I’ve never been in the military, but I’ve seen the movies. One guy messes up and the Drill Sergeant makes the entire platoon do 100 push ups. Or maybe one guy blatantly disobeys the commanding officer so they pull everybody’s weekend passes. One guy messes up and the entire group pays the price. If you ask me, it’s kinda unfair. To have one person mess up and then many have to pay the penalty, seems well, not right. But in God’s Word, God supports the military form of correction and we see it in black and white today in Joshua chapter 7.
Let’s set the stage, the Israelites are riding high coming off their amazing defeat of the massive walled city of Jericho and so they look at the next town in their path, Ai. But Ai is much different than Jericho, it’s smaller, less people and less fortified. Joshua sends out a few scouts and decides that all that is needed is 3,000 men to overtake the city. After all, God is doing the fighting and after God splitting the Jordan and then dropping the walls of Jericho, the people’s faith is at an all-time high. They are confident that the Lord will deliver the city. As they ready to fight, God’s rules of war are still the same, kill all the people and livestock and take only gold, silver, bronze and iron that will all be given to the Lord’s treasury for future use. But as the battle ensues, something goes horribly wrong. Instead of the sound victory everyone expected, the Israelites lose 36 men in the skirmish and are easily routed and forced to retreat. The people are devastated, confused, disenfranchised and are in this moment, questioning God. Joshua and the elders tore their clothes, fell on their faces before the Ark of the Covenant and asked some hard questions of God. Why have you not given us the victory as you promised? Why have you brought us into the land you promised us to only allow us defeat before our enemies? The why questions flowed like the doubt in their hearts. It’s always hard to watch a faithful servant of God suffer defeat and setback and question God. I think we’ve all had those moments. Even Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David, Joseph and now Joshua all had those moments. The moments where they asked God, why? But it’s in these moments where we are driven to our knees, that God allows us a rare glimpse into the understanding we desire.
God reveals to Joshua that the defeat was not a lack of His promises but at the hands of human sin. Personal sin. One man had broken the rules and taken spoils for himself. Because of this one man succumbing to the temptation of greed, 36 men lost their lives and sent Joshua and the elders to their knees before God. Is it truly possible that today, our own personal sin can still have this type of effect on our brothers and sisters in Christ? Can our sinful choices today affect the body of Christ and those around us?
Today, I think most of us see our sin as extremely personal. It’s our sin and what we do against God is our business and nobody else’s. I call it “private sin” or “secret sin.” Something we engage in that is so close to us that we dare not let the world in our little secret. We fight the world, our spouses, our family and especially our brothers and sisters at church to make sure that our private sins are kept as just that, private and out of the light. Why would we want anybody to know about our adultery or sexual promiscuity? Keep it locked up tight. We sure don’t want anyone to know about our secret use of pornography, that could throw a big wrench in the gears, keep it covered in darkness. We surely don’t want people to know about our love of money, our passion for material things and our reckless desire to make tons of money so that we can buy all the things that will make us look important and powerful. We lie, cheat and steal to get ahead, but what’s the big deal, we’re only hurting ourselves, right? But what we see in Joshua this morning is the truth, God’s truth. Your secret sin can and will have a tremendously damaging effect upon others. The cost of your sin will cost others.
God deals with the guilty party quickly and harshly. God commands Joshua that the violator and his family be stoned and burned outside the camp. God demands that this sin be dealt with quickly, totally and with finality. Until the sin is completely gone, God will not return His blessings to the Israelites. This brings up a few invaluable point about sin in our lives, how God views it, and how we are to deal with it. Let’s take a look at a few points about dealing with sin in your life, God’s way.
1) Nature of sin. When dealing with sin in your life, you need to know exactly what you’re dealing with and just how serious it is. Sin is anything we say, do or think that displeases God. The cost of sin in our life is death, which is eternal separation from God. If we call upon the name Jesus to save us, His work upon the Cross will save us from the death penalty of our sin. Yet as a believer in Christ, as we continue to sin in our lives, it must be dealt with just as in our study passage, quickly, totally and absolutely. It must be confessed to God and repented of. If you allow unconfessed sin to linger in your life, it will create more distance between you and God as you grieve the Holy Spirit with your open disobedience. If you move to the place in your life where you not only occasionally sin but embrace and casually live with the sin in your life, God will demand that sin be dealt with. This can be very tough on the believer, as God loves us enough to sharply rebuke us in our sinful ways, all in an effort to bring us back to a close, personal relationship with Himself. The nature of sin is that it’s power radiates. Sin consumes and it does not stop with just the sinner. It radiates outward into the lives of those around us. Just as a shadow slowly crawls across the surface, sin will slowly encompass and overshadow all that it comes into contact with.
2) Eradicating sin. Sin is like cancer in the life of a believer. Sin creates a wedge between the believer and God, therefore sin must be eradicated quickly if the believer wishes to enjoy the closest, most intimate relationship possible. Sin must be seen as not just a slip up against God but a transgression against God that breaks His heart. You must learn to hate the sin in your life and flee from its grasp that only hopes to ensnare you and move you farther away from God. Eradicating the sin in your life can only be achieved through the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. Your old sin nature will be pulling on you day and night, but through the power of the Holy Spirit you can resist. You can live a life through the power of Christ and enjoy a life that is free from the heavy bonds of sin. As you find yourself in sin, confess it quickly and directly to God and ask for His forgiveness. He is rich in mercy and rich in forgiveness. But you must ask for it. And as you get right with God you must repent of that sin. That means to turn from those sinful ways and move towards God’s ways. To truly eradicate the sin in your life, you must stop falling into the same sin. The process of insanity can keep you performing the same sins over and over and then asking for forgiveness of those same sins over and over. Ask Jesus to empower you to kick those sins once and for all and when you ask with the right heart, you’ll find yourself moving closer to Christ as you shed those sin issues.
3) Cost of sin. We saw above that the cost of sin is death which is separation from God. But what about the other costs of sin. We see in our study passage today that one man’s sin had a great cost to many. It cost 36 men their lives in the lost battle of Ai. It cost Joshua and the elders, great anguish as they lost their joy of following the Lord and mourned His absence from the people. And eventually it costs the guilty man and his family their physical lives. Today, what are some of the costs of sin? I have in my own life and in the lives of countless others witnessed the high costs of sin. It can cost you your marriage as you seek sex outside of matrimony. It can cost you relationships with family members as pride drives wedges into once loving situations. It can cost you your freedom as addiction to alcohol or drugs shackles you in their chains. It can cost you work relationships as you step on people to climb the ladder and make the money you feel you deserve. It can cost you relationships with brothers and sisters at church as you live two lives, one full of sin while in the world and one that seems squeaky clean on Sunday mornings. Sin can even cost you your very reputation as eventually that secret sin comes to the light. Sin can cost you your sanity. Sin can cost you your freedom. Sin will rob you of your joy.
Folks, as you think about, deal with and process the sin in your life today, see the cost associated with it. It’s not personal, it’s not secret and it’s not private. The darkness of sin will be brought to the light and as it does, the cost will be high. And not only to you but to all those that you love, serve, minister to and witness to. I pray today that you will deal with sin the way that God demands of us. See it for what it is, separation from God. As it creeps into your life, deal with it quickly and absolutely by confessing it directly to God and repenting of it. As a result, you will enjoy a closer walk with Christ and be fully able to effectively and purposely fulfill the plan God has for you…to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world.
God bless you.
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