The sermon, titled 'A Little Leaven Leavens the Whole Lump,' uses the story of Achan from Joshua 7 to emphasize the contagious nature of sin and its impact on the community. The speaker draws parallels between the Old Testament narrative and New Testament teachings, particularly 1 Corinthians 5:6, to illustrate how sin can spread and lead to destruction if not addressed. Achan's actions, which led to Israel's defeat at Ai, are used to demonstrate how individual sin can affect the larger body. The sermon underscores the importance of confession and repentance, highlighting that hiding sin dishonors God while confessing sin gives Him glory. The speaker also reflects on God's demand for immediate action to address sin and restore the community, emphasizing the seriousness with which God views sin and the need for leaders to take responsibility for their communities. The sermon concludes by urging believers to align themselves with God's view of sin, making the cross and Christ's sacrifice more meaningful in light of God's wrath and mercy.

So our sermon text is chapter 7 verses 10 through 26, but I'm going to read the whole section. Just pray with me really quick as we go to read this. Father, help us to marvel. God, I just want to pray in advance of reading this that You would touch souls. That You would allow us to see the holiness of what we're holding and reading and hearing.

You would bless my brother as he comes and He finds all of the words that you had appointed for Him. That there would be a peace come over this place at the reading of your Word, at the loving of your Words, and at the trembling. So God bless now this reading and bless the preaching of it. In Jesus' name. But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things.

For Achan the son of Carmy, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things. So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Avon on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them saying, Go up and spy out the country. So the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not let all the people go up, But let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai.

Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few." So about three thousand men went up from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about 36 men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent. Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water. And 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. And they put dust on their heads.

And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan? To all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. O Lord, what shall I say 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 will cut off your name from the earth.

Then what will you do for your great name?' 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 have commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived. They have also put it among their own stuff.

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 anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Get up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus the Lord God of Israel, there isn't a cursed thing in your midst. O Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households.

And the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man. And it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has. Because he's transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes. And the tribe of Judah was taken.

He brought the clan of Judah and he took the family of the Zarehites. And he brought the family of the Zarehites man by man, and Zabdi was taken. And then he brought his household man by man. And Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah was taken. And Joshua said to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done.

Do not hide it from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it. So Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent.

And there it was, hidden in his tent with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them to the valley of Acre. And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us?

The Lord will trouble you this day. So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burnt them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger, therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Acre to this day." Seven o'clock This morning I texted James. James, I got a full length sermon.

And I'm still writing. It's getting longer and there's a lot of things that I haven't even touched on yet. So I've got a full exposition of section by section explanation of what the text means and some applications, but there are all these secondary implications, things that are true because of what the text teaches that I haven't even touched on. Could we please stay in chapter seven one more week? And he agreed to that.

So we are going to finish the chapter this week. Well, finish an explanation of the text and do a little bit of applying. We're going to come back here next week and go to particularly how it applies to us and how it applies to the New Testament church and some of these other implications that are true because the text is true. So we'll be back here. The title of the sermon is A Little Levin.

Levin's the whole lump. Last week it was Trouble in Paradise, that was the title. Because things had been going along great for the first six chapters of Joshua. People were obeying, God was blessing, God was working miracles among them. Then chapter 7 begins with the dreaded word, but signaling a shift that there's a dramatic turn, drastic, terrible things are coming upon the people of God because of sin.

And so this week's title is taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 6. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is writing the Corinthian church about terrible sin that has come into their church. He says this in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6, Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? What is leaven? Leaven is what you put in dough to make it rise.

It keeps bread from being really dense. You only need a little. You put a little and it works its way through the whole lump of dough. And Paul was telling the Corinthians, sins like that, if you leave leaven in the dough, it will be throughout before you know it. So he then says in the very next verse, Therefore purge out the old leaven.

And he's talking about the man who has brought this sin into the church to put him out of the church. We are shockingly comfortable with sin. But God hates it. We think we can manage sin, but it enslaves and infects. It's contagious.

Sin is contagious. And if it's left unaddressed, it leads to ruin. It spreads and leads to ruin. We learned that from our text. We learned that from 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

It's the same now as it was then. So that is what our text is about. Leavening, spreading out and infecting. Sin is contagious and it spreads and it ruins. Let's ask the Lord to help us as we come to our text.

God, it must be that a part of fearing you, As your word calls us to, is to fear sinning against you. And our comfort with sin leads to destruction. So it's actually a great act of your mercy towards us, your love for us that you would bring us to a text like this to confront our comfortability with sin. Our toying with it, playing with it, hiding it. Please use your word to change our minds about sins that we've minimized, thought was nothing, thought was no big deal.

And give us at least a little of your hatred for sin. Help us to see it as it is, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Well let's subdivide. I'd like to start with Joshua chapter 7 verses 10 through 15. Let me re-read that And then talk about it.

Joshua 7, beginning of verse 10. So the Lord said to Joshua, get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned and they also have transgressed. 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 own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before their enemies because they had become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Get up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord, 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.

In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man. Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire. He and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. In this section, God calls Joshua to immediate action. If you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, action fills in the blank.

God calls Joshua to immediate action. Now last week we had Joshua's response to the defeat at Ai and the death of 36 of their men. He tore his robes, he put dust on his head, He prostrated himself before the ark of the Lord. Joshua's response, at least in part, has been good. He went to the right place.

He went to the physical representation of the presence of God in the midst of His people, the Ark of the Lord. That's where he went. He went to the Lord and he humbled himself in the presence of God to seek God and to grieve over things that were grievous. The death of these 36 men was worthy of his grief. And he complained to God instead of about God.

He went to God to say, God, Have you brought us over the Jordan to destroy us? What will you do for your name if you destroy us? So to me, God's response to Joshua is surprising. There is no gentleness. There is no tenderness.

It is very direct and abrupt. God treats Joshua as if he is complicit in the sin, and God demands immediate action. So my surprise at God's response is telling. It's telling about me. Telling of what?

It's telling that I haven't really understood what the text has already been saying. The end of verse 1. So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. God is angry at the children of Israel and that includes Joshua. And Joshua doesn't get to exempt himself from that.

I'm not a part of that. No, he's a part of that. I marvel when a husband of 10 or 20 years complains to me about his wife. Why? Because it has been job number one for him for 10 or 20 years to help her make progress.

But there he stands as if she is in a sense a product of his care or lack of care. Complaining like he wasn't there for a decade or two. And it was his job to help her Make progress. Let me just tell you, husbands, if you've been married for a decade or two, and you don't like your wife, you're to blame. You can't act like you haven't been there, and that you had no responsibilities.

Now I'm not saying that Joshua is directly to blame for Achan's sin. I doubt he ever met Achan. It's a nation of probably more than two million people. What percentage of that has he met? Very little in terms of percentage.

Maybe he has, probably he hasn't. Statistically. But I am saying that God sees his people as a unity. This text doesn't teach anything if he doesn't teach that God sees his people as a unity. And Joshua, as the leader of this unified body, is the last person in all of Israel that can exempt himself from God's perspective on what has happened with these people.

That would be like me having the soul care of someone here who's been in this congregation for a decade and grumbling in my heart about their lack of progress. That's theoretical. That has never once happened. I've never grumbled in my heart about anybody's lack of progress, but if it did, it would be sinful. I do grumble sometimes about your lack of progress.

As if I haven't been there for a decade charged with the care of your soul. It's sinful to do that. So Joshua is the very last Israelite who could exempt himself from God's verdict on the sin of the people, this unified body. God isn't exempting any Israelite, certainly not the 36 dead men. They probably didn't know Icon either.

They died as a result of their sin, not even knowing of his sin. How much less a leader of the people exempting himself. So God says in essence, there is not another second for grieving. There is a terrible sin among you. I am holding you all accountable for it.

Get up and take action right now! God tells Joshua exactly what the sin is. Using the plural the whole time. They have transgressed my covenant, they have taken, they have stolen, they have deceived, they have hidden it. Note, that one action has a number of sins wrapped up in it.

Sinful actions often are that way. They are sinful on numerous levels in different ways. God using the plural, they did all these things. That's why you are burying dead bodies, because you are doomed to destruction. I won't be with you anymore unless you cut out the gangrene.

You know what gangrene is. It's an infection that sets into a wound. And if you don't take off the limb, gangrene will spread and kill the whole body. That's what sin is. It is an infection in an extremity, but if you don't take the radical action and amputate the limb, the whole body is going to die.

You purge out the leaven, because if you don't, the leaven spreads through the whole lump of dough. Because that's what leaven does, and there's no stopping it. God demands that They destroy the accursed. Friends, this isn't the Old Testament God. This is God.

Who was the same yesterday, today, forever. And He's not to be trifled with, and so sin is not to be trifled with. Revelation 6, 16, we encounter the phrase, the wrath of the Lamb. Well, At least Jesus is nice, right? At least we have the New Testament where Jesus is nice.

Do you know the lamb is full of wrath against sin? Do you know Jesus hates sin? Do you know that's why he agonized in the garden? Not because he was afraid to die, but because he hated sin and he was being made sin. That we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Jesus' agony in the garden was about his hatred for sin and there was no other way to save sinners but for him to be made sin in our place. He hates it. So he agonized. In Revelation 6, the kings of the earth will call on the mountains to fall on them so they don't have to face the wrath of the Lamb against their sin. So there's not an Old Testament God and a New Testament God.

There's not a cranky member of the Trinity and a nice member of the Trinity that you can go to. God the Father hates sin. God the Son hates sin. God the Holy Spirit hates sin. God the Father is full of mercy.

God the Son is full of mercy. God the Holy Spirit is full of mercy. They share one nature. So Joshua looked at the facts. We've been defeated by a nothing city.

It has to mean that God isn't with us. Joshua took those facts and thought God might have changed his mind but God was just keeping his promises. What promise? Deuteronomy 28. What's Deuteronomy 28?

Deuteronomy 28 is a long chapter and it starts with blessings for obedience. If you honor God by obeying his word, he'll bless you. And it lists the ways that he'll bless you. And here's a summary of that section. His blessings will chase you.

You won't be able to outrun them. In the city, in the country, in your house, in your stores, your children, you won't be able to outrun the blessings. And then it shifts to the curses for disobedience. If you dishonor God by disobeying His word, you won't be able to outrun His curses either. And so let me read from Deuteronomy 28 verses 15 and 25.

Deuteronomy 28 verse 15, but it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and all His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." And then there's a listing of these curses. I'll pick it back up in verse 25. Deuteronomy 28-25. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them.

So you go out as a unified force against your enemies and they put you to flight. Seven directions. By the way in the blessings of obedience exact opposite had been said Your enemies will come out against you one way and you'll put them to flight seven ways. This is just the reversing of that. God's just keeping His promises.

He's just doing exactly what He said He would do. Verse 13, God tells Joshua to get up and sanctify the people. To tell them to sanctify themselves for an event. Tomorrow, there's going to be an event. Separate yourselves to the Lord for this event.

He's going to come meet with you, so separate yourself to Him. In chapter 3 verse 5, Joshua told the people to sanctify themselves because God was getting ready to do wonders. And he dried up the Jordan and they came across on dry land. So that was an event that they were to separate themselves to the Lord for wonders that He would do to them. Now He tells them, tell the people to separate themselves to the Lord because He's coming to meet with them tomorrow and He's going to identify the tribe, the family, the household, the man who did this.

God tells Joshua exactly what the sin is, that he will identify the man who has done it, and that this man and all that he has must be burned up." Moving to verses 16-21, the next section. Follow along as I reread Joshua 7, 16-21. So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the clan of Judah, and he took the family of the Zorahites. And he brought the family of the Zorahites, man by man, and a Zabdi was taken.

Then he brought his household, man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah was taken. Now Joshua said to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. And this is what I have done.

When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. There they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it." In this section, God identifies Achan who then confesses. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, identifies and confesses, fill in the blanks. God identifies Achan who then confesses. Joshua gets right to it, verse 16, so Joshua rose early in the morning.

Judah is taken, then the family of the Zorahites are taken, then the household of Zabdi. Verse 1, Zabdi had been identified as Achan's grandfather, so this household is taken. This Hebrew word translated to taken can literally mean to catch. The tribes come, Judah, I caught you. The guilt's in you.

The tribe comes. Zahr Heights. Your family, I caught you. The sin's in you. The household of Zabdi, I caught you.

Akin, I caught you. Finally, this dramatic, Finally, this dramatic, dramatic scene, can you imagine, then narrowing down. Twelve tribes, one tribe is named. Eleven tribes. It's not us.

One tribe, the guilt's in us. The households come, one is taken to all the other households. It's not us. Finally, it's narrowed down to this one household. They go through it man by man, and Aiken is identified.

Out of more than two million people, Aiken is singled out. It is you. Achan knew it all along. And now everyone knows it. What a nightmarish scene for him.

It's Judah. It's Sabdi. It's my family. Man by man. Achan has been exposed as the source of Israel's trouble.

The families of 36 dead men know it was Him. Amazing. Joshua had no way to know who had caused the anger of God to burn against all of Israel. But God knew it and God revealed it. Turn to Psalm 139.

Psalm 139. This is a Psalm of David. We know it as a pro-life Psalm. You knit me together in my mother's womb, I am fearfully and wonderfully made." We're not even going to get to that part. It's not the part about our text, but that's how you know the Psalm.

The great pro-life Psalm, Psalm 139. Follow along as I read verses 1-12. For the chief musician, a Psalm of David. Oh Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up, You understand my thought afar off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall follow me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you." David is confessing in Psalm 139 what we're finding in our text, that there is nothing that God doesn't see and know. If you've done it, He saw it. If you've done it, He knows it.

The words on your tongue are already known to Him. You haven't uttered it yet, but He fully knows it. The thoughts in your mind, Though no one has access to them, God knows them all. Hebrews 4.13, There is no creature hidden from his sight, But all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. You think, I'm hiding it.

It's in the cloak. You're naked before him. There is no cloak. There's never been any place for you to hide it. The darkness is as light to him.

The darkness and light are the same to him. Joshua addresses Achan in verse 19. Look back at verse 19. Now Joshua said to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.

Joshua actually addresses him in a fatherly way. He calls him my son. The words are gentle words. The fathers and mothers in the room know the sensation of catching a child knowing what has to happen. Knowing there's really no choice about what has to happen.

And pitying them, even though the wounds are self-inflicted, I think that's what our text has before us today. Now, how does Achan making confession give glory to God? Those things are linked in the text. Give glory to God and confess your sins. One, it confirms God's miraculous identification.

God, you're right. It was the tribe of Judah. It was the family of the Zarehites. It was the household of Zabdi. It was me.

It gives glory to God because out of two million people God said, it's you. And the culprit says, you're right. It was me. Two, hiding sin dishonors God. Confessing sin honors Him.

Hiding sin accuses God. Our sin is an unspoken accusation against God. You're withholding good from me. You're stingy. You don't know.

Confessing sin says, know God you are right all along. You've not withheld good things from me. You know I don't know. Hiding sin, engaging in sin dishonors God. Confessing sin, forsaking sin, honors sin.

It takes back the accusation that your sin represents. Achan makes a full confession. He says exactly what he has done. Look again at verses 20 and 21. And Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel." So he said, I sinned against God.

That's right and good. And this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shackles. I coveted them and took them and there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it." The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, our confession of faith on the chapter in repentance says this, it is every man's duty to repent of his particular known sins, particularly. That's a mouthful, what does that mean?

That means when you know that you did this sin, it's your duty to confess it and repent of it particularly. Like to name it. Not just, I sinned, please forgive me, but I spoke in anger to that man, forgive me. It's our duty to repent of our particular known sins particularly. That is exactly what Achan does.

But only after God caught his tribe, caught his family, caught his household, caught him. So it's a good confession. He did say he sinned against God. That's exactly what you should say when you're confessing. He repented of his particular known sins, particularly that this is exactly the garment I took, the gold I took, the silver I took, and I hid it.

So it's a good confession but it is a desperately late confession. All confessions aren't created equal. It does matter if it has to be extracted like pulling a tooth. It's not the same as if God gave you conviction and you came before you were caught to get clear of it. That is one thing.

Tooth extraction. He had to assemble the two million people and narrow it down to you. And then you confess. That is different. He did the right thing.

He could have said I don't know what you're talking about and then they would have searched his tent. They would have got there. Two final points in this section. First, Aiken stole a lot. Who knows what the garment was worth?

It was probably valuable. He stole about five pounds of silver. That's what 200 shekels is, a little more than five pounds of silver. About one and a quarter pounds of gold. Some of the commentators say that's about a lifetime of wages for an average worker.

A lifetime of wages. And he saw it, and he took it. Here's the irony. The Israelites will be allowed to keep the spoils of war going forward. Jericho was the only place where they weren't allowed to keep the spoils of the war.

It was a sort of first fruits that God devoted to Himself. The first fruits are mine, but then you're going to go in, you're going to inhabit cities you didn't build, going to drink from wells you didn't dig, eat grapes, drink wine from vineyards you didn't plant. They're going to be keeping the spoils of war, including the silver and gold, including the garments going forward. It's going to happen in the next chapter in AI. They're going to be allowed to keep the spoils of war.

He couldn't wait. That's the first thing. He stole a lot. Might have been a lifetime's wages for an average earner. Secondly, the progression.

What progression? I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. You want to make disaster? You want a recipe for disaster? There you have it.

Here we have it. The recipe for disaster. See it, covet it, take it, hide it. And it's an old recipe. Oh, it's an old recipe.

Turn to Genesis 3. Make me prove it. It's an old recipe. And it's always given us disaster. Genesis 3, 1-6.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, As God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the both of them were opened And they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves coverings. Then God comes and They hide. Eve saw, she coveted, she took, she hid.

And the human race was ruined. Where nothing like Adam and Eve were in that state. We don't even know what it would be like to not have a nature inclined against things God likes. Inclined towards things that he hates. He never spent a second of time in that state yet.

It came from seeing, coveting, taking, hiding. Listen to, I can do this probably faster than you can get there, but Listen to 2 Samuel 11, 1-4. It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. They destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabba. But David remained at Jerusalem.

Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. From the roof he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman and someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Then David sent messengers and took her. And then we learn of all the horrifying things that David did to hide that.

David saw, David coveted, David took, David hid. All those same words are there. They're in Genesis 3, they're in 2 Samuel 11, they're in our text in Joshua chapter 7. Here's what Matthew Henry says. Matthew Henry says, had Achan looked upon these things with an eye of faith, he would have seen them as accursed things, and would have dreaded them.

But looking upon them with the eye of sense only, he saw them goodly things, and coveted them." Matthew Henry is saying, we walk by faith not by sight. If he'd have seen them through the eyes of faith, he would have believed what God said about things, that they were devoted to God, that they were accursed things, that touching them would bring a curse, and he would have dreaded them, He would have been scared to death of that Babylonian garment and the gold and silver and were taking them for himself with lead. He didn't see it through the eyes of faith. He didn't believe God. And so they were beautiful to him.

Friends, it was money, but it doesn't have to be money. We could turn this into a sermon on how the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and it would be a true sermon. There's more than that here. Here's my question. What are you looking at that God says is bad, but in your heart you're saying, no, that's good.

You are one step from destruction. Do you know that? Let this text convince you that whatever it is that you're looking at, and God said, That's bad, but you in your heart, you would never say it out loud, but in your heart you say, No, that's good. You're that close to destruction. God said, don't touch those things.

Those things are my things. They're first fruits to me. You'll be able to have them another time, another place, but not these things. He said, no, no, that's good. What a waste.

We destroy these things, nobody benefits. I'm having those things. It's just like the garden. Did God indeed say? He got it.

Surely He wouldn't want a lifetime of wages to go to waste? And you indulge it, and you rationalize it, and it leads to your destruction. Back to our text, last section. Verses 22 through 26. Joshua 7, 22 through 26.

So Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent, there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and brought them to the valley of Acre. And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.

So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day, so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the Valley of Acre to this day. In this section, God restores the nation. If you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, restores, fills in the blank, God restores the nation.

How does He do that? He tells them exactly what to do and when they obey, we read verse 26, so the anger of the Lord, so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. He told them exactly what was needed so that he would turn away from the fierceness of his anger. So that he could restore the nation, his presence would remain with them, He could give them victory over their enemies to fulfill his promises and give them the promised land. Joshua sends messengers, they find just what Achan said, they bring it.

Verse 23 says, they laid them out before the Lord. So all Israel is still gathered, they bring the garment, they bring the gold, they bring the silver, and they lay it out, All the people are there before the people, but it says before the Lord. Essentially, God, here are your things. You're required that these things be devoted to you. Anywhere in this text that you see, accursed, A more literal translation would be devoted things.

They were things devoted to the Lord. They were set aside for destruction, but they were devoted things. Essentially, they bring this out, they lay it out before the Lord, God, here are your things that should have been devoted to you at Jericho, they're devoted to you now. The command from verse 15, backing up a bit, the offender and all that he has must be burned with fire and that's what happens. Achan, the accursed things that he stole, his sons and his daughters, all his livestock, his tent, all that he had.

Israel stones the living things to death with stones and they burn it all. Stoning allows the community to undertake it together. God is saying, you are a unity. This man's sin is clinging to you. And now they act as a unified body to obey God and to purge out the leaven.

Achan is contagious sin in the dough. To keep it from spreading any further. He's the gangrene that will spread and kill the whole body. So God, there are a few things I'd like to know, respectively, respectfully. A couple things I'd like to know.

Does this mean for sure that Achan was an unbeliever? Does he have to have been an unbeliever to sin in this way? How many sons and daughters is this? How old are they? Are they adult sons and daughters, or are they little sons and daughters?

Are there any believers among the sons and daughters? They know about this and help hide the stuff? No mention of a wife? Is she dead? Or is there some other explanation that no wife is ever mentioned in the text?

Sons and daughters are, but no wife. Where am I headed with these questions? I want to vindicate God from charges of unrighteousness. I want to clear His name. I want good explanations that people will be comfortable with so that they can't say, you can't be serious to worship a god like that.

I want to vindicate Him. Let me say this. He doesn't need me to do that. Me vindicate God. Best case, that is misplaced.

Worst case, that's irreverent and blasphemous. God is light and in him is no darkness at all, 1 John 1, 5. As the heavens are higher than the earth so his ways are higher than our ways. Isaiah 55 9a. God is always in a perfect position to judge everything about us.

Are we tracking with the Bible so far? So far so good? God is always in a perfect position to judge everything about me. We are never in the perfect position to judge anything about God? We're the exact opposite.

In the end we'll see and know he's done it all perfectly. This is not a single misstep. Because He's all knowing, He's almighty, He's present everywhere at once. What is in our text is God exercising his Indisputable rights of creator dispute his rights. I dare you How are you going to dispute the rights of the creator?

You are not allowed to do that with your creation how Dare you What is in our text is God exercising his indisputable rights as Creator. It does not nullify Deuteronomy 24 verse 16. Listen to Deuteronomy 24 verse 16. Father shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin.

That is always binding on all human government, which can never act with perfect wisdom. That has never been binding on God, who always acts with perfect wisdom. Don't worry about God. His name will end up clear in the end. It'll be seen that he's acted with perfect wisdom and that he always does, But human governments don't act with perfect wisdom and they've been restrained from acting in this way.

God never has. A God is only bound by his perfect character. Deuteronomy 24-16 does not apply to him. He gives the law. He is only bound by his perfect character.

He is immutable. He is unchanging and unchangeable. He can only be perfectly good. He can only be perfectly wise. He can only be perfectly just.

He can only be perfectly merciful. He can only be perfectly gracious. And, and, and, and. All of his attributes are attributes held in perfection, and they've always been that way, and they always will be that way. That's what binds God.

And binding isn't a particularly good word anyway for that. Friends, rest in God. He did what was perfectly good in Joshua 7. But he refuses to explain it to me in the detail that I wish. Oh well!

God wants to be God. God is God. And as God, He doesn't own me an explanation in the detail that I would like. I suspect that if he tried to explain it, I still wouldn't understand. It's probably saving us both the time.

Finally, our text has another monument. Another heap of stones. I think the first one was the stones they took out of the midst of the Jordan. Joshua set them up in Gilgal as a monument to the goodness and greatness of God. Now we have another one.

At the time of the writing of this text it was there. It was the heap of stones up over the corpses of Achan and his sons and his daughters and his livestock and his tent and the gold. Whatever survived the fire, whatever was left from the fire, they heaped up these stones as a monument. This one to the cost of disobedience and the sinfulness of sin. You want to know the cost of disobedience?

There's corpses in there somewhere. You don't want to know about the sinfulness of sin? Look at the stones. Do you know what happened here in the Valley of Trouble? Any of trouble?

Leaven of sin and rebellion is purged and God turns from the fierceness of His anger. It's fearful to think about Achan and his family. But it's the mercy of God towards Israel. Sin spreads. If you don't cut the agangrain, it'll kill the whole body.

They're there judging people whose sins started with individuals and spread to families and to tribes. God is sending them into the land to deal with that. God is cutting off that trajectory in their midst mercifully in our text. He's keeping them, at least for now, from being the next people that have to be wiped off of the face of this land. Applications, let me give you three.

And then about 20 more next week. Come back. Applications, number one. Wherever God has given you leadership, you bear responsibility. Joshua has this exemplary response.

He's humbling himself in the presence of God. God says, get up. God doesn't know Joshua on apology. He's leading these people. He bears responsibility for what's happening among these people.

Not ultimate responsibility, but real responsibility. Ultimately, it's not Joshua who's stoned and burned. It's Achan and his. Husbands. Think about what this means.

You can't act like you haven't been there. Your wife is a reflection of your care or lack of care, period. Does that mean you bear ultimate responsibility? No, it doesn't. But it means you bear real responsibility.

Parents, All the things you don't like about what you're observing in your children, you're responsible for. Ultimately responsible for? No, but really responsible for. That's why God gave you to these children, to help them make progress. And yes, Sometimes that means confronting sin, dealing with sin, disciplining for sin.

That's only one slice of the care pie. There's a whole lot of other care. Number two, God sees and knows it all. You know that's that theological truth. We just don't live like it.

We need for that truth to go deep into the inner man, into the inner woman. God knows it all. If I did it, He saw it. Numbers 32 verse 23. Your sin will find you out.

Achan thought he'd risk it. I'll risk it for a lifetime of wages. Maybe it won't find me out. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul? That's what Jesus said.

You think you're hidden in the two million people. I'm lost in the crowd. You're not lost in the crowd. He'll call out your tribe, your family, your household, man by man, it was you. He has a thousand ways to expose you.

You can wait till you're caught. You can get free of it before you're caught. Number three, the big problem isn't in the text, the big problem is in our hearts. Sin doesn't bother us very much, so this text is disturbing. Sin doesn't frighten us very much, so this text is disturbing.

God isn't like us. He's nothing like us. He's light and in Him is no darkness at all. His ways are above us as the heavens are above the earth. Now get this, here's why it matters the most.

Until we align ourselves with God on this, the cross isn't that big of a deal. When you start to get aligned with God on this, the cross starts to look very different to you. The outpouring of the anger of God against sin and the mercy of God starts to look different to you. We need that. We don't want to get stuck making little of the cross.

Jesus died for sinners. Something's going to satisfy His wrath. His anger is going to be satisfied. Let those things be settled at the cross. God, Thank you for the cross.

We know we have a lifetime ahead of us to learn to hate sin like you hate it. And in our dying breath, we won't have gotten there. We'll see it very differently in the next moment. God just help us to see sin as utterly sinful, to learn to hate it, to learn to fear it because we fear you Thank you for bringing us to text like this You know I pray that you would refresh our souls in our time at the Lord's Supper. We see what your hatred of sin cost you in order to satisfy your anger against it, yet save sinners.

I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.