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Now, of course, in context here, Joshua chapter 7, last week Joshua chapter 6 was the great victory over Jericho. The walls of Jericho come down, they come as a city roundabout, great chapter, great week. So here we are now, they're basically starting into their next battle. So now they're going on to the next city to destroy, and that is Ai. But at the last battle, unbeknownst to Joshua, someone had taken of the accursed thing that they were not supposed to take. Now, let's read here in verse number 1, the Bible says, but the children of Israel, so this but, that's a conjunction, it's conjoining chapter 6 with chapter 7, as we know, or maybe you don't know, but the Bible wasn't written with chapter divisions in it, that came later. When God gave his word, you know, like the book of Joshua, this is an entire book, and the divisions that we have now with chapters and verses, they weren't put in there, I think, for very good reason. I don't think we need to remove them, I think it's very useful to refer to passages and things like that, but they were put in there as a help to be able to reference things. But the way that it's actually written is you just keep reading, you don't have to stop. Obviously, we have stopping points every week, there's always so much material we're going to cover, and that's usually why I like to bring everything into context, because then when we're going through the whole book of Joshua, it's important to know where we're at in the story, right? And where we're at is that they just finished defeating Jericho, and even though they just finished defeating Jericho, we see in verse number 1 of chapter 7, it says, but the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing, for Achan, the son of Carmelai, the son of Zabdai, the son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. Now, the first point I want to make about this, it's a very important point, and we need to remember this regularly, is that when you sin, no matter what this is, when you sin against God, there's always going to be consequences that affect other people. You know, even when you think that this sin only has to do with me, I'm only doing this, you're going to bring bad consequences, unintended consequences against other people that you never would have thought were going to happen. This example, Achan, what does he do? He ends up taking, and we'll get to this in a little bit later, we'll see the exact thing, he takes a garbage, he takes some silver, he takes some gold, and he's probably thinking in his mind, well, what's the big deal? I mean, everything's being destroyed anyways, this doesn't hurt anyone else, I'm just going to take this, I'm going to put it in my tent, I want this stuff for me, right? For me. This is just for me, no one else is involved. Were all the children of Israel have knowledge of this in New Year's Day? No, he hid it in his tent. They didn't know that he had done that. But who is the Lord God angry with? Look at verse number one again, it says in the first few words, but the children of Israel committed a trespass, and then it says that Achan is the one that sinned, but then it says, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. One man, the result of one man's sin is bringing anger and wrath against the whole group. Remember that the next time that you think, oh, I'm just going to do this one thing, I'm just going to set my eyes and covet this one thing, I'm just going to do this, I'm just going to do that, it's private, no one else has to know, I'm going to steal this thing. You're going to bring consequences down, not only on yourself, but on other people. That's the way sin works. You don't even have to understand exactly how it's always going to work and play out like that, it's going to happen. Now, God warned them about the accursed thing in Joshua chapter six, and this is, I skipped over this last week, partially on purpose, because I knew we were going to cover it anyways this week. Look at verse number 17 of chapter six. Joshua chapter six verse 17, the Bible says, The city shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein. So God is placing a curse on the whole city of Jericho. On Jericho, the people, everything in Jericho, there's a curse on that city. It says to the Lord, only Ray of the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she had the messengers that we sent. Verse 18, And ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. This was so important to God, that he's saying, look, you need to stay away from this curse, they're cursed, they're going to be destroyed, we're going to burn this city to the ground, everything that's in this city is going to be destroyed and wiped out, and I don't want you to touch it, I don't want anything, I definitely don't want you bringing it home with you. He says, you bring that little bit out, anything that accursed thing, not only are you going to do harm to yourself, it's going to bring a curse on all the children of Israel, on the whole camp. It's pretty serious. Verse number two, let's go back to chapter seven. We're getting more and more into this as we keep going, but I just wanted to point out the language there, God's angry with all the children, with the whole camp, and he's not with any of them because of the actions of one. It's important to know when you have a group of people all supposed to be unified and joined together and fighting the battle for the Lord, when one person has a wicked, covetous heart, and just deliberately, willfully sinning against the Lord, because he knew, he knew better. They were commanded not to take anything of the accursed thing. They were gone in to destroy, and that's what they had done, and he knew, there was no ignorance being claimed here, he knew what he was doing, and he did it anyways, and then God's power and spirit is departing from the whole group. And I think this is important and can be applicable to churches that are waging spiritual warfare. Don't be the one that's gonna take the power off of the work that's being done here and the battles that are being fought because you've got some just willful sin that you just wanna do and you think you're the only one affected by it, and you're bringing a curse on the whole group as a result. Look at verse number two, the Bible says, And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Avon on the east side of Beth-Avon, spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said unto them, Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the people to labor with them, for they are but few. So now we're starting to get a little bit of an idea of one of the size of Ai. Obviously, they're not thinking that this is gonna be a very difficult battle at all. You know, they've had this succession of victories. They crossed the Jordan River miraculously. They walked around Jericho and all the walls fell down and they had that great, just total complete victory at Jericho without any loss of life on their end. They did everything. Everything went great. So now they're riding high. They're kind of lifted up a little bit. And then they go send out to seek out Ai and say, Okay, well, let's prepare our battle plan. Let's see this. And they're like, Oh, yeah, a couple thousand people. No big deal. They'll just send, don't make everybody get their battle gear on and go to the labor, get out there and do the work. We're just gonna send out a few thousand. Now, that's not a very wise attitude to have in general. But I mean, if they're all supposed to be going and fighting the battles, like God told them to do, why wouldn't they just send everybody? I think that personally, they should have sent everyone. But what this is, I think more importantly than that, even what this is demonstrating is that it was really not some stronghold fortified city. And they felt very confident and comfortable just sending a few thousand people, which is probably still double what whatever forces they thought they were going to face. Because I can't imagine them sending only just enough. That would be like a one to one battle. They still want to secure a victory here, even though they know God's with them. I mean, that would be extreme utter foolishness. There's nothing here to indicate that. Well, I think what we're getting an idea of is that AI is not some major stronghold. It's not some big thing, some big city that they could take this easily. But because of their sin, God still ends up, you know, they still end up losing. They actually have other men die. Look at verse number three or four. Bible says, so they went up with the people, about 3,000 men, and they fled before the men of AI. So they go to the battle and they end up retreating. They end up getting put to the worst. Verse number five says, the men of AI smote them about thirty and six men. For they chased them from before the gate, even under shepherding, and smote them in the going down, wherefore the hearts of the people melted and became as water. So quickly things can change. You go from having God behind you and for you and fighting your battles for you. Now all of a sudden, and they're thinking, oh, only send two, three thousand people at the most. No big deal. Now their hearts melted. Now they're really brought down low. They're thinking, what in the world? You know, they put us, you know, they beat us and they killed some of us. Like, what is going on here? And Joshua just has no clue what's going on. And he's perplexed by all of this. But look at verse number six here. It says, and Joshua rinsed his clothes and fell down, fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we have been content and wealth on the other side, Jordan. Now where have we heard a phrase very similar to that? When the children of Israel said, would to God we would have been content in Egypt, would to God we would have been content here. And every time it's like, you know, it's interesting how this happens, how they fail to look at their own selves as the cause of the problem. Cause he's going to God thinking like, God, why did you even bring us out here? Why did you bring us into the wilderness? Just to kill us here? Why did you bring us with the Egyptians? Just so we could die of starvation here? So we could die of thirst here? So you could kill us in the wilderness here? Why are you doing all this God? And it's like, you wouldn't have any of these problems if you wouldn't get yourself right. If you sanctify yourselves and get the sin out of your lives. Look, it's not God that's causing you to lose. I mean, it is God in a sense, but they're the cause of it. God's not for them anymore. Why? Because they've sinned. God already gave them the fair warning in chapter six. He says, look, don't take of the accursed thing. Otherwise you're going to be accursed. And really, I blame Joshua in the sense that, you know, instead of just thinking we can do no wrong. And this is a serious concern. You may be getting victory after victory spiritually in your life. So much to where you become just, you forget about or you don't think about, hey, maybe there's something else going on. Maybe things are going great for you spiritually in your household. Then it's like all of a sudden the spirit of God just departed from you and things aren't going nearly as well as you think. Maybe it's the first thing you ought to do is take a step back and look and analyze your own house and your own self and see where are we coming up short. Start at your own house and look and look in. Start at your own self and your own house and look out from there and that will help you to identify problems. Now, obviously there are things that can happen, bad things. I'm not saying that every single bad thing that happens in your life is a result of your own sin. I'm not teaching that. But I am saying this, that when bad things do happen, I'm going to look first just, hey, is my house right? Am I right with God? Am I like aching, just hiding something secretly in my tent and now God's not for me. So what's going on? I've had to do this from time to time as well, even just when it comes to going out soul-willing. I'm not winning anyone to Christ. Well, the gospel still has the same power the gospel has, right? I don't think God's slacking on his part of the deal. The Lord's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So if I'm preaching the gospel, preaching the gospel, preaching the gospel, preaching gospel, preaching the gospel, and nobody's getting saved, I'll start looking at myself. Maybe God's departed for some reason. Started looking at my family, look at my household. What is it that the power of God has? Why is this happening? What's going on here? Why are we not getting the spiritual victories when we're getting involved in the fight? That's what's going on here. Let's keep reading. So Joshua gets on his face, you know, he covers and blows sackcloth. Oh man, I wish we could have just been content over there. No, Joshua. Oh Lord, what shall I say? Verse number eight. When Israel turneth their backs before their enemies, for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it. And see, now he's starting to get afraid. They're going to hear and they're going to environ us round and cut off our name from the earth. And what will thou do unto thy great name? He said, what's going to happen to your name? I mean, we're here representing you, God. What's going to happen? You see, part of the reason Joshua has this attitude is because he's right with God. Personally, he's doing what's right, but he's not thinking about the whole group and what the Lord had said. Hey, look, don't take it to be a curse thing. Joshua's gotten so used to the Lord being with them that when something bad happens, he basically starts questioning God. What about your hand, God? What, you know, you're going to let us just get wiped out here? But God already told him that was going to happen. So this is why God answers. Because God gives us the instructions. He didn't need to go and question God on any of this stuff. All he needed to do was go back on what he was already told. God already told him this stuff. He already gave them what they're supposed to do and what the consequences would be, even in the law of God, even in the law of Moses. You know, the Bible says that, you know, if you keep my laws, if you're being righteous, if you're doing what's right, you know, I'm going to be with you. I'm going to bless with you. Ten of you are going to chase away a hundred, and a hundred are going to chase away a thousand. And they said, you know, like, you will just be able to walk all over your enemies when I'm with you because you're doing right. But when you're doing wrong, it's basically going to be the exact opposite. Where they're going to put fear into you, you're going to be running away. You're not going to be able to stand before your enemies because you're not right with God. It's a very basic general principle in the Bible. Again, this has nothing to do with salvation. This just has to do with your walk with God and God's power being with you. This is, and specifically, it's about a group of people, a nation, children of Israel here. When you're going to be doing right, hey, God's going to be for you. He's going to be fighting your battles for you. They're going to be scared. Their heart is going to melt within them and you'll have no problems. But how quickly now have the tables turned? Their hearts melted. They now are becoming scared and afraid. Oh no, now what are we going to do? Now they start worrying about the people all around them. What about the people of the land? Oh, they're going to come and they're going to kill us. They shouldn't have to worry about any of that. They're doing what's right because God already promised. You don't have to worry about that. But look at the way, I love the way that the Lord answers Joshua. This is the attitude that God has with him because he expects him to understand this in the notice. Verse number 10, then the Lord said to Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? And he said, Why are you laying down? Get up. Don't you remember what I told you? Verse number 11, Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them, for they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen. And dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. He lists three things there. I mean, this guy did one thing, but what he ended up doing is, first of all, he's taken of the accursed thing because everything in the city was cursed. So when you're taking anything out of there, you're taking things that are cursed. But it says he's also stolen. Why is he stolen? Because he took the silver and the gold, which is supposed to be going into the treasury of the Lord. So they're supposed to wipe out and destroy everything. Now, he took a garment, basically a piece of clothing, and silver and gold. So he took the accursed thing. He's stolen from God because that money was supposed to be dedicated to the Lord. And he's dissembled. What does dissembled mean? Well, if you think of assembly, you're putting things together. Dissembled means he's tearing things apart. He's taking things apart, especially within the camp of the children of Israel. He's brought this leaven into the camp. And that's why also we're going to see that that leaven needs to be destroyed and wiped out. Or else it's going to leaven the whole lot. Look at verse 12. The Bible says, Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but 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. Now I want to kind of segue from this. Turn through to Deuteronomy chapter 21. Because we see the accursed thing. We see Jericho was accursed. We see that, look, I'm not going to be with you anymore. And now you've become accursed and you need to take the accursed from among you and get it out. Get rid of it. The word accursed doesn't happen, it's not found a lot in the Bible. And there's one place that it is found in the Bible that I think is very interesting. Because Jesus became a curse for us. And there's a little bit of a symbolic meaning here. I believe with the with the sin of Achan and getting that that accursed thing out. And how Jesus became a curse for us. Deuteronomy 21, look at verse number 22. The Bible says, And if a man had committed a sin worthy of death and to be put to death, and now hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that is hanged is accursed of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God did it be for inheritance. Now that that parenthetical statement there, he that is hanged is a curse of God. So I'm hanging someone on a tree. Well, the Bible says that Jesus Christ bare our sins on the tree, right? When he was crucified on the cross, he was hanged up on that cross. Jesus was accursed for our sakes. Turn to Hebrews 13. Matthew 27, a very famous verse. You know, Jesus said, Eli, Eli, love us back tonight. That is to say, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken? When Jesus Christ bare the sins of the whole world in his body, he became accursed. One, he was hanging on a tree. According to God's law, he's accursed by just being crucified like that and being hung on the tree to die. But he also bare the sins of the world bearing the curse of our sin to where God forsakes him because Jesus became accursed. He was forsaken. He was left. He did all that so that we don't have to be forsaken or accursed because of our sin. Because if we die in our sins, we are accursed. We will be forsaken and cast into a lake of fire. Now, I say that we as a generic term, meaning like all of mankind in general. Obviously, I'm not talking about us as believers in a church because obviously, as a believer, we don't have to worry about being accursed because we have promises like the Bible says in Hebrews 13 verse number five. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. We will never be forsaken as a believer in Jesus Christ because our sins have been washed away, because we've been purged, because that curse, the accursed sin that we had in our heart and our life, has been cleansed, it's been taken away. Jesus took that cursed thing, the accursed thing that we have, and he took it on himself, which is why he was accursed, and why he was forsaken, and why his soul went to hell for three days and three nights. Before rising again from death, he took that curse and took it out. And you know what? That curse was burnt. So we see what happens later in the story is that the Achan who took the accursed thing, the punishment was that he was to be burnt with fire. That's exactly what they did. The accursed thing was removed and is burnt. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Just a little bit more encouragement though about not being forsaken as a believer. The reason why I'm going into this is just to give a little bit more appreciation and respect for what Jesus did for us. We see both sides of it, we see the curse aspect of it that Jesus did when he was forsaken, when he was cast into hell. And then, of course, the merciful aspect that we receive of never being forsaken, never being forgotten, never being cast out and rejected. 2nd Corinthians 4 verse number 8, the Bible says, We are troubled at every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. See, in this life, it turns you into Psalm 37, in this life we are going to face persecutions, there are going to be hard times, there's not going to be some big cakewalk. There's battles, there's struggles, there's many things that might come our way, but even in our apparent defeats or failures or persecutions, whatever you might look and want to call it, we're not forsaken, we're not forgotten, we're not just completely cast down and destroyed. We may fall down, but we're not out. God is still there to be with us and He will never leave us or forsake us. So even at your lowest point, God is still there. Psalm 37, more promises on this, Psalm 37, look at verse number 23, the Bible says, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delighted in His way. God's there to direct us. It says the steps of a good man. The steps of a good man. Though he fall, verse 24, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. So even when you fall, this is again the same concept, you're not going to be utterly cast down, utterly wiped out, utterly destroyed, completely forsaken. Verse 25, I have been young and now I'm old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging breath. Oh, children of God and those other than righteousness, you know what, you're going to do what's right. You're going to follow the Lord. He says you may have bad times, you may, you know, fall, but you're not going to be able to cast down. And, you know, the psalmist here, David, is saying in Psalm 37, I've been young and now I'm old. I have yet to see the righteous forsaken. Why? Because God's not going to forsake you. That's one piece of confidence that we can have in this life that will never be forsaken. It says, nor is seed begging bread. If you find yourself as a believer on the street begging bread, you have no means of being taken care of or supported at all, then you better, that is a time to take a look at yourself. And what are you doing to put yourself in that position? Because God's not going to leave you and say God's not going to do that to you. The only way you would ever be begging bread is by just being completely unrighteous and walking in your flesh and not walking with the Spirit at all, not being pleasing to God inside you. Verse number 26, he's ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil and new good and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell there forever. It is a great verse on the preservation of believers. Literally using the word, they're preserved forever. So, you know, the Calvinists believe that believers persevere unto the end. No, we don't believe in perseverance, we believe in preservation. We're preserved. God doesn't forsake his saints. He'll never leave us or forsake us. We are preserved forever. Praise the Lord for that good seed. Let's go back to Joshua chapter 7. Praise God for Jesus taking that curse from among us. So, he continues on here speaking to Joshua and he says in verse 13, Up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel, thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. Now, you remember before they crossed the Jordan River, he's saying, hey, God's gonna be among us, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. Get ready, get yourself right with God, get everything out, sanctify yourselves, get ready, be set apart for the Lord to use. And I preached on that when we went over that a couple weeks ago and he's now saying the same exact thing, look, you've got to get rid of this accursed thing, get the wickedness out and then out because I'm gonna be among you and then I'll be able to use you and do a lot more. Now, it's always a good idea to analyze yourself in your household and I think this is something we should be doing periodically. Whether or not you see things going on where you feel like God's not really working with you, we should be on a regular basis just kind of keeping tabs on ourselves and just doing inventory on your household and be like, you know, is there any accursed thing within my home? Am I letting idolatry creep in? Am I letting, you know, some other type of wickedness creep in? Am I allowing, you know, junk to come through my computer or through my television set or through whatever? Am I letting accursed things into my tent, into my house? Because what did Aiken do? He took the accursed thing and he dug underneath his house and he kept it hidden in his house. That's a secret sin that he had. He's got that hidden at home. And oh, how easy it is to have secret sins just hidden at home. Who's going to know? I meant to your house, you know, your space. You know who's going to know? God's going to know. Children of Israel didn't know who done it. They got God's help in that and picking them out and finding out who the person was. But they were all paying the price for it. So we need to make sure that we don't have some accursed thing buried or secret in our home. Purge it out and get rid of it. Get rid of it. We want to be sanctified and meet for the master's use. Let's get rid of those things and not let that cause us to not have God's power upon us. In John 15, very famous passage, Jesus says, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it that it may bring forth more food. You want to be more fruitful in your Christian life? You want to bring forth more fruit? You want to get more people saved? You want to do more for the Lord? You need to be purged. This is a regular process. None of us have arrived. We need to make sure, hey, just when you when you get some victory over some other sin, you get something out of your life. Focus on the next thing. Let's keep working. Keep purging. Keep doing good. Bringing forth fruit. But make sure that that purging process can continue. Because the more you purge, the more of that wickedness you can get out, the more fruitful you're going to be. You can think of, if you know anything, the analogy being given here has to do with fruit bearing vine or tree. If you know anything about that, what I know very little, I do know a little bit, I share a little bit. I do know with you that when you have fruit bearing trees or fruit bearing bushes and things like that, if you just let it go and don't pay any attention to it, you're going to have a lot of dead branches in there, right? You've got the good branches, you've got the dead branches, and the dead branches is cluttered up and take up too much space to where the good branches aren't going to bear and bring forth as much as they could. If you went in there and got rid of all the old stuff, get that stuff out of there, the stuff that's not producing fruit, get that out of the way. They're just taking up space. What's the point of it being there? It actually will make the whole plant a lot more healthy and fruitful, and it will get a lot more yield out of that plant. It's a very simple concept. Like I said, even someone who knows very little about it can understand that. And see, you have that done. I've seen that happen firsthand. We've had different fruit-bearing trees at our house and things like that. Very simple. And this is the analogy that Jesus Christ is using. Say, hey, every branch that's not bearing fruit, they're going to be taken away. That in itself is something that we ought to take seriously. You're doing nothing for God. You're safe. You're in divine. You're in Christ. And you're doing nothing. You do nothing to bring forth fruit. Why are you here then? I've got news for you. This life isn't about you. And if your soul is saved because God redeemed your soul, praise the Lord, that's great. But then what are you doing with your life? If you're not bearing forth any fruit, and there's other examples of this in scripture, that's not what the sermon's about, but just keep this in mind. If you're not bearing forth fruit, you're going to take it away. Because what good are you then? How many illustrations do we have of being the Lord's servants, doing work for God, and everything else, and even the fruit tree? When Jesus went to the fig tree and didn't have fruit on it, what did he do? He cursed it and withered up and died. What good are you? What good is that fig tree? Now obviously you can go into a lot of different meanings for that, but there's a pretty basic one. And here he's even saying, every branch in me, in Christ, that bareth not fruit, take it away. And every branch that bareth fruit, he purges that may bring forth more fruit. So the purging process may not be pleasant. May be a little bit difficult from time to time, getting rid of things, things that your flesh wants to hold on to. But it's not good for the end result. We need to purge that so that we can bring forth even more fruit. Joshua chapter 7, if you're not there already, we're going to keep reading here, Joshua chapter 7, verse number 14. In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof. And the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households. And the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man. And it shall be that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath, because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath brought folly in Israel. So basically, he's telling them here, this is the way you're going to do it. You're going to start off at the top level with just the tribes. The heads of the tribes are going to come before and they're going to choose, okay, the tribe of Judah. And then the heads of those, you know, as you kind of go down the descendants, it's not every single person showing up. They're narrowing it down to get to the family level to where they're going to say, okay, Achan's the one that did it. And the Lord's directing them in all this. We don't know exactly how this process has taken place. We just know that God's directing them because they find the right person. And it's not like they're guessing between a bunch of people. They're just like, okay, Achan, you know, you did it. Fess up now, give God the glory. And he does. And he admits it. He did it. He's like, yeah, it was me. They go check it out and they find exactly what he had said. And it was in his house. Now it says here, it says that him and all that he hath is to be burnt. Now I mentioned before how Jesus Christ, you know, took away that accursed thing from us. And it's a very symbolic event, but also just in the sense that the judgment that came against Jericho was that Jericho was going to be burnt. So in taking of the accursed thing to himself, you know, the judgment on the accursed thing was it's supposed to be burnt with fire. Now he's brought that curse on himself. And that's why they do it. So normally there's very, very few places where you'll see a judgment of people being burnt with fire. It does exist in God's law. But usually the typical way where people are going to be executed, if there's going to be like a death sentence imposed, is that they're going to be stone to stone, which is a different thing. Again, but the being burnt with fire is something that is very unique. And we ought to look at it very closely because of the other ramifications, the other symbolism that you can learn about that. So in Joshua 6, 24, about as soon as they burnt the city with fire and all that was therein, only the silver and the gold, the vessels of brass and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. That was the judgment against Jericho. I'm going to skip over just the parts where they're calling each of the heads of the household. We don't really need to review all that again. But this is interesting. Look at verse number 20. The Bible says, and Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. And thus, and thus have I done. When I saw the spoils, a goodly Babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels of weight, then I coveted them and took them. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it. So it explains what happened now. Well, I'm just on a side note here. Notice he says he saw a goodly Babylonish garment. Remember from last week, the ties between Jericho and Babylon. I think it's very interesting that the garment that he chose is a Babylonish garment from Babylon. So that just tells you anything that they were wearing. They were just like Babylon in Jericho. I mean, this thing that he stole is a Babylonish garment. So I thought that was kind of cool because I missed that when I was preparing last week that this is even brought up again, just that further tying Jericho with Babylon by mentioning that this is a Babylonish garment that he's drawn to, that he steals in addition to the silver and the gold that he got. But notice what happens here, because this is, again, this is a very standard protocol for sin. We need to be aware of how this sin works. Notice it says he saw among the spoils. First he is by looking, then he coveted them, and then he took them. That's the process of this sin that cost Achan his life. He sees, he covets, he takes. Now coveting in itself is a sin, but the sin that killed him is when he actually acted on that covetousness and took it and took the accursed thing and took it. But see, until he coveted, he wouldn't have taken. But until he looked, he wouldn't have coveted. This is a very important point that we can't look past. Now covetousness comes in all different forms. In this case, it happens to be with money and garments, but whatever it is, it's something that you can't have. Coveting is literally just when you want something that you can't have. There's many reasons why you can't have it. Having money in and of itself isn't wicked or sinful or anything wrong with it. To possess money, to possess silver or to possess gold. But the reason why this was covetousness is because God said, you can't have that. That's the Lord's. So when he wants something he can't have, because God said, no, that's covetousness right there. He could have had the money from other cities, which they do end up taking, they do end up getting spoiled from other places, other places they defeat, they destroy. They take the spoils unto themselves. But because this belongs to the Lord, now that's covetousness. We can apply this to the tithe. The tithe, the first 10% is the Lord's. That's the way the Bible talks about this, is that the first 10% of your increase, that belongs to God. It's not yours. That belongs to him. And you're saying you're stealing when you take that. So if you're like, man, I just wish I didn't have to tithe, I wish I didn't have to give you up, that's already a covetous attitude to have. When you're already thinking, oh man, you're getting disgruntled about giving that, you're covetous over something that belongs to the Lord. Now, I don't bring this up very often, but it just fits perfectly. And I'm glad that I don't feel like I have to. I mean, this church is great with people giving anyways, but this is what the book teaches, so I'm going to teach it regardless of whether it's a problem or not in our church. The covetousness. But I want to take this on another angle, because covetousness isn't just about money. It also has to do with, and probably more commonly, maybe not more commonly, I'm not sure, but probably more commonly with men coveting after women. Now, what we see here is the same formula is going to apply. You're going to see, you're going to covet, and then you're going to take. See, people don't commit adultery. Just, you walk out the door one day and it's like you're walking into someone else's house, you just commit adultery. It doesn't happen like that. It happens a lot sooner. There's other things that take place in between. First, you have to see. You're just, you're seeing. Now, we can't always control the things that come in front of our eyeballs. When you're walking out in the world, you don't have control of them. But you know what you do have control over? How long you decide to look and gaze upon whatever does come in front of your eyes. And I know in Arizona, with the heat, I imagine it's got to be the same right here. I've been out here long enough to really notice. But in Phoenix, in the summertime, you're going to have a lot of scantily clad people out in public because it's hot outside. And they just take off a lot of clothing. Now, when you live in the world, you can't do anything about that. It's going to happen. But you know what you can control is how long you're going to feast your eyes on that. If you see something, someone immodestly dressed, and someone that may be attractive and may appeal to your flesh, the choice is yours whether or not you're going to keep looking or whether you're going to look away. You can't control the first thing that happens. But you control everything else that happens after that. We ought to be like Job. Job says in Job 31, 1, I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I think upon a mate? See, Job knew where it started from. Because when you realize that just looking, the world has a stupid attitude of, oh, well, I can look at the menu. I just can't order or whatever. Just because they want to indulge their eyes and their flesh on something that they shouldn't have and coming after women or after men that they can't have because they're married already or the other person is married. And they just want to feast and indulge and look upon. Well, you know what? When you do that, when you start looking on and just allow your eyes to just gaze on something that you shouldn't anyways, it's going to cause your heart to covet it. Because you're looking at it, looking at it, looking at it, well, you're going to want it more. Just like think about Lot. Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. He didn't start off in Sodom. He just started off looking at it every day. Wake up in the morning, goes outside. Hey, look, there's Sodom. There's the well-watered plains. There's that great city. There's all that financial success and all the things that are going on in Sodom. And before you know it, he's inside. So he goes from seeing to being a part. Seeing to coveting to then taking. That's what Aiken did. And we got to be careful, especially the men. Now, look, this happens with women and men in life. But I think it's way more prevalent in men than it is with women. Men, to see an attractive person and to then continue to look, that's where it ought to stop. Because once you continue to look, that's when the covetous is going to set in. And you could say, yeah, but that's where it's going to stop. Well, you know what? The very next step. If you allow yourself to look and covet, you are one step away from taking. One step away. The wisdom of Job says, I made it come in with my eyes. How am I even going to think upon a man? There's no way he's committing adultery. Why? Because he's not even letting it get to the covetousness part. Why? Because he made a covenant with his eyes. Men, you need to today make the covenant with your eyes and say, when something comes across my path, I'm not going to continue to look, and I'm going to look the other way. I'm going to make a promise so that I don't think upon a man. So I'm not thinking about someone else so that my heart can stay pure. So I'm not going to be covetous and hurt my wife and hurt my spouse, because guess what? Your wife's going to notice those things, too. Let's say you don't end up taking. You don't actually commit the grievous sin of adultery by actually taking, which, by the way, if you're in the Bible, it should cost you your life. Just like this sin of Achan, when he actually took and acted on his covetousness, it cost him his life. When you commit the sin of adultery, it ought to cost you your life. It is that grievous, that serious of a sin. I don't know why in the world you'd want to let yourself get so close to something so serious that you're going to let yourself feast your eyes and covet. And just toe that line and say, well, I'm not committing adultery. Well, you are in your heart, first of all. But second of all, why is it really worth it to let your mind wander into sin for something that's going to end up destroying your life? It's not worth it. Let's learn from Achan, because this story is in the Bible for a reason. And this is applicable to so many situations. You see, you covet, you take. And that's what people do when they steal. People who are poor don't have a lot of money. They see something someone else has. Oh, I want that. Oh, they're thinking about it. They see it. And wow, man, I want this. I want this. I want it. Preach to take it in. Stop it at the source. Don't let your eyes feast on things that you can't have, regardless of what that thing is, whatever it is. Don't let your eyes feast on it, because that's only going to get you into problems. Don't be one step away from taking the accursed thing. Let's finish up this chapter here, verse number 22. Basically, Joshua sends the messengers just to confirm that what he was saying is actually the truth. He's not lying to them. So they go, they find the stuff. Verse 23, and they took them out of the midst of the tent and brought them unto Joshua and unto all the children of Israel and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with them 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 asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them unto the valley of Achor, and Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day, and all Israel stoned them with stones, and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over in a great heap of stones unto this day, so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his angel, wherefore the name of that place was called the valley of Achor to this day. Now you may be sitting here saying, well, you know, that's pretty serious. All the people came and just stoned them with stones. This guy, Achor, just for stealing. You might think that's kind of harsh, but you know it's not because you're not getting the full picture. But because of that sin, 36 other people lost their lives. What about those families? What about those people who were actually living righteously and doing what's right? It was just Achor who won that sin. When we put the whole thing in perspective, it's a little bit easier to see how you can bring judgment upon such a wicked act and a wicked person like that to go and just deliberately disobey God, go against him, knowing full well that the Lord said, don't take any accursed thing or else it's going to be accursed on the children of Israel. They were all given that commandment. That wasn't just secret knowledge. The people had a proper view of sin, not just sin, but pure wickedness. They actually cared about the people that ended up losing their lives because Achan didn't want to listen to God. And they carried out the sentence against them. And we ought to take this story to heart. I know how sin works. I've got the flesh too. Everyone wants to justify why they do what they do. When really there's no justification for sin. There's no. You may want to justify sins or look the other way on some of the smaller sins, but I'll tell you what, do not put yourself into these major, grievous sins, especially the ones that the Bible talks about having that penalty on. When you want to talk about bringing a curse into your life, who knows who's going to be affected by that? Men, you start gazing on women and allowing your mind to just covet. Better watch out for that. You may think, oh, I'm not affecting anybody. It's just me. That's not the case. Someone's going to be affected by it. Whether you understand who it's going to be or not, especially when, when you're bringing some thing in your heart, some consciousness, you're one step away from acting on that. You're just going to bring destruction. Learn from Aiken as far as I have a word of prayer. Your heavenly father, thank you so much for the wisdom that we can get from your words. God prayed you. Just do self-analysis and remember to periodically check ourselves for things that we ought not to have. Things that could have a tendency to creep in when we're not really paying attention. Things are going real well. We start allowing more and more things into our lives here. Lord, help us to be just vigilant and diligent about the things that we have in our life. That we're not inadvertently even bringing in some wickedness or some accursed thing. We just don't allow these things in our house. That you'd be able to use us and purge us and help us to bring forth more fruit. Dear God, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.