Mop Ups & Flare Ups | Sunday, September 24, 2023

I appreciate that. Would you take out your Bibles and open to the Book of Joshua? That is the sixth book of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. Chapter 16 is where we will be today.

I took a couple of my kids and a friend of mine; we took some of our kids yesterday to the air show. Did any of you go to the air show this week? No? Some of you did? I absolutely love the air show. It's going on today, so if we hear some rumbling, that's because the air show is down in Miramar.

It was kind of interesting yesterday; they had to postpone a portion of the air show because there was a fire down right near Interstate 15, right at the end of the runway at Miramar. They stopped the show for a little while, and what was funny to me was hearing all these people around me saying, "Oh, it's just part of the show. It's part of the air show," or, "They brought in some helicopters to drop some water on it. It's just a demonstration for the air show." I thought, "No, that's not a thing." The fire department didn't go start a fire just as a demonstration. When the winds are up and it's kind of dry, that's not a thing.

I have had the privilege, over the last 15 years, of pastoring this church and also serving as a chaplain with the Escondido Fire Department, which has been a lot of fun. Like a lot of little boys, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a firefighter. That didn't end up happening, but God has been so gracious because I get to ride along with them and not do any of the hard work. I get to ride in the engine with them from time to time and go code three to various calls. They gave me a uniform and a badge; they're crazy to give me these things!

When I first started doing this, about 12 or 13 years ago, I felt like such an outsider. This was largely due to the fact that, as you all know from whatever industry you're part of, every different group or industry has its own language and lingo. When you're an outsider, you have no clue what is going on. When I am with my wife and her friends from work—my wife is a nurse practitioner—they talk about things, and I'm just sitting there like, "I have no clue what you are talking about."

You guys who are in construction have your own lingo, and a lot of times it involves four-letter words here and there. Everyone has their own lingo. With the fire department, I would be with them on a call and feel totally lost. They would be talking about the IC, the Charlie side of a building, offensive structures, defensive structures, accountability, and knocking things down. I had no clue, but over time, I started to pick up on it and understand what was going on.

Going on, I started to understand a little bit more about what was happening. One of the interesting things about spending time with the fire crews is that you begin to learn about the scene. It is pretty amazing because certain aspects look chaotic, while others seem to be moving slowly. However, everything is choreographed; they have a plan, and they know exactly what they are doing.

What is interesting is that after a fire is effectively contained and all the flames are out, it may look like they are done. The fire crew, however, stays for quite a while to do what is called mop-up after a fire. You quickly discover that this mop-up is very important; it is essential and crucial. If you have ever seen a mountainside after it has burned, you can see it after the sun sets. You can't see the hot spots when the sun is up, but as soon as the sun goes down, you notice there are hot spots everywhere.

During the mop-up phase, the fire crews go out to ensure that those hot spots are turned over and put out. If you don't do this, you could have a real flare-up later on. When the winds kick up the next day, you could have another fire. This mop-up is crucial. You may not know this, but in some of the investigations regarding the horrible fire that happened last month in Lahaina, Hawaii, it is believed that it was a flare-up of a fire that the crews had responded to earlier in the day. About nine hours later, it kicked back up and started that fire. This was largely due to the fact that they had so many other fires to attend to that day, which prevented them from doing a full mop-up on that fire.

It is crucial to deal with the mop-up and to put out those small hot spots before another fire can reignite. If you don't do that, you are likely to get burned. This concept is one of the things we will see in the text this morning. At this point, you might be wondering how I am going to connect this to Joshua. Just wait and see; there is a plan.

In the first half of the Book of Joshua, which we covered at the beginning of this year, we saw the children of Israel move into the land that God had promised to their great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, Abraham. God had said to Abraham, "To you and to your descendants, I am giving this land." Now, about 500 years later, Abraham's descendants have come into the land. When they arrived, in one sense, they moved into it very...

Quickly and rapidly, almost like a wildfire going through the land, the Israelites divided the land, routed their enemies, and took ground. That's what we looked at in the first fourteen or so chapters of the Book of Joshua. Now, as we come to the last half of the book, Israel is set to take possession of the land. The land is now going to be divided between the twelve tribes of Israel.

Israel is the name of Abraham's grandson, Jacob. God changed his name to Israel, and Israel had twelve sons. Those twelve sons became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. In this section of Joshua, each of those twelve tribes is being given their portion, their lot of inheritance in the promised land, and it is given to them by lot.

If you can imagine, it's almost as if they are putting all the names of the children of Israel into a bag, pulling them out, and saying, "Okay, Judah, here's your portion." You could picture it almost like casting dice. We don't really have the same practice of casting lots as they did during that time, but it would be similar to the flip of a coin or the cast of dice. They are determining who gets what section of the land.

In our study over the last couple of weeks, we looked at the division of the land in Joshua chapters 14 and 15, focusing on one of the largest and ultimately one of the lead tribes in Israel, named Judah. Judah has been receiving their allotted portion of land, which includes key cities that we still know of today, such as Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We still hear about these cities three to four hundred years later; they are still in the news.

As we come into chapter 16, we will be looking at two more tribes. There was a son of Israel, Jacob, named Joseph, and his tribe has been divided into two: the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. So, when you read through the Old Testament and come across the twelve tribes of Israel, you will never hear about Joseph, but you will hear about Ephraim and Manasseh, as well as Jericho and Benjamin, and so forth.

In this passage, Ephraim and Manasseh are receiving their allotted inheritance, and among the cities that they receive, we hear names like Jericho, which we can still read about in the news today. Jericho was important throughout Israel's history.

During the time of Jesus, Jericho was significant. If you read through the Gospels, you'll remember an important figure from Jericho named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and he climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could. If you don't know that song, you should sign up for kids' ministry, and we'll teach you that song.

In this passage, we also see that the people of Ephraim and Manasseh received the city of Shiloh. Shiloh was where the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant of Israel would sit until it was moved to Jerusalem during the time of King David. For about 300 years, Shiloh was important to the children of Israel.

Additionally, the people of Ephraim received the city of Bethel, which held great significance for the children of Israel. Going back generations, nearly half a millennium to Abraham, we see that when Abraham was called by God in the Book of Genesis, he followed God by faith to the land of Canaan, which would become the land of Israel. The first place he came to, where he set up his camp and pitched his tent, was named Bethel, meaning "the house of God."

The people of Ephraim were taking possession of that very land where their great-great-great-grandfather Abraham had pitched his tent when he first arrived. Genesis chapter 12 states that Abraham departed and moved from the mountain east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There, he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord, which is how the place got its name.

The children of Israel were finally taking possession of the land that God had promised to their great-great-grandfather Abraham hundreds of years before. In Genesis chapter 13, we read that the Lord said to Abraham, after his nephew Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are." Abraham was planted near the ground called Bethel, and God instructed him to look to the north, south, east, and west. "Everywhere that you look, this land I have given to you and to your descendants forever. This is your portion that I am granting to you." God owns all things, including the land, and He was granting this land to Abraham and his descendants.

The inheritance was given to Abraham and his descendants by faith. They received it; it is their possession, their property. However, they have not been on that land for hundreds of years. Now, under Joshua, they are coming in to take possession of their property. But when they arrive, what do they find? Do they find an empty land ready for them to take? No, they find a land that is occupied by a whole group of people who do not own it. Names like the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Canaanites are there, occupying that land. God commands them to go in and take possession of the land. As they take possession, they are to dispossess those people who are currently on the land.

At this point in time, they are to possess it. In Deuteronomy, Moses has been commanding the children of Israel over and over again. In Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 8, he says, "Go in and possess the land." In Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 18, the Lord your God is giving you this land to possess, to hold as your own. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 22, it states, "You shall cross over the Jordan and possess this good land." In the act of possessing the land, there is a driving out of those who occupy it.

Interestingly, the word in Hebrew that is translated as "possess" is the very same word that is translated as "to drive out." Therefore, in order to possess, they had to drive out. For the children of Israel, these two actions are synonymous; there is no possessing without driving out the inhabitants of the land. They are to lay hold of it and fully and completely possess the possession that God was giving to them.

Now, when some people in our time read through passages like Deuteronomy or Numbers, where God says they are to dispossess the inhabitants of the land and possess it, they often have issues. They get upset about the children of Israel coming in and taking this land, questioning why they have to be so harsh on the Canaanites and the Hivites. However, consider it like this: if it is your property, you own it by right and title, as God has given it to you. If someone else is on that land, it is your land, and you want to take it back. That is what is happening in this passage.

God commands His people to take back the land that He gave to them. He has declared that they are to fully possess it because God has a plan for His people in that place, a plan that would affect all peoples in every place. This is what God said to Abraham all the way back in Genesis chapter 12: "Come, follow me to this place where I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and through you all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed."

God is going to use the descendants of Abraham in the land of Israel to bless all peoples everywhere. Through the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He will bring the Messiah into that land to fulfill His redemptive plan. However, God instructs them to utterly destroy or dispossess all the people from the land.

In the book of Deuteronomy, which we have studied over the last few years, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 20, verse 16: "But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing breathe or remain alive. You shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you."

The reason for this command is found in Deuteronomy 20, verse 18: "Lest they, these occupants of the land, teach you to do according to their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God." God emphasizes the need to completely remove these people from the land so that His people might occupy and possess it. If they do not, these inhabitants will be thorns in their sides and irritants in their eyes, leading them away from following God.

The peoples in the land—the Hittites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and others—were wholly given over to wicked immorality and pagan sin. God had given them hundreds of years to turn from their sin, but they did not; they only grew worse. The iniquity of the Amorites was full and overflowing, and now God is coming to punish that group of people. He instructs His people to remove them from the land, lest they teach them their ways and lead them away from worshiping and serving the one true God.

One of the gods that the Canaanites worshiped was a deity named Molech. Archaeological findings reveal that they would offer their young infant children to Molech on the outstretched arms of this iron god, where they would be burned in the fires of Molech. Today, we can see archaeological evidence of the remains of small infant children in jars that were offered to Molech. God instructed His people not to follow this pattern because He wants them to be holy and completely consecrated to Him. This is so that He can bring about His purpose and plan of redemption to all the world.

Israel was to ensure that as they entered the land, they knocked down all the hotspots. They had to do the mop-up so there wouldn't be any future flare-ups. Point number one, if you're taking notes this morning, is that God intended for His people to knock down the hotspots in their mop-up of the land. The question is, how did they do as they came into the land?

This section of Scripture that we are in is part of a series I am calling "Possessing the Possession." They were to take full possession of the land that God had promised to Abraham hundreds of years before, and now they were given the opportunity to occupy it fully. How did they do it? In the section we considered last time, we saw the land that was given to the tribe of Judah by lot as their inheritance.

If you have your Bible open this morning to Joshua, look at chapter 15, verse 63. It states, "As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day." At the time this was written, the people of the great tribe of Judah, which would become one of the chief tribes of Israel and a leader of the nation from whom the Messiah would come, could not drive out the Jebusites. Remember, Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He would come and die for our sins in the city of Jerusalem, which was held by this group of people, the Jebusites, who worshiped and served false gods.

The children of Judah could not drive them out, and the Jebusites dwelt with the children of Judah in Jerusalem until that time. Now, look at chapter 16, which is where we are this morning, as the children of Ephraim and Manasseh are receiving their lot of inheritance. Look at Joshua chapter 16, verse 1. The lot...

The dice was cast, and it fell to the children of Joseph, from the River Jordan by Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the mountains of Bethel. There's that city of Bethel where Abraham came when he first became a follower of God. Then it went from Bethel to the city of Luz and passed along the border to the Arkites, to Ataroth. It went down westward in the boundary of the Jaffalites, however you say that, as far as the boundary of Lower Beth-horon and Gezer, and it ended at the sea.

So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance. But if we skip down to verse 10, we see that they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwell in Gezer. Those old Canaanite geezers remained, and the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced laborers. Later, we will read in Joshua chapter 17, verse 12, that the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities. The Canaanites were determined to dwell in the land.

God had called His people to take full possession of the land that He had given to them by inheritance and right. It was His to give, and He gave it to them. They were to forcibly remove all the inhabitants of the land. You can take issue with how God chose to give the children of Israel that land and how they were to take possession of it, but that was still His determined plan. That was the purpose He had called them unto.

Why was God determined to do this? What was His determined will and plan in this? Why is He causing this? For one, the reason that He is calling Israel to come into the land and to dispossess the inhabitants is that God is bringing a judgment upon those people. This is not just the children of Israel occupying a land that was not theirs; that is their land. In giving them the land, He is punishing the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. It is a punishment for their sin.

I mentioned earlier about their paganism and their worship of Baal, their worship of Asherah, and their worship of Molech, along with all the different deities they worshiped in very immoral and horrible ways. God is bringing judgment upon them. Israel's action against the Canaanites was the punishment of God. By the time they came into the land, the iniquity of the Amorites was complete; it was full, as Genesis chapter...

Verse 16 talks about how God is choosing to use Israel as a punishment upon the Canaanite peoples. We may have a hard time with that, especially in 2023, because we live in a time when the idea that God might punish people is looked down upon. However, the fact is the Bible makes it very clear that God will punish sin. What is happening at the hands of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan was a punishment for the sin of the Canaanite peoples.

We may have an issue with that, but that is still how God works; He punishes people, and there will be a future punishment. You might object, saying you don't like the way in which God punishes, but that was the way He chose to do it. Many times, we don't like the way in which God chooses to act. I'm sure we all have stories about how we think God could have done it better.

There is another place in the Scriptures where an individual had a real hard time with the way in which God chose to punish a sinful group of people. There was a man by the name of Habakkuk, who was a prophet to the children of Israel thousands of years ago. He prayed to God, saying, "God, I do not like what I see in my nation. I do not like the sin that is happening in my country. I do not like what is happening in the leadership structures."

He prayed to God, expressing his discontent with Jerusalem, the capital filled with sin, iniquity, and immorality. God responded to Habakkuk, saying, "I hear your prayer. I'm going to answer it. I'm going to judge them, but you're not going to like what I'm going to do." God said, "Be astounded by this. I'm going to judge your people because of their sin, and I'm going to use the hand of the Babylonians to do it."

Immediately, Habakkuk backtracked, saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, God. You do need to judge our sin, but you can't use the Babylonians; they're worse than us." So many times, we call out to God to work, but the way in which He chooses to work may be something we have an issue with, just as Habakkuk did.

It would be as if today you prayed and called out to God, saying, "God, I see the sin of my nation in Washington, in Sacramento, or just throughout the entire nation, and You need to do something." Then, God woke you up in the middle of the night, saying, "Listen, I'm going to do something really amazing, but I don't think you're going to like it. I'm going to use the Chinese to destroy your nation." You might respond, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're horrible!" But you just prayed that your people would be judged because of their sin, and now you don't like the way in which God is choosing to act.

The Bible shows there was a time when God chose to use a flood to judge the Earth, as described in Genesis chapters six through nine. In another instance, found in Genesis chapter 19, He chose to use fire from heaven on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God may choose different ways to judge His people. Even the children of Israel, who were used by God, were eventually judged by Him at the hands of the Assyrians and then at the hands of the Babylonians. This was a punishment for their sin.

Why were the Canaanites expelled from the land? It was the punishment of God. However, another reason that God wanted His people to take full possession of the land was that He had a redemptive purpose and plan for it. His people being in that land were necessary to bring about that redemptive plan. Therefore, God commanded them to utterly destroy and remove the inhabitants of the land. As I read in Deuteronomy chapter 20, verse 18, this was so that they would not teach the Israelites to do according to their abominations, which they had done for their gods, and lead them to sin.

As we see in the text we are examining in chapters 15, 16, and 17, point number two, if you're taking notes, is that God's people failed to fully possess their possession. They failed to knock down the hotspots and mop up the land, leaving spot fires that remained. What do you think would be the result of this failure?

If you are in Joshua, just turn one book to the left to Judges. Judges chapter two is where we will be going when we finish Joshua at the beginning of next year. Look at this in Judges chapter two, beginning this morning at verse seven. The people of Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works which the Lord had done for Israel.

Now, Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. They buried him within the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mountains of Ephraim. He was of the tribe of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. Judges chapter two, verse ten states that when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.

And then, in verse 11, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals and forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed the other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them. This provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Asherah. The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, so He delivered them into the hands of the plunderers who despoiled them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Whenever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against the children of Israel for calamity, as the Lord had said and as He had sworn to them. They were greatly distressed.

When and where did God say or tell them that this would happen? Well, back in Deuteronomy chapter 28, God said, "If you will walk in My ways and continue in My statutes and My judgments, and you will not turn to the right hand or to the left from them, then you will prosper, and you will have these blessings." In Deuteronomy 28, we have blessing after blessing after blessing: "Blessed shall you be when you go out; blessed shall you be when you come in; blessed shall be your kneading bowl; blessed shall be your storehouses." All these blessings will come upon and overtake you if you walk in My ways.

But in the same chapter, He says, "If you depart from My ways and turn away from My law and My statutes, then all these curses will come upon you." "Cursed shall you be when you go out; cursed shall you be when you come in; cursed shall be your storehouse and your kneading bowl. You shall be cursed until you are expelled from the land. Your enemies will overtake you, and they will possess you."

Israel forsook the Lord, as we will see as we continue through the story of Israel. They followed the gods of the people who were around them. The hot spots flared up, as they so frequently do, and the children of Israel got burned. They did not fully remove the inhabitants from the land; they did not dispossess those who were in the land so that they might possess the land. They did not do it.

In Numbers chapter 33, God said, "You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it." Why? "For I have given you the land to possess. You shall divide the land as an inheritance among the families." But if you do not drive them out, as stated in Numbers chapter 33, verse 55, "If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes."

Thorns in your side will harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover, it shall be that I will do to you as I had intended to do to them.

Point number three: unattended and hidden hot spots imperil the people of God. We see this perfectly illustrated in Joshua chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17, as well as in Judges chapter 2. This principle, which is very simple, is not amazingly profound, but it is clearly illustrated in these passages. Unattended hidden hot spots imperil the people of God, and it is important for us to understand that this very simple principle was not only true for Israel three to four hundred years ago; it is true for us today.

As I have taught many times over the years, we go through Old Testament passages of Scripture like this because Paul, in the New Testament book of First Corinthians, chapter 10, says that all of these things about the children of Israel and their taking possession of the land—not fully possessing it—were written for our instruction and admonition. We are to learn from them, lest we take heed when we think we stand, and fall. First Corinthians chapter 10, verses 11 and 12, remind us that this principle is true for us: unintended and hidden hot spots imperil the people of God.

In the book of Hebrews, the author warns, "Brethren, beware lest there be in you any evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." We are to exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest there be in us any hardening through the deceitfulness of sin. We need to encourage one another to put out those hidden hot spots because they will be an irritant to us, a thorn in our side, and they will trip us up.

The author of the book of Hebrews goes on to say, "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith." We must lay aside every weight and sin; otherwise, it will trip us up.

We need to recognize and grasp the understanding of what the Bible declares to us: sin is not something that God has forbidden because it is bad; rather, sin is forbidden because it will kill.

It's forbidden because it's bad, like poison; it'll destroy your life. Again, the book of Hebrews states that sin is pleasurable for a season, but ultimately it will bind and blind you, bringing you under its power. You become a captive and a slave to sin. Therefore, it needs to be purged; it needs to be ripped from our lives. The sinful hot spots in our lives, if not fully knocked down, will flare up. They will burn you, and the frightening reality is that it's not entirely personal. It will not only burn you; it will burn others around you.

We already saw this illustrated back in Joshua chapter 7. If you remember the name of a man named Achan, the children of Israel took the city of Jericho, and all of the goods of Jericho were to be offered to God as an offering to Him. However, Achan stole from that which was God's and hid it in his tent. He thought nobody would know about this, but what did it do? It caused defeat for the entire nation of Israel. This is because it is not just your personal hidden sin; it affects others around you.

The New Testament likens sin to yeast. Some of you bake, so you understand the effect of yeast. When you put a little bit of yeast into the dough, it causes the dough to rise. Those little yeast cells produce gas, which makes the dough expand. Even just a little bit of yeast, a little bit of leaven, will leaven the whole lump, as the Scriptures say. Leaven or yeast is pictured as sin. The illustration here is that just a little bit of sin can cause widespread destruction.

Therefore, Paul says in First Corinthians chapter 5, when he's talking about this, to purge out the old leaven. Remove that sin from your life. The hidden sin in your life does not only affect you; it will affect your family, the church, the larger community, and even the nation. I don't think I need you to raise your hand this morning because I believe I know the answer to the question. If I asked how many of you don't like what you see in our nation regarding sinfulness and immorality, I think probably many, if not most, hopefully all, would raise their hands.

When we see what is going on in our nation, it has been said many times before, and I think it's absolutely true: when we see what happens in a nation, it reflects the state of its people.

At the legislative level, we should recognize that an election is an indication of the temperature of the entire culture. It shows us where we are actually at. When you look at what is happening in our nation, even down to things that are legislated, where good is called evil and evil is called good, recognize that it goes back to us and our being okay with sin being retained, even at the personal level.

We need to take a hard look at ourselves. In the New Testament, Peter says it is time for judgment to begin at the house of God. So how does that happen? One of the ways it happens is that we individually sit down by ourselves sometime this week and say, as David said 3,000 years ago, "Search me, O God, and see if there is in me any wicked way." Let me tell you, God will answer that prayer. If you come before God in all honesty and ask Him to reveal to you if there is anything in your life that is out of alignment with His will and His ways, He will show you. Most certainly, He will.

Why? Because righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is a reproach to any people. If you do not like what you see happening in your nation, you need to first ask God if there is any wicked way in you. It begins with us first. The wickedness at the national level is the result of hundreds, thousands, millions of people making small inconsistencies in their lives, which leads to what we see in our nation today.

Israel's experience in this text, and what we will see as we continue on in Judges, Samuel, and Chronicles, teaches us important lessons. One key point is that we cannot delay in dealing with hidden hot spots of secret sin. Let me tell you, there is no such thing as secret sin. In Numbers chapter 32, verse 23, God says, "Be sure your sin will expose you; it will find you out." In Hebrews chapter 4, we read that there is no creature hidden from God's sight; all things are exposed and open before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

Now, I know it is very possible that some here today are skeptical about the existence of God. You are looking into these things, and if you are...

Here and you're skeptical? You're welcome here. I'm glad that you're here. But how different would everybody's life be if they actually lived as if it were true that there is a God who sees all and knows all? One day, I will stand before Him to give an account. Even if you don't believe that this is true, how different would your life be if you acted as if it were true? One day, you will stand before God, and He sees everything that you have done or thought, even the things that no one else knew about. He knows about them. There is no creature hidden from His sight; all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

If you do not deal decisively with hidden sin, those hidden hotspots will ultimately conquer and rule over you. This principle goes all the way back to the earliest passages of Scripture. Maybe you are familiar with the names Cain and Abel. Cain harbored anger and hate in his heart towards his brother Abel, which ultimately led him to murder him—the first murder in the Bible. Before he did this, God said to him, "Listen, Cain, sin lies at the door of your life. It crouches and is waiting for you, and it wants to rule over you." This idea that sin will rule over you goes all the way back to the opening words of the Bible, Genesis chapter 4.

In the New Testament, Jesus, in the Gospel of John chapter 8, verse 34, says, "Most assuredly, or truly, truly, I say to you, whoever commits sin practices sin is a slave to sin." Sin becomes your master. Picking up on this, the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 6, verse 16, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?" You will become the servant of whatever thing you allow in your life to dominate you. It will master you unless you deal decisively with it.

Well, that then begs the question: How do we deal decisively with sin? What do we do? First, we need to recognize that there is one who saves us from our sins. That's what's taught in the Gospel. Jesus has come to redeem and rescue us.

From sin's punishment, from sin's power, and ultimately from sin's presence, He saves us. He saves us from the punishment of sin through what we call justification. He died in my place on that cross and said, "It is finished." The wrath that is to be poured out upon sin was poured out upon Him so that I do not receive that just punishment because I am given His grace.

He saves us from the punishment of sin. Ultimately, He is also doing the work in my life and yours, if you are a follower of Jesus, to save us from the power of sin through the sanctifying work of Jesus. He is saving us from sin's oppressive power over us to master us. Ultimately, He has promised to save us from the presence of sin. When we come into His presence, He burns away all of that sin, and there will be no more sin in His new kingdom and His new creation. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to that.

So first, we need to recognize He is the one who saves us from our sins. Second, we need to follow the exhortation of Paul in First Corinthians chapter five, where he says, "Purge out the old leaven." Purge out sin. How do we do that? How do we remove sin from our lives?

It starts with one very simple word: confession. John, in First John chapter 1, verse 9, says, "If we confess our sins, He, God, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness." Now, that word "confess" is an interesting word. It is the Greek word "homologeo," which is a compound of two words meaning to say the same thing as or to agree with.

You see, a lot of times what we do with our sin is we justify it. We think, "Well, it's not that bad." We make excuses for it, saying, "Well, you know, it wasn't my fault; the devil made me do it," or some goofy thing like that. We make excuses; we justify it. But true confession is where we come before God and we say the same thing about our sin that He says about it. We agree with Him that it was against Him and Him only that we have sinned, and we say, "God, would You forgive me?"

Only He has the ability to forgive sin and to pardon us. But not only does He pardon us, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. That's what He does in His sanctifying work; that's what He's doing in you.

Right now, we are not perfect; we have not attained, but we press on that we may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has saved us. We are called to walk in righteousness before Him. In confessing our sins to God, we also need to cultivate authentic, accountable relationships with someone else in our lives to whom we can confess our sins. James says in James 5:16, "Confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective and fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

First, we need to acknowledge and recognize that Jesus saves us from sin's punishment, sin's power, and ultimately, sin's presence. Second, we need to confess our sins to Him and perhaps to others, that we might be prayed for and receive the forgiving grace of God.

Third, I need you to turn to the book of Galatians in the New Testament, the last third of the Bible. You'll pass Acts and then Romans, first and second Corinthians, and then Galatians. We begin in Galatians chapter 5, starting in verse 16. Paul says there in Galatians 5:16, "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts, the desires of your flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish."

There is not a person here this morning who has not experienced this. This reveals at least the dichotomy of man; there are two parts to us. There is this flesh, this body, and then there is another aspect to us—our soul or our spirit. Your flesh wars against your spirit, and these two are contrary, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Your flesh says, "I really want that chocolate cake," and your spirit says, "I should not eat that chocolate cake." They are warring against each other.

Right now, at this moment, it's still calling out to you. It's on the counter at home, like, "Hit me now!" Someone asked me after the first service, if I'm giving an example about chocolate cake, why am I serving donuts? Well, donuts have holes; they're holy. I stole that from Garrett, who stole it from somebody else. The bad things I don't want to do, that I practice.

Nobody has experienced that, right? The will is present with me, but how to perform it I do not find. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? It's Romans chapter 7. The flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

In Galatians chapter 5, verse 18, it says, "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." Now, the works of the flesh are evident: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. All of these are open and evident for anybody in 2023 in the United States of America. I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The works of the flesh are evident; we see them around us and even in us at all times. But verse 22 states, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Against such, there is no law. Those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Paul, in another place in Romans chapter 13, says, "And do this, knowing that now it is high time for us to wake out of our sleep, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts and desires."

In another place, Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says to put off the old man, your former conduct, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man, which is created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. In Colossians, he says to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him.

How do we do that? First, we put off the old man as the Spirit of God enables us to do, and we put on the new man that God has given to us in Christ Jesus by His Spirit. Then we begin to walk by faith in Him, by His enabling power, by His Spirit, to do what He has called us to do.

Point number five, and I'll close. God enables us by His Spirit to uproot sin and to walk in a manner that is pleasing to Him. That's what God wants to do in my life and yours: enabling us by His Spirit to confess and put off sin and walk in rightness and righteousness.

My favorite verses in all of Scripture are Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; put off the old man, for it is God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure by His Holy Spirit. Put on the new man." Our culture needs to see the people of God walking by the power of the Spirit and in rightness before a holy God, because righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is a reproach to any people. We need God to work in us to walk in rightness before Him.

Oh Lord Jesus, please work that in us, that we would take full possession of the inheritance that God has for us in Christ, as illustrated by this passage that we've looked at in Joshua. God, work in us, we pray. Would you stand with me as we pray that this morning?

Father God, I pray that you would do work by Your grace and by Your Spirit in us. Holy Spirit, cause Your word to go deep into our hearts, and let Your word, which is like a seed, spring up and yield an abundance of fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. God, work these things into our lives. Help us to be bright, shining lights of Your grace at work and Your power working in and through us in the day in which we live. Help us to take full possession of the inheritance that we have in You and to put out all these hot spots. Purge out the old sin and walk in the newness of the Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." Amen.