Sin In The Camp

Introduction

It’s good to be here once again this afternoon. Glad to see some of you showed up even after Tim announced that I was going to be preaching this afternoon. It’s a delight to see everyone out here, and I’m glad to see Tom and Peggy. It took them eleven years to join our faith f fold here. But you know, we were a little bit slow on trying to get you guys here, but eleven years that’s a long time. No, actually they came from Reno and they just moved here in the area, and we’re glad to have you guys with us. The song Joshua that Ross just sang is a pretty good song. I really enjoy it. It’s in the new it’s in the Old Testament.

And as we know, according to 1 Corinthians the 10th chapter verse 11, the Apostle Paul says, Now these things happen unto them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition upon the whom the ends of the ages are to come. And he also reiterizes in Romans 15th chapter verse 4, for whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning. We use the Old Testament as examples, and we can learn a lot from the Old Testament. The other last couple weeks ago when we were in our class down the hallway, we heard the kids, they were tooting the horns and they were there was going off, and somebody said that must be the walls of Jericho coming down. And even at a young age like that, we’re still teaching our young kids about the Old Testament, what they can learn from the Old Testament.

And that’s what my lesson’s gonna be about tonight. It’s gonna be something out of the Old Testament, which is very out of unusual for me because I’ve been a Christian for about 29 years. Yeah, 29 years because my son’s 29 years old and I was baptized not long after he was born. And a lot of times I spent most of my time studying the New Testament, trying to make sure that if I had to teach somebody, I knew a lot about the New Testament so I can try to convert them and try to show them a way of life that we need to live. But after reading and studying several books in the Old Testament, I’ve really come to enjoy it. And having classes about the Old Testament, I learned so much, and especially this chapter right here.

I heard a lesson on this several months ago about the sin in the camp in Joshua chapter 6 and verse 7. And it’s just it’s just an unbelievable story. And you know, you know what the funny thing is? I’ve been singing that song for what, Terry, I don’t know how many years, long time, and it just ding-ding-ding whenever I was studying this lesson. Those two correlate. And I was sitting there going, Really? Wow, that’s pretty sad because you know you sit there and you listen to the words of the song, and you wonder, wow, where did that come from? And of course it came from Joshua the sixth chapter and verse 7. But, anyways, let’s kind of set the stage a little bit. Let’s go ahead and talk about chapter 6 before we get into chapter 7.

I’m going to go ahead and show you just a little map here. You see where after Joshua, he took over the reign of Moses after Moses passed away, according to Joshua, the first chapter and verse 1. So now Joshua is leading the children of Israel and is going through the land of Canaan. Right now, they just got done crossing over the river Jordan. And that’s a whole interesting story in itself about them setting up the little not the worship area, but the rocks as a reminder that God put them over the river Jordan and He set them away from that. But anyways, they landed over here right in right outside of Gilgal, right outside, or in Gilgal, right outside of Jericho. And of course, Jericho has these big walls that are set up.

So we can see that’s where they are at this particular time. And as the Lord of the war, the Lord of the war came down, and he told he told Jericho, he told Joshua, he said, you know what? Here’s what we need to do. Here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna in Joshua the sixth chapter, verse two, he says, See, I’ve given you Jericho into your hand as king and the mighty men of Balor. So he tells them, he says, Here’s what I want you to do. You’re gonna get the Ark of the Covenant, you’re going to march around six seven times. One each day. For the first six days, you’re going to march around Jericho. You’re going to have your priest, they’re going to have the rams of horn.

There’s going to be seven of them, and they’re going to march six days one time around. They’re not going to say a word whenever they march around. And they’re going to be tootin their horns, the rams of horns, but they’re not going to say a word. They can’t say a word until the seventh day. On the seventh day, God told them, He said, Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to march around Jericho seven times. You’re going to toot the horns, the rams of horns after the seventh time around. Everybody’s going to shout, the wall’s going to fall down, and then you guys are going to overtake Jericho. And that’s exactly what happened. God led him into that, into that into that setting right there.

And so now all the silver and gold of Jericho belongs to the Lord, according to Joshua the sixth chapter and verse 17 through 21. Let’s go ahead and turn there. And Joshua the sixth chapter. I’m meant to have told you guys going ahead and turn there. Starting in verse 17. Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction. It and all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that were sent. And you, by all means, sustain for the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. So they’re not supposed to take anything out of there to be accursed things.

But all the silver and gold and vessels of the bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpets, and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. They took the city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey with the edge of the with the edge of the sword. So now, the people of Israel and Jericho and Jericho, they took, they overtook Jericho. So they did that conquest by God’s will.

They did that. Okay? Now, they weren’t supposed to take the accursed things out of there. And that’s where the problem came. But before that happened, actually, when it happened, the next conquest was going to be going to Ai. Ai, as you can see, is straight across over here just west of west of Jericho. So that’s going to be their next conquest that they need to take. So what Jericho, what Joshua did, he told, he told, he sent a couple spies over to Ai. He says, I want you guys to go over there and see what’s going on in Ai. So a couple spies went over there and they looked around and they said, Well, there’s not much here. So he goes, but the spies go back, and they tell Joshua, they said, you know what, only send about two or three thousand men over there.

That’s all you’re going to need. Because there’s not much many people there. Okay? That’s fine. So Joshua does that. He sends 3,000 people over there, and most of them fled before they even got to Ai. And about 36 soldiers were struck down. And God and Joshua was sitting over there going, Why? Why is this happening? Why did this happen to us? And let’s read on in chapter 7, and starting to verse 6. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening. He and the elders of Israel, they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought the people over to Jordan at all? To deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us?

Oh, that we have come to content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan? O Lord, what shall I say then when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth, then what will you do for your great name? So what are they going to do? I mean, this it’s going to cut everything off. So going on into going on to verse 10 says, So the Lord said to Joshua, Get up, why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them, for they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived, and they have also put it among their stuff.

So somebody stole some stuff from there, so stole some from some stuff from Jericho. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you any more, unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Get up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst. O Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. So it just so happens that when somebody was in there, okay, and in Jericho, somebody took some of the accursed things. And Joshua didn’t know this. So God’s telling him, Get rid of that accursed things, and everything’s gonna be okay.

So then that’s the sin. And Joshua the seventh chapter of verse 1. But the children of Israel committed the trespass and devoted things for Achan, said the name sound familiar, took the devoted thing, and the anger of the Jehovah was kindled against the children of Israel. And so that’s the sin that caused a lot of problems for the people for the children of Israel. Why they were defeated in Ai. But let’s note chapter 7, verse 10 through 13. I’ve already read that right there. That what they needed to do, they needed to get it out of there. Okay. So Achan was the man. So let’s read this part right here. So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel near their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken.

And he brought near the family of Judah and took the family of the Zarevites and brought near the family of the Zarebites man by man, and Zabadai was taken. Zabdi. Zabdai. And he brought near his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdai, the son of Zarah of the tribe of Judah, was taken. So now they have Achan. Achan was the man. So here he is now. So now what’s going to happen? Achan confesses. You know, I mean, why did he take it? He’s going to sit there and confess because he got caught, number one. But he says, and Achan answered Joshua and said, Of a truth I have sinned against Jehovah, the God of Israel, and thus have I done when I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonian mantle, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent in the silver under it.

So you know what? He couldn’t even do anything with it anyways, because he hid it. But anyways, let’s talk a little bit about Achan’s confession. And that’s what I’m going to talk about for the rest of this evening right here is his confession. We can see that when he saw the shekels and the gold, he saw it there. And what did he do next? He coveted it. In other words, he wanted this the shekels, and he wanted the gold. And he took them. And whenever he took them, what did he do? He hid it. So here it is. I saw, I coveted, I took them, and then I hid them in the earth, and he couldn’t even enjoy them, anyways. And that’s what Achan’s sin was right there.

1. I Saw

Sound familiar sometimes in our life? Sound a little bit familiar? Well, guess what? This is how temptation is usually originated. A lot of times. The first concept I’m going to talk about is I saw. Achan saw that those the gold, and he saw the silver. So guess what? He took it. It’s the same thing as Eve. When Eve was in the garden in Genesis the third chapter and verse 6, she saw the fruit. My, how it looked pleasing to the eyes. And what did she do? She bit into it. And what did she do? Also, she brought man into it. It looked pleasant to her. And also in Daniel, the second chapter of verse 11 and 2. When Daniel was standing in his house, he looks down there.

Or I’m sorry, David. He looks down there and he sees Bathsheba bathing. And it’s pleasant to the eyes. He saw her bathing. She was a lovely lady. And that’s what happens. We see Satan’s craftiness according to 2 Corinthians verse 11 and chapter 3 and verse 11. That Satan’s crafty. He knows what we want to look for. He knows what we want to look at. He wants us to see the sin. Just like with Achan. He wanted Achan to see that. You see the gold, you see the silver. Even though you’re not supposed to take it, he took it. He saw it. My how pleasant it was to the eyes. And these are the warnings that the Proverb writer says in Proverbs 6th, chapter verse 25. He says, Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

And Job 31st chapter, he tells him, he says, I made a covenant with mine eyes. How then should I look upon a virgin? How he’s supposed to see it. In Matthew the 5th chapter, Jesus says, But I said unto you that everyone that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her with already in his heart. You know, when we see things, brethren, we like them. I mean, I was blessed with pretty good eyes. This is the first time I started wearing glasses several years back. And I love to look at beautiful things. And I asked my preacher one time back in California, I said, You know what, Mickey? I said, we have a problem in the world with what we look at.

I said, You have, as a man, I see beautiful women all the time. And looking at Matthew the 5th chapter, verse 28, how do you look at a woman without lusting at her, as Jesus said in Matthew the 28th chapter. And he said something real funny. Actually, not funny, but he said something very truthful. He said, Steve, God created woman. Just appreciate the beauty that he created. And I never thought about something like that. That even though he created woman and man and the beauty of woman and man, it’s his creation. You can look at them, but don’t sit there and goggle at them and draw lust into their into your heart or into your mind. And it’s right there in Matthew the 5th chapter and verse 28.

I saw.

2. Achan Coveted

Just like with Achan. The second thing was Achan coveted. He wanted that silver. When he saw it, he looked at it and said, Man, I want it. I really want it. Well, this is a verb meaning to take pleasure and to desire, to lust, to covet, to be desirable, to desire passionately. And that’s according to complete word study dictionary. The power in advertising. These advertisers there are smart. People in marketing, I know there’s some marketers out here. People in marketing, they know what we want to look for. You know, one of the things I’m still trying to, Terry and I were watching TV a few weeks ago. I’m still trying to get this concept in my brain. We’re sitting there watching TV, drinking coffee, and I look up, and there’s I can’t even remember her name, Parasilton.

Parasilton, she is dressed in practically nothing. She’s in a black leather bathing suit. And she’s walking across there. You guys are probably going, how did he know? Why didn’t he turn his eyes around? But the thing was, I did watch it. Number one reason why. Was because my wife was there. I wasn’t going to sit there and oh. But anyways, it was the whole thing. What the thing was, why was she dressed like this? You know what kind of commercial it was? A Carl Jr.

Why in the world did they have her dressed up like this, walking very provocative, her and her and her other friend, very beautiful ladies, and then they eat a hamburger sitting on top of a car. I didn’t understand that. But the marketers know that if you sit there and you look at the look at the lady, you’re going to eventually know that Carl Jr. was the whole was the advertisement. Because they caught your eye. You’re watching the commercial, and then eventually the hamburger’s going to come up. I said, eventually. And we saw another advertisement for Hardy’s hamburger, lady on an airplane, low cut dress. And what she said. It’s a commercial. It’s advertising. They want to draw you in. Just like tennis shoes, just like clothes, just like cars.

They want you to see it. They want to bring you in. They want you to covet it. Because if you covet it, you’re going to want it. And it’s as simple as that. The power in advertising. Don’t you know? In Exodus 20th, chapter verse 17, thou should not covet thy neighbor’s wife. In 2 Samuel 11, chapter and verse 3 and 4. David, he wanted, he wanted Bathsheba. He wanted her. He coveted her. He sent somebody down there and says, Go down there and get her. Bring her up. Who is she? And we know the rest of the story on that one. In 2 Samuel 12, chapter and verse 8, I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wife. This is Nathan talking. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives and your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah.

And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. David had it all. He had plenty. But he just wanted that one little thing that he couldn’t have because she was actually married. Contentment is the attribute of God’s will. I’m glad we were talking about that in class. We’re talking about finances in our in the second adult class, and we were talking about contentment. We were talking about that today. Be ye free from the love of money, content with such things as ye have for himself that said, I will no wise fail thee. Remember, we’ll, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. And of course, 1 Timothy the 6th chapter talks about the love of money as the root of all evil.

And we know that. And we talked about that in class. We see that. But the thing was, this is a very hard concept for me is being content. Terry and I, we talk about it all the time. How do you be content? David wasn’t, and he had a plenty. He wanted more. And evidently Achan wanted more because he coveted it. And he wanted more. Covetousness has its roots in selfishness. Luke to 12, chapter, and verse 13 through 21, a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. We talked about that in class today. Another amazing thing. That we talked about contentment. That we don’t need all the riches of the spoils. There’s nothing wrong with having things. Don’t get me wrong on that.

3. He Finally Took It

But it was when it’s something that we covet and we worship what we want, we gotta have, then that may be a sin. As long as you’re not going against God’s will. So is he who lays up the treasure for himself is not rich toward God in verse 21. And Luke, talking about the rich man. The next thing that Achan did. He sat there, he saw, he saw the gold and silver, he coveted it, and he finally took it. He wanted it. After desire was created by looking and became his master. In James the fourth chapter 14 through 15, but each man is tempted. And we say that when we are tempted. When we see it, we covet it, he took it, and he says, when it’s he’s drawn by his own lust and enticed, then the lust when it hath conceived bears sin, and the sin when it’s full grown, bringeth forth death.

4. He Hid It

And we know that. And we could see after Achan, when he takes what he what he wants, what he covets it, and he takes it. We’re gonna see what happens to his family here in just a moment, him and his family. But the other thing is, he hid it. He hid it. He couldn’t even enjoy it. There’s no pleasure in the ill-gotten pleasure of spoils. Because just like Adam, he hid. When God says about the forbidden fruit in the third chapter of Genesis in verse 10, they hid. Why are you hiding from me? I know what you are. We hide things. It’s really unfortunate. David, 2 Samuel, the 11th chapter, how did he try to hide his sin? I think we most we know how he did it.

He had Uriah go up to the front lines and get killed. He tried to hide it. Boy, that’s a tough way to hide something there. But I want you to think just for a moment. Just think for a moment. Everything that I’m talking about right now, is it a concept that kind of go correlates with the maybe somebody that you know? Isn’t it amazing how all this kind of comes together? How it’s starting to come together about Achan. In Matthew the 4th, chapter verse 22, he says, For there is nothing hid say that it should be manifested, neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light. Hebrews 4, chapter verse 13, and there is no creature that has not manifested the sight that all things are naked, and lay it open to the eyes of him with whom we must give an account.

5. The Consequences of His Sin

We’re going to be given an account one day, brethren. We’re going to be given an account. We just don’t know when that day is going to come. We know it’s going to come one day. In Romans the second chapter, verse 16, the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel by Christ, by Jesus Christ. So now we see where he were aching. He saw it, he coveted it, he took it, he hid it. And now the consequences of his sin. What did Joshua do? In Galatians 6, chapter verse 17 or 7, be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And a sin is never isolated. It is not going to be isolated.

Achan’s sin caused Israel to suffer humility, the peace in Joshua. And a sin causes family to suffer in Joshua the seventh chapter in verse 25. We will see that his whole family was stoned to death. Now, brethren, we’re not going to get to that capacity where we’re going to stone somebody. But they were stoned. They took the family out there and they stoned them until they were dead. Just because of the fact he took something that he wasn’t even going to enjoy the pleasures of the gold and silver. Something that he saw, he took, he coveted it, and then he hid it. And that’s a sin, what he did. And just like David sin, he tried to hide it. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, verse 10 and following.

Well, just like the Roman writer says in chapter 6 and verse 23, the wages of sin has always been death. And success by faith, the walls of Jericho fell. According to Hebrews 11, chapter and verse 30. We can keep our faith in God and serve God.

Conclusion

Achan sinned. It was a failure. And he ended up paying for it. Now, I had a picture up there earlier, but I decided to take it down. I did a screenshot of my of my email. And it just drives me nuts. And I’m sure some of you guys also experienced this. On my email, I have a Yahoo account. Yeah, I’m a little behind the times. I just found out that if you ever apply for a job, take away your email account and get a Gmail. And I was like, why? Because I guess Yahoo is just way behind or something like that. I don’t know. But anyways, on my Yahoo account, it was real funny. It’s funny but sad. And it happens on mine, and I’m sure it happens on yours.

Off to the right, all the time. It says, it has a bunch of women on there. And it says, are you single? Would you like to date somebody over 50? Well, number one, I took offense that they already know that I’m over 50. I was like, really? You have somebody looking at me or something like that? Because I cover up my little camera all the time. I put a little thing up there. I don’t want anybody to. I don’t know, it’s kind of a military thing and just that security thing. But, anyways, I look over there all the time, and there’s those ladies over there. All you gotta do is click the button one time, and it’s gonna bring the whole website up. I saw it.

Simple as that. I saw it. Right there. Next thing is I click on there because I coveted it. And the next thing you know, I’m looking, I’m going through all the websites. Brethren, this is hypothetical. I forgot to mention that. I didn’t do that. But this is what happens. And next thing you know, I’m contacting somebody. I took them. I go out with find somebody, tell them to meet someplace. Let’s go to actually I travel a lot so I can meet anywhere I want. Beaumont, yay. You know, anywhere. Good thing Lauren’s not here. She’s from Beaumont. But I saw, I coveted, I took, commit the act, and now I’m hiding because I’m a married man. Or it could be a young single man trying to hide it from somebody else.

But the one person you’re not going to hide it from is God. And that’s it. I saw, I coveted, I took, and I hid. And that’s where sin comes across. And brother, it’s not just with adultery fornication. It could be anything. It could be something just as simple as saying, you know what? I’m not going to come to services tonight because I saw something else I wanted to do. And I really want to do it, coveted. So I’m going to take this right now, and I’m going to sit down and I’m going to watch it, or I’m going to go to the movie to the theater. I took it. Well, where were you last time, brethren? We missed you at church. Oh, I was off doing some stuff and had to work.

He hid it. It’s just something as simple as that. I mean, it may not seem like a lot, but is it God’s will? That’s the important thing we need to think about. Are we going against God’s will? I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. That was Achan’s sin. And that could be our sin sometimes. So just like we say that all the time according to 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians, Satan’s crafty. He’s going to find your heart, he’s going to find your weak spot, and he’s going to throw it in front of your face. And he’s going to do it more than once. And he’s going to keep grinding at you and keep grinding at you and keep grinding at you until you give in where you saw it, you coveted it, you took it, you hid it.

And that’s what we need to fight with. Continuously, every single day. We need to pray to God and ask for strength. We need to flee from the sin. I’m not going to jump up and down like Tony does and say, flee from sin. I like the way he does that. But he shows the emphasis because of the fact he wants us to flee from it. And to stand strong. We don’t want to be like Achan. We don’t want to be like David. We don’t want to be like Eve. And we don’t want to be like a bunch of people that I know. I was sitting down the other day for some unknown reason. And I was sitting there thinking. I was like, you know, this brother here, this brother here, this brother here, this brother here, this sister here, this sister here, this sister here.

They’re all falling away. They’ve all taken a different path. And it just boggles my mind on why. Because they saw it, they coveted it, they took it, and they ran with it. And now they’re not hiding it. But they’ll never get away from God. Because God knows. And that’s the lesson. Every night, every time we come up here, we always invite, we always do the invitation. There may be someone in this audience tonight who’s not a member of the Lord’s church. And of course, we always offer that invitation who has not been baptized. Of course, Charles said that the baptistry is not ready, but it’s always ready. It may not be here. It may be just right down the street. We will find some place to baptize you until we get this fixed.

It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, it doesn’t matter what time of night it is. If you want to call me, my number’s in the book. No, it’s not. It’s on the website. If you can’t find anybody, say, Steve, I want to get baptized. I will jump in my truck and I will go anywhere it is to baptize somebody. I’m always there. And I guarantee Robert would do it. I guarantee Mike would do it. Tim would do it. Blake would do it. Anybody would do it to baptize somebody. Anytime, any night. But the thing is, you need to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You need to repent of your sins. And that’s just the beginning. We start there and we start, we start fighting the craftiness of Satan, and we start living a life of faithfulness.

We come together as one, as one church, and serving Jesus Christ, our Savior, who died on the cross for our sins. And every time we come to this building, we need to remember, every time we walk out of this building, we need to remember Jesus, our Savior. 24-7. It’s not a part-time job, brethren. It’s not a part-time job. It’s not just that five minutes that we come up here and we remember Jesus by partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine. It’s just not that. It’s when you walk out of here and you get up at 5 o’clock tomorrow morning, 6 o’clock tomorrow morning, you drink your cup of coffee, you thank God for another day. You serve Him throughout the day. Even if you have to go someplace and hide and pray for strength, pray for forgiveness, you always have that opportunity.

And we keep saying that and keep saying that because we care and we love you guys. If you’re subject to the imitation of needing the prayers of the congregation, because you felt like that your heart was hardened because of some sin that you may have done and brought some type of reproach upon the church. And you need the prayers of the congregation. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing embarrassing about it. There’s nothing tying you down. Because we want you to repent. We want you to get right with God. I’ve done it several times because I’ve done things in my life. I’m not perfect. That I may have brought reproach upon the church. And it’s an easy thing to do and it’s a great thing to do.

It’s not embarrassing or anything. It’s a conviction and it’s perseverance that we have to keep striving for. If you’re subject to the invitation, we’re going to invite you to come now as we stand and sing.