
By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©2004 |
When we choose to live after the flesh, and all of us do from time to time, when we choose to do that, we are just really putting ourselves back into bondage and we become prisoners of our own choices and that choice is basically, “Lord, I want to please me, not You.” |
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Sin in the camp (Joshua 7)
During A.D. we saw the death of Ananias and Sapphira after they had lied about how much money they earned from the sale of their land. To many, God's actions seem too severe. How do we understand His response? This sermon, by Dr. Wayne Barber, provides key insights into God's discipline of His people. We’re going to be in Joshua tonight again, in chapter 7. Joshua 7 is a tough chapter. Always enjoy the encouragement Joshua brings, but tonight is going to be more of a challenge to each of our hearts. When you teach through a book, you take it as it comes. We’re going to talk tonight about sin in the camp. Now let me review a bit for you. The book of Joshua is such a powerful picture of how we possess the life that we have in Jesus Christ. We’ve been going to school on Israel. As Israel possessed the land God gave to them—it was an external covenant; it was a land—we learned from them. As they learned how to possess the land God had given them, we learn how to possess the life that God has given us in Christ Jesus. The last time we were together, we talked about chapter 6. In chapter 6 we watched as Israel seemed to obey God in everything that He said. In their first battle against Jericho they had an awesome victory. I hope you’re seeing from this study that the battles don’t really begin until you start yielding to Christ, seeking to live a cleansed life, allowing Jesus to be Jesus in you. There really aren’t any battles if you’re not living that way. When we choose to live after the flesh, and all of us do from time to time, when we choose to do that, we are just really putting ourselves back into bondage and we become prisoners of our own choices and that choice is basically, “Lord, I want to please me, not You.” Jericho was the biggest battle that they would have in possessing the land. It’s amazing to me that He put it first and not last. He didn’t work them up to it. He puts it right there in front of them. That’s the biggest battle that they would have. Our biggest battle—when we seek to live and possess the life that God has given us in Christ and walk in the newness of life as Romans 6 talks about—our biggest battle is the besetting sin that plagues all of us. Yours is different than mine. We’re all different in besetting sins that we have to deal with. That’s the biggest battle that we have to deal with—that sin—and have it cleansed before God before we can go on and possess what’s already ours in Christ Jesus. Until sin is dealt with, we cannot enjoy what God has given to us. There have been many times in my life, and I’m sure in your life, you’ve gone through those dry periods when you just weren’t experiencing the joy and you weren’t experiencing the love and the peace that God gives to you. And I know now why: because of sin somewhere in the life. As long as it’s not dealt with, as long as it’s not being cleansed by the blood of Jesus daily, then we’re not enjoying what God has given to us. In chapter 6 the people were told to march around the city once each day for six days. There was to be no sound. Only the sound of the trumpet. Now that trumpet was a shofar, a ram’s horn, but it was the Jubilee trumpet. What this was was a sound of victory. The sound of their anticipation of going back and possessing what God had already given to them. On the seventh day they were to walk around the city seven times, and then when they heard the trumpets, they were to shout. And we studied the chapter together, we saw what happened. The walls came tumbling down. I thought tonight, you’d like to hear what that shofar sounded like. Jonathan has a shofar and he’s going to come up here and play for you what that sound is like. It’s a ram’s horn. But we want to hear that horn. This is the horn that they were hearing. No sound amongst the people. Just this horn. I wanted him to play that for you tonight because I want you to get used to it. In my understanding of eschatology and scripture, the next time we hear that horn what’s going to happen? We’re going up to be with Jesus. So get that sound down real clear in your mind. Thank you so much, Jonathan. That just adds so much to me when you can hear. That’s the only sound they could hear as they walked around that city seven times on the seventh day, and then they shouted and the walls came tumbling down. Well, for all appearances, Israel had obeyed God fully. I mean, the walls came down, they possessed the city. Everything happened the way God said it was going to happen. But chapter 7 is going to show us that there was a man who sinned and how his sin affected the whole nation of Israel. We’re living in a day, and I think you’d agree with me, that we take sin so lightly. We call it everything but sin. In this day we live in this message to me is so needed. We don’t seem to realize that sin doesn’t just affect us. Unconfessed sin doesn’t just affect us, it affects everybody around us. This is the thing people don’t seem to understand. We’re not an island unto ourselves. We’re a part of the body of Christ. The joy of their victory over Jericho was short-lived because of the sin of one man. Two and a half million people were affected by one man’s sin. It was done in the shadows. It was done when nobody was watching—he thought—but it affected the whole nation. It’s amazing how sin will take you further than you ever want to stray—ever heard that before? —keep you longer than you ever intended to stay, and cost you more than you ever dreamed you’d pay. Three things about sin we’re going to see in chapter 7. And when we say sin, it’s not just the act, it’s the unconfessed act, particularly. All of us are going to sin until Jesus comes back, but if that sin is not confessed, if we’re not dealing with it, it has an effect and this is what we want to see.- Sin is a betrayal of our covenant with God
- Sin is a burden to the whole community of God
- Sin is a bearer of the consequences of God
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