagar, there in the book of Genesis, she ran away from her mistress, from Sarai. She came to the conclusion that You are the Lord who sees me. The Lord sees everything that's done in darkness. He sees it—the things that are deep down in the midst of our hearts, in the midst of that tent that we've been holding on to and we don't want anybody else to know about. God knows.

Over and over again throughout the book of Judges and throughout the Old Testament, it says, "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." You see, God sees everything that we do, everything that we think, everything that we say. He knows it. We may be able to hide it from others, but we can't hide it from God. Notice there in the very last portion that it was laid out before the Lord. Now Joshua and the children of Israel get to see it, but God saw it all along. He will bring to light those things that are hidden, whether good or evil, the Bible tells us.

Jesus told us that those things we do unto the Lord in the secret place, God will reward us for those. Those things done in darkness He will bring to light, whether good or evil. Moses told the children of Israel in Numbers chapter 32, verse 23, "Be sure that your sin will find you out." You can be sure tonight that if there's sin hidden in your life and you won't confess it, and you keep holding on to it, it will be revealed in one way or another. It will come out in the end.

God doesn't say don't sin because He's some cosmic killjoy trying to keep you away from something that you know is really fun. Like Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden, "Well, you know God knows that in the day that you eat of it, you're going to be as God." God's not sitting up there saying, "No, I don't want you to have that because if you have it, then you're going to be like Me or you're going to have more fun than I want you to have." That's not how God is.

Sin is not bad because it's forbidden; it's forbidden because it's bad. Sin has been forbidden because God knows it will destroy you if you hold on to it. If you touch it, you're going to get burned. Can any man, as Ecclesiastes says, bring the fire to himself and not get burned? You can't hold on to sin and not get burned. It'll burn you; it'll kill you. God looked down and said, "I don't want you to die." From the very beginning, God said that in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Don't go near it. Stay away from it. It's forbidden because it'll kill you. It's forbidden because it's bad.

Not because I just don't want you to have fun. Don't touch it because it'll kill you. Don't hold on to it because you'll get burned. God desires that we would deal harshly with sin. Remember, God told Joshua that he was to take this man when he found him and burn him with fire. Some of us say, "Well, that's not very nice. What's up with that? Where's the loving God in that one? Burn the guy with fire. What's up with that?"

But you see, the Bible tells us that Jesus would say in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, verse 29, "If your right eye offends you or causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for is it profitable for you that one of your members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell?" God says if your eye causes you to sin, get rid of it. Would it be better just to get rid of that eye or for your whole body to be cast into hell? If your hand causes you to sin, if it offends you, then cut it off, because it's more profitable for you to get rid of that than to go to hell.

God looks at sin, and it's just so wicked and vile. Because of sin, His Son was crucified. Think about the repercussions of sin here in Joshua chapter 7. Thirty-six people had died, and more would die if it was left unconfessed. If your sins are left unconfessed, well, it already killed Jesus. It put Him upon the cross. My sin killed my Lord. Yes, He rose from the dead, but I will never forget, and I hope I never forget, that it was my sin that put Him there. It wasn't the Jews who crucified Christ or the Romans; it was me.

As David said that day when Nathaniel came to him, he said, "I am the man." I have to confess, I am the man. My sin killed Him. If I continue in my sin and walk in my sin, then others will follow me, and they too will die. I will die in my sin unless I cast myself upon the Lord and say, "Lord, I need Your forgiveness."

You know what? I've done that, and many of you in this room have done that as well. But still, every single day, there's more sin that the Lord reveals, and we need to give it to Him. "Lord, I cast it away. I see that this has caused me to sin, and I no longer want it. I cut it off."

Because it's wicked, and it's going to get me burned right here, right now. Achan said, "Well, yeah, I'm the guy. It's in the midst of the tent." They ran and got it, and they brought it out before the Lord. Joshua and all Israel with him, in verse 24, took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his donkeys, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. They brought them unto the valley of Achor.

Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us this day? The Lord shall trouble you this day." All Israel stoned him with stones and burned him with fire. After they had stoned him, they raised up upon him a great heap of stones unto this day. The Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger; wherefore, the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor unto this day. Achan, his very name means "troubler," one who troubled Israel in Achor, the valley of trouble. Joshua says, "Because you've troubled Israel this day, you're going to be troubled by the Lord."

Everything that Achan had—not just him, but his whole family, his tents, his donkeys, his sheep, and everything—was stoned and burned with fire. The Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. We look at that, and there are many who say, "How can a loving God do something like that?" But that is how deceitful sin is, and that is how the Lord looks upon sin. He says, "It's got to go; you've got to get rid of it. Don't hang on to it. You'll be accursed, and I can't bless you. It'll separate you from Me."

So they killed him, and they got rid of him in this Valley of Achor, such a sad place filled with death. There, the troubler was put to death. Some of you tonight have been hiding sin. Maybe you've kept it down inside—some addiction, maybe to drugs, maybe pain pills, alcohol, or maybe it's pornography on the internet. I don't know. Perhaps it's some relationship that you're supposed to get rid of. You've held on to it. It's got to go, or else it's going to lead you to places you don't want to go. It's going to lead your family in that direction as well, and one by one, you'll see them fall away.

Because you're not willing to crucify it and get rid of it, if you hold on to it, it'll kill your joy, it'll kill your love, it'll kill the peace that you have, and it'll kill every aspect of spiritual life in your life. This can lead to a point where you're a hardened person who turns away and says, "I tried that." It will only be proof that you really didn't know the Lord in the first place.

You're going to see that there is every reason you want to fight this. You have to think about God, and you'll understand why God wants you to do all this work. God gives answers to all of these questions. The Holy Spirit says to them that if they stand in your way, they will follow you. Your special interests love you, even your blessings, the throne of healing, and the glory of the Holy Spirit; it rules them all.

You may not quite know what to do, but I'll tell you what you need to do: you need to die. You need to die to yourself and take up your cross. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for My sake, Jesus said in Luke 9:24, the same shall save it. If you're desiring to save your life, you're going to try and hold on to it, but you'll lose it. You'll lose everything in the process.

Sadly, it breaks my heart, and we've seen it more and more all the time. We hear reports from other churches of pastors who have fallen. I talk with Richard about this quite a bit, and it breaks his heart, and it breaks Pat's heart, and it breaks every single person's heart in the ministry when we hear about people who held on to something—some little thing that they thought nobody had to know about, and they kept going with it until it destroyed them, their ministry, and their marriage. Now they're off just kind of doing their own thing somewhere. It breaks my heart, and I know if it breaks my heart as much as it does, it breaks the heart of God even more.

Yet the Lord looks into our hearts and says, "Please come to Me and leave it alone. Leave it, lay it down, because it's going to hurt you. It's going to kill you." But you might say, "I don't know what to do. How do I get rid of it? How do I die? I've tried. I've been saying it over and over again, and maybe tonight, I don't know what to do." You'll hear it: you need to take yourself.

All that you are is nothing. Lay it down before the Lord and say, "I'm nothing. Lord, I need you. I give up. I give my rights to myself up." Then, take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Allow the Lord, by His word and by His sword, to begin to operate on your wicked heart, to cut it out, and to do a work.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Judges chapter 4. In the book of Judges chapter 4, it says that the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord when Ehud was dead. In verse 2, it states that the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan. He reigned in Hazor, and the captain of his host was Sisera, who dwelt in Heshereth of the Gentiles. The children of Israel cried unto the Lord, for he had 900 chariots of iron, and for 20 years he had mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

There was this man, Jabin, king of Canaan. The children of Israel had not utterly wiped out the inhabitants of the land. The sad truth about the book of Joshua is that we will eventually see that the children of Israel didn't wipe out their enemies. Over and over again, they began to fall into the idolatry of their enemies. The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and so the Lord gave them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who had this commander named Sisera. They had 900 chariots of iron, which were chariots with blades coming off the sides. They would ride them into an army and cut people off right at the shins; they were like people mowers.

This man harshly oppressed the children of Israel for 20 years, and finally, after 20 years, the children of Israel began to cry out to the Lord. The Lord raised up Deborah, a prophetess in Israel, who judged Israel. The Lord put it on her heart to call this man Barak and say, "Barak, you've been called by God to go and get rid of Jabin, king of Canaan." Barak, whose name means lightning, wasn't a particularly brave man. He said, "I don't really know if I want to go out there against this guy, and I'm not going unless you come with me, Deborah." It was as if he needed his little security blanket or something.

Well, okay, God has called me, but you have to go with me. She says, "Well, I'll go with you, but just to let you know, you're not going to get any honor for this because Sisera is going to be killed by a woman."

So he goes out, and they lead the army. Barak takes the army of Israel, 10,000 men strong, and they come down. They run off the mountaintop and go after Sisera. The Lord delivers the army of Sisera and the army of the Canaanites into their hands. However, Sisera jumps off his chariot and starts running away. This guy, who seemed so strong when he had a chariot of iron, is now freaked out and begins to flee.

In verse 17, it says, "Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet, and he came to the tent of Jael, the wife of Eber the Canaanite. For there was peace between Jabin, king of Hazor, and the house of Eber the Canaanite." Eber was related to Moses; he was supposed to be of the family of Israel, but he was kind of a double-faced guy. He was working for the other side; he was a spy.

So Sisera, the captain of the army of Canaan, runs along, and Jael comes out of her tent. She says to him, "Turn unto me, my lord, and fear not." When he turns in unto her, she covers him with a mantle, or with a blanket. Jael is standing outside this tent, saying, "Hey, come on, hide in here." Sisera comes running in, and she covers him up with a blanket.

Maybe tonight you've been hiding sin. You've got a Canaanite in your closet, and you've been covering it up with a blanket. "I'll hide you. Come on in." That's what Jael did. Then Sisera says to her, "Give me, I pray, a little water to drink. I'm thirsty."

You see, once you bring sin into your life and cover it up, what does it start to do? It says, "No, feed me. Feed me." You guys remember that old movie? I don't remember the name of it—Little Shop of Horrors, whatever. That big old thing says, "Feed me, Seymour." Sin is the same thing; that's what it does. It says, "Feed me."

So Jael comes in, and he says, "Oh, give me a drink. You've hid me now. Give me a drink." At this point, I think she started to wise up. Instead of giving him water, it says, "She opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink, and she covered him." Again, he said unto her, "Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be that if any man doth come and inquire of thee..."

Is there a man in here that you shall say no? After you've hidden sin and fed it for a little while, it says, "Now lie for me. Don't tell anybody about this. Keep it secret. Keep it quiet." Jael was trapped; she didn't quite know what to do. She had hidden the sin, and now he wanted a drink and wanted her to lie for him. She didn't know how to respond. So, she gave him a little bit of milk.

In verse 21, it says, "And Jael, Eber's wife, took a nail of the tent and a hammer in her hand. She went softly unto him and smote the nail through his temples, fastening him into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary, and so he died." She had this hidden sin in her life, in her tent, and she didn't know how to get rid of it. The first thing she did was give him milk. If you would, turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 2.

Jael didn't know what to do with this Canaanite in her closet. He wanted her to feed him, to hide him, and to lie for him, but she didn't want to do that. So, she brought him milk. In 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2, it says, "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." The first thing she did was bring him the milk, the pure milk of the word, so that she may grow.

As he slept, she tenderly grabbed a nail, a tent peg about 18 inches long, and a hammer. She approached him softly. In Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 29, it says, "Is not my word like a fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" She took the milk, the pure milk of the word, and then she grabbed the hammer. The Lord says, "Is not my word like a hammer?"

She also took the tent peg, as mentioned in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 11: "The words of the wise are like goads, and as nails fastened by the master of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd." So, she grabbed the milk, the hammer, and the nail, and she went tenderly unto this Canaanite in her closet. She slammed the nail with that hammer into his head. All three are a picture of the word of God.

And tonight you wonder, how do I get rid of it? I've been hanging on to it. I don't quite know what to do. It's the Word of God. The Lord has saved us, and He desires to sanctify us with the washing of the water by the Word.

We've looked at Ehud and Eglon in Judges chapter 3, who took the Word, the two-edged sword, and plunged it deep. The sword went in, and the dirt came out. Then we see Jael in Judges chapter 4, who took the milk, the hammer, and the nail, and plunged it deep—the Word of God—and it got rid of the Canaanite. It got rid of the flesh. Get rid of it. You might think, well, that's dumb. The Word? Just these words on paper? That's what the Lord has said. The question is, do we believe Him? Do we trust Him?

These simple words that we read, as we take them to our hearts and hide them in our hearts, allow the Lord to cleanse us. Tonight, your homework is to read Psalm 119. It's long, and it'll take you a while, but read it and underline everything that the Lord says about the Word of God.

Now, how shall a young man cleanse his ways? The Lord asks in Psalm 119, by taking heed to the Word of God. How can you cleanse your heart and your life? Only the Lord can do it. It's His Word. But as you take it to heart, bring it into your heart, and hide it in your heart, then maybe you might not sin against the Lord. The Lord promised it. The question is, will you trust Him in it?

You see, that sin needs to be purged. It needs to be gotten rid of. Maybe you've come to a point in your life where you need to die—the Valley of Achor. You lay it down. You've got to die. You've got to give up. That trouble has got to go.

But you know what? We'll finish with this. The Valley of Achor is mentioned only two other times in Scripture. It's very interesting how the Lord describes it here. In Isaiah chapter 65, verse 10, the Lord says, "And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks. And the Valley of Achor, this place of trouble, this place of death, the Valley of Achor, a place of herds to lie down in, for My people that have sought Me."

You see, that place where you finally come to the end of yourself, plunge the sword of the Spirit deep, and use the nail and the milk and the hammer—just plunge it deep—and you come to the death of yourself in the Valley of Achor.

That place that was death, that place that was trouble, in the end, it will become a place of rest. It will become a place where you can lay down, as Isaiah chapter 65, verse 10 states: "And the Valley of Achor shall be a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me."

In Hosea chapter 2, verse 15, we read, "And I will give her of the vineyards from thence, and the Valley of Achor for a door of hope, and she shall sing there." You see, this place that was ridden with death, where they stoned and burned Achan, would become a place of rest, a door of hope, and a place of worship—a place where the children of Israel would sing.

If you finally come to that place tonight, or maybe in the weeks to come, where you plunge the word deep and lay down your life, saying, "I'm poor in spirit and I mourn over it, and Lord, I need you," and you finally give up and die there in the Valley of Achor, it will become a place of rest, a door of hope, and a place to worship the Lord. But it will just be sickness and death until you lay down your life.

I speak to myself as much as I speak to everyone in this room. In every single one of our lives are little things that we've held on to for too long, and they have to go.

Let's pray. God, we do need you to remove these things from our lives that we just can't remove on our own. We are dirty, and we can't clean ourselves up. God, would you please do the work? Lord, help us to come to that place, the Valley of Achor, where we lay down and die. That valley of the shadow of death can become a place of rest, a door of hope, and a place to worship you.

God, take these filthy lives, and Lord, cleanse us. Make us new. We know you can. We know you will, as we lay ourselves down. You promised it. Sanctify and cleanse us, Lord, with the washing of the water of the word, so that you can one day present us as a church, holy and blameless, before you. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.