I invite you to take your Bibles and open to Joshua chapter 7. In the Pew Bibles, you can find that on page number 232. And before I begin reading, I just want to thank the congregation for allowing me this chance to preach God's Word to you tonight. And when I get up and preach, I often become quite nervous. And my wife said to me, Mel, you've got to loosen up. Tell the congregation something humorous, to lighten up a little bit. And so I just thought maybe I should explain. Some of you boys and girls are maybe wondering, why does he have all that stuff up here? It looks like the podium is way higher, and he has this. And I'll just share something with you. It's because my eyesight is not so good, and so I need to have stuff closer to me to read it. And so when I preached in Linden this summer, then we have a pulpit that you could raise up in the center. So I did that once, and I forgot to lower it afterward. And then we had a funeral in the middle of the week, and in the funeral, they gave the chance for family members to come up and to say a few words about the grandmother who had died. And so one of the granddaughters came up, and she was an adult, but she wasn't very tall. And so she was kind of like this, hiding behind the pulpit I had raised up. So I was very glad tonight when Amanda was up here that she didn't totally disappear. But that being said, I want you to know, too, that even though I don't actually read out of this Holy Bible, because I've printed the Bible up in larger print in my notebook, I very strongly believe in the Word of God and that it is our only rule for faith and life and that it gives us the gospel. And that's what I hope to deliver to you tonight. So, without further ado, please turn in the Bible to Joshua chapter 7, and we'll read the entirety of the passage. So, beginning at verse 1. But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel. Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Avon, east of Bethel, and said to them, Go up and spy out the land. And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack, attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few. So about three thousand men went up from there, went up from the people, and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent, and the hearts of the people melted and became as water. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, Why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan. O Lord, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. and what will you do for your great name? The Lord said to Joshua, Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore, the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Get up, consecrate the people, and say, Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you. In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought near by your tribes, and the tribe that the Lord takes by lot shall come near by clans, and the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household that the Lord takes shall come near man by man. And he who is taken with devoted things shall be burned with fire, he and all that is his, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel. So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was taken. And he brought near the clans of Judah, and the clan of the Zerahites was taken. And he brought near the clan of the Zerahites, man by man, and Zabdi was taken. And he brought near his household, man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. Then Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and give praise to him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And Achan answered Joshua, Truly, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, Then I coveted them and took them, and see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath. So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel. And they laid them down before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today. And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day, the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor. Thus far the reading of God's word. And now would you take your Psalter hymnals and turn into the back to the Heidelberg Catechism. We're going to read together from Lord's Day 44. You'll find that on page 56 in the back of the hymnal. And I'll read the question, and together let us read the answer. So, Lord's Day 44, and we'll begin with question 113. What is God's will for us in the Tenth Commandment? That not even the slightest thought or desire, contrary to any one of God's commandments, should ever arise in my heart. Rather, with all my heart, I should always hate sin and take pleasure in whatever is right. But can those converted to God obey these commandments perfectly? No. In this life, even the holiest have only a small beginning of disobedience. Nevertheless, with all seriousness of purpose, they do begin to live according to all, not only some, of God's commandments. So no one in this life can obey the Ten Commandments perfectly. Why, then, does God want them preached so pointedly? First, so that the longer we live, the more we may come to know our sinfulness and the more eagerly look to Christ for forgiveness of sins and righteousness. Second, so that while praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, We may never stop striving to be renewed more and more after God's image until after this life we reach our goal, perfection. So in the sermon tonight, we'll especially take note of the first part of the answer, of that last question, of how we need to eagerly look to Christ for forgiveness of our sins and his righteousness. So, you and I have a problem, and it is a big problem. It is a sin problem, and the root of this problem is that we were born with a covetous heart. This problem of coveting is what we just read about in the Heidelberg Catechism in the question on the Tenth Commandment. The Tenth Commandment, along with the First Commandment, act as kind of a thread through all the other commandments. One pastor once said that idolatry is at the root of our rebellion against God, and that covetousness is the impetus or the driving force behind that idolatry. Now, the Tenth Commandment is different than the other commandments, Because the Tenth Commandment deals not so much with our actions as with our heart. The Tenth Commandment is one that people can't tell if you break it. Disobedience to the Tenth Commandment is one that is easy to hide. People don't know if we have covetousness in our hearts unless we admit to it or unless it leads us to break another commandment. And indeed, breaking the Tenth Commandment is the root of many other sins. A person steals because he covets something that does not belong to him. A person commits adultery because he's coveting another person that he may not have. A breaking of the Tenth Commandment even underlies a breaking of the First Commandment, that we should have no other gods. Because in having other gods, we are really showing that we covet God's authority to say who and how we will worship. Former Westminster professor Ed Clowney wrote about the Tenth Commandment, saying that it is truly the one commandment that we cannot keep. For it demands that we love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and that we love our neighbor as ourselves, with no respite, no excuses, and no caveats. God is a jealous God. He wants us to desire him alone and to worship him only. But our covetous hearts lead us to desire other things, and it breaks our relationship with God. This is what we see in our passage tonight about Achan. Achan sinned against the Lord, and at the root of his sin was a covetous heart. That's one of the things I hope you take home from this message tonight, that Achan had a covetous heart, and this got him into trouble and ultimately led to his death. A second thing I hope you take home from the sermon tonight is that we too, like Achan, have covetous hearts. And like Achan, we deserve to be punished. And the third thing I hope you see in this passage tonight is Jesus Christ. And now some of you boys and girls are probably thinking, what does he mean he wants us to see Jesus? This is a chapter in the Old Testament, and it doesn't say the name of Jesus anywhere. And in a way, you're right. It doesn't mention the name of Jesus. And yet, the more you look at the story, the more you can see our Savior. Maybe some of you boys and girls have a book where you have to try and find certain items hidden in a picture. And at first, you don't see these items, but you look and look, and then you begin to find them. When my kids were little, there were these Where's Waldo books. Maybe some of you remember those, where you would open it up to a page, and there was hundreds of people in a picture, and you were supposed to try and find this guy in a red and white striped shirt. Sometimes you spotted him right away, but sometimes you had to look and look to try and find him. Well, so it is in this passage of Joshua 7 that there are some characters that we see right away, but then there are also some people that we don't realize at first that they are there. But the more that we look, the clearer it becomes that they are in the passage too. The story in Joshua 7 has more to it than meets the eye. And now a few things need to be remembered as we start looking into this passage. One thing is that God has a purpose to everything that he tells us in the Bible. Now, as we read these stories in the Old Testament, we realize God doesn't tell us every last little thing. There are many minor details that are skipped, but that means that the things he does tell us are of great importance. The story of Achan, then, is not just an interesting story, but God has an important lesson for us within this narrative. And now a second thing to remember as we look into these stories in the Old Testament is what Jesus said about the Old Testament. He said that everything in the Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and even the poetry, all pointed to himself. Thus, even though you might not realize it at first, that the story of Joshua, you might think is just a story about Israel and Joshua and Achan, But it's also a story about Jesus, and also a story about us. Now this story in Joshua 7 has different layers to it, just like an onion can have different layers. You can peel off these layers of the onion, but it's still all the same onion. And so it is with this story. There are different layers to it that you can peel away. An outer layer is like looking at the story at just a surface level, just looking at the facts, not really doing any analysis. It's similar to, say, listening to a radio report right after some event has happened. And then a second layer to the story is where we look at it a little deeper, go into the context of the story, and maybe have some analysis of it as well. It's where we're asking, what is God doing with the nation of Israel, And how does this fit into the overall history of this nation? And the answer to this question is, God has been working mightily and revealing himself to his people. He has delivered the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt in miraculous ways. He's led them through the wilderness, giving them his law covenant at Mount Sinai. And then he has enabled them to cross the Jordan River and brought them into the promised land. And then their first stop is the city of Jericho, where God makes clear to all men that the battle is the Lord's and the walls come tumbling down. The people of Israel rejoice at this miraculous victory. And that brings us to the narrative of chapter 7. People of Israel have just defeated Jericho, and now it's time to go on to the next city. The next city is Ai, a town which lies in the hill country west of Jericho. And they think it's going to be an easy win. But instead of having the thrill of victory, instead they experience the agony of defeat. Now how could this happen? Joshua, the leader of the people, doesn't even understand. He tears his clothes and falls on his face before the ark of the Lord. He pleads with the Lord, and he intercedes for the people. And he is concerned for the welfare of the people and the welfare of God's great name. How could this happen, he asks. The Lord responds and gives the reason. Israel has sinned, he says. At the battle of Jericho, the Lord had proclaimed a ban. The Israelites were not to take anything for themselves. Yet someone has broken the band and taken spoils from the battle and hidden them among his own possessions. This is why Israel has been defeated. This story shows us God's character. It shows us that his laws and decrees are absolute. It shows us that he is holy and that he hates sin. God cannot tolerate sin, not even a little bit. And this sin that has crept into the camp is no little sin. In verse 11, the Lord says to Joshua that the covenant that he has made with them has been broken. God's people must obey or Israel would be accursed and God would no longer be with them. Keep that in mind as we're going through this message tonight, that God said he would no longer be with them until the sin was dealt with and punished. Sin had broken the relationship between God and his people. The Lord tells Joshua what to do, and it is determined by Lot who the guilty one is. It is a man from the tribe of Judah, a man named Achan, whose name means trouble, or one who brings on trouble. And he has indeed brought trouble to the people of Israel. When Joshua had warned the people, in Joshua 6, verse 18, he had instructed them, Only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. Achan, the man with the name of Trouble, has done just that. He has brought trouble on Israel. Now, what do you think was going on in Achan's head at this time? When Joshua has announced to the people that someone has broken the band, and Achan knows what he has done, and yet you do not see him coming forward and admitting to anyone, admitting his guilt. He must have thought that there was someone else besides him who had taken something. After all, there are over a million people in this nation. Certainly, somebody else took something. God must be angry with the bigger sinner, he may have thought. After all, he just took a little bit of silver and gold and a nice coat. That wasn't that much, was it? There is surely someone else who took more than that. Achan is in denial over the seriousness of his sin. And this denial of the seriousness of sin is a problem that has plagued all mankind, even you and me, today. We often compare ourselves, our sins, to the deeds of others. And we think we're really not all that bad then. But we forget that any sin is an offense to God, sin big or small. It is an offense to God, and it needs to be punished. It needs to be paid for. And so we think that if a sin is small, we can get away with it, and no one will notice. This is what Achan seems to have thought, for he does not admit his guilt. When Joshua first announces that someone has broken the ban, and even as the casting of the lot narrows it down further and further, Achan still doesn't come forward. So when the lot has determined Achan to be the guilty one, the reason for Israel's trouble, then Joshua implores with Achan to confess. At this point, he finally admits his guilt and he explains what he has done, that he has taken it to his tent and that it's buried underneath there. So Joshua sends messengers and they come back with the contraband good and the truth has been verified. Therefore, Joshua and all Israel take Achan and the stolen goods and his family and all his other possessions and they stone them with stones and then they burn them and then they pile a great heap of stones on top of them. Now this is quite a story with enough action and intrigue to keep the attention of any Sunday school student, adults too. But there is more to this passage than just an interesting story. Now we need to go a little deeper to another layer of the story. We need to look beyond how this fits into the nation of Israel. And now we need to look, how does this fit into God's broader historical redemptive plan? And how does it show us Jesus? One way it shows us Jesus is in the character of Joshua. Joshua is a type or a shadow. He foreshadows what Christ will be like, especially in Christ's three offices of king and priest and prophet. Joshua foreshadows Christ as king in that he leads the people into the promised land. Joshua pictures Christ as a priest in how he intercedes for the people after that defeat at Ai. And Joshua pictures Christ as a prophet as he acts as the covenant prosecutor, bringing the charges against Achan, finding him guilty. So thus it is clear, Joshua foreshadows Christ as he pictures Christ as prophet, priest, and king. And so Joshua is a good example for all of us to follow, where we should all be Christ-like and show those roles of being prophet, priest, and king. But there's more to the story, more to the narrative that points us to Jesus. To help us see this, we need to consider Achan. Yes, in Joshua, he is a good character that we can emulate, that we can copy, but I'm afraid there's another character in the story that more accurately pictures us. Could it be that we are more like Achan? On the outside, Achan appears to be a good guy. He's a family man. He's not poor. Not that it's bad to be poor, but it says that he has possessions like oxen and sheep and donkeys and other worldly goods. And apparently, he has a respectable reputation, for no one suspects that Achan is the guilty one, even as the lot narrows it down further and further. On the outside, Achan looked pretty good. But Achan has a problem, and the problem is that he has a wicked heart. He may look good on the outside, but inside he is greedy, covetous, and deceptive. Achan's sin was not just a little slip into sin that he unintentionally did. It took effort to do what Achan did. It took effort to steal the goods, to carry them concealed somehow to his tent, to dig a hole and bury it, and then to go on as if nothing was wrong. And Achan knew it was wrong because otherwise he would not have hidden it. And there were many opportunities along the way, I'm sure, where he could have listened to his conscience and stopped what he was doing. But he hardened his heart, and he refused to confess his guilt. We read of no regret on Achan's part. He was in denial over the seriousness of his sin. Are you beginning to see how we are like Achan? Achan was living a life of deception. People may have thought he was an okay guy, but he had a dark secret. And yet he acted as if nothing was wrong. There are many sins today that people try to hide. Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, fornication, adultery, addictions, greed, theft, and the list goes on. We may even have some of these sins in our own lives, and we try to cover them up. We may even keep on going to church, attend Sunday school, go to Bible studies and prayer meetings, and give to missionary causes. You and I have heard of enough cases, read enough newspaper articles or magazine articles, listened to pastor and elders speak, to know of cases where someone who everyone thought was such a good man or such a good woman was actually living a life of deception. In some ways, we are all like this. We don't like to admit we're wrong. We don't like to confess our guilt. We are like Achan. Achan committed a sin, a transgression that ruined his life. And some of us today may be in a position where we are either just a step away from committing a sin that is so heinous that it would destroy everything we've ever lived for. Or we may be just a step away from being discovered that we've already committed a sin so heinous that it would ruin everything we've lived for. John Calvin, in his commentary on Joshua 7, stated this, Though God does not bring all guilty actions to life at the very moment, nor always employ the casting of lots for this purpose, he has taught us by this example that there is nothing so hidden as not to be revealed in its own time. The form of disclosure will indeed be different, But let everyone reflect for himself that things which escape the knowledge of the whole world are not concealed from God, and that to make them public depends only on his pleasure. For though a sin may seem, as it were, to have fallen asleep, it is, however, awake before the door, and will beset the miserable man till it overtake and crush him. Achan's sin has overtaken and crushed him. But how did he fall into such a sin in the first place? He has caused trouble for the whole nation of Israel. How could he do such a thing as to break the band? How could he have dared to transgress the covenant of the Lord? He is certainly old enough to have been one of those who wandered through the wilderness for much of those 40 years. So he would have seen the mighty things that God had done, and he would have been taught that God is a holy God. How could he have dared to go against God's command? Well, Achan explains it himself in his confession. He describes the steps that led to his sin and trouble. First, he says, he saw the beautiful coat of mantle and the silver and the gold. Next, he let his mind dwell on these earthly things. He coveted them. The more he thought about them, the more he wanted them. The more he wanted them, the more he justified that he could take them. He may have thought to himself, what a waste of such a beautiful coat if we just burn it. Nobody will notice if I just take a few things. And so the temptation turned into taking it to his tent. And there he hid it so that no one would know. Now, Achan's pattern of sin, I mean, Achan's pattern of how he came to commit that sin is not unique to just him in the Bible. Consider Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and their fall into sin. They saw the forbidden fruit. They desired it. Eve saw that it was a delight to the eyes and that it would make one like God. And so she took it and she ate, and she gave it to Adam, who took it and ate. And after they had eaten, they knew that they had done wrong, and they tried to cover it up. Adam and Eve's sin had the same pattern as Achan's, seeing it, desiring or coveting it, taking it, and then trying to cover it up. But these are not the only situations where we see this pattern. Think also of David with Bathsheba. David saw Bathsheba. He desired her, for she was beautiful. And so he took her and committed adultery with her. And when Bathsheba finds out that she is pregnant by him, David tries to cover up the sin. David's sin followed the same pattern as Achan's. So how are we to look at this? Is ache and sin given to us as just an example? Does it simply show us patterns that we should look for in our own lives? Patterns that would lead us into sin? And is it that if we see these patterns, we see them early enough, we can nip it in the bud and make it that we don't have the catastrophic consequences that these others had. Well, it is true. We can learn from Achan's sin, from the patterns that Achan had there, but there is more to it. Achan's sin is similar to the sins of those others in the Bible because it is similar to the sins of all mankind. Achan's guilt is our guilt. The sin of Achan was an affront to a holy God. And because God is holy and hates sin, that sin has to be dealt with. And the only way to deal with sin is to punish the guilty party. And the only punishment that could appease God's wrath was death. Thus, Achan had to be stoned to death so that the Lord would turn from the fierceness of his anger. So do you see how we are like Achan? Which one of us could say that he has never coveted? Even little children want what another child has. We deserve to be there next to Achan. This story is not just an example of a person that we should not follow. It is a text that shows us what we are really like, that we are guilty just as Achan was guilty. And now sometimes we may think to ourselves, but why did God not show grace and mercy to Achan like he did to Adam and Eve and like he did to David? But we need to remember, Achan did not deserve God's grace. And my point is, neither do we. We are guilty, and we don't deserve God's grace. We deserve to be standing there next to Achan. We deserve to have those stones hurled at us. This is what the story is trying to teach us. that we are the guilty ones. But the story is also trying to teach us something else. It is a text that is showing us God's plan of redemption. It is a narrative that points us to Jesus. It points us to our need for a Savior. And so, even though we are guilty, we cry out to the Lord, Lord, have mercy. And God hears our prayer. And this is where the passage gets so beautiful. This is how it points us to Jesus. Because of God's holiness, the sin has to be punished. And since we are the guilty ones, we are the ones who should be punished. We are the ones who deserve to die. But God sent someone to take our place. And so what God did is found for us in 2 Corinthians 5.21. I invite you to take your Bibles and turn to that. 2 Corinthians 5.21, where it says, He, that is God, made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. We deserve to be stoned with Achan, the man from the tribe of Judah. But God has sent another from the tribe of Judah to take our place. Christ came, and like Achan, he was sent out of the camp, in that Christ was crucified outside of the city gate. And like Achan, Christ experienced a violent death. Achan's sin broke the covenant relationship between God and his people. A key verse, remember, were verses 11 and 12 of Joshua 7, where God had said that he would not be with his people unless the sin was dealt with, that the accursed one must be destroyed. The death of Achan then appeases the Lord and God was again with his people after that and they went on to defeat Ai. And Jesus, even though he himself was sinless, he became accursed and took our sins upon himself. And so then he restored the relationship between God and his people. Like Achan, Christ's grave was sealed with rock. For Achan, that was it. He had brought the curse upon himself, and he died, and he remained buried under that pile of rock. But we look to one who, as Galatians says, redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. We look to a Savior who could not remain sealed in a stone tomb. On the third day, Christ burst forth from that grave made out of rock, and he became the first fruits of the resurrection. This passage, then, is pointing us to Jesus. It directs us to look to him in repentance and faith. Joshua 7 can be a hard passage for us, because if we are honest with ourselves, we see that we are just like Achan. We can see Achan's pattern of greed and covetousness and deception being displayed in our own lives, and we deserve to be standing right there next to Achan when those stones were being thrown. But, praise be to God, that God sent his only Son to take our place. Christ came and took the blows for us. Christ bore the pain and suffering. Christ died the death to be the payment for our sins, to be the atonement. But he not only died, he rose again. And because of that resurrection, we can say with confidence and joy the words of Romans 8, verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. When Christ took our place, God's burning anger against us, against our sins, was turned away. And Christ made it that the relationship with God could be healed and that we could be with God forever. This is the comfort that God's word gives us. Do you know this comfort? To have this comfort, you must simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, having him be the desire of your heart. When we look to Christ, then God will take away the guilt and the punishment of death. And by his grace, he will give us a new life and give us life everlasting with him. Shall we pray? Lord Jesus, we are awed and humbled by what you have done for us. We are the guilty ones. We are the ones who should have suffered and died on the cross. We are the ones who should experience your wrath against our sin. But, ah, dearest Jesus, you took our place. We, your people, broke the covenant which you made, and we were accursed. The relationship between God and his people was broken and could not be restored until the transgressions were paid for by death. But you had compassion on us and died the death we deserve to die. How we thank you for that love, that grace. We thank you for your love and we praise you for your power that you did not remain buried in the stone tomb, but you rose again, proving victory over sin and Satan and death and hell. Oh, hallelujah. Thank you that love's redeeming work is done. You have fought the fight and the battle won. Death in vain forbids you rise. You have opened paradise. Hallelujah. We pray this in your glorious name. Amen. We'll see you next time.