Joshua 7:1-6, 10-13, 16-26
1 John 2:1-6

Last week, Galen preached from three parables about God seeking for the lost. We saw a shepherd leaving 99 sheep in the field to search for one lost sheep, a woman searching for a lost coin, and a father seeking his two sons. We heard that the lost ARE sought for by God. I will remember when Galen suggested that it was because the shepherd left the 99 to seek the one that is the reason that those 99 should feel secure. Because if it had been one of them, he would have done the same.

I hope that by the end of my sermon that it will be evident that I really am following up on Galen’s sermon. It may not look like that right away. Last week we heard that “Yes, God does seek for the lost.” Today I want to spend time looking at “How” God seeks the lost, and how big a deal it is; how immense is the Gospel, the Good News.

To do that I’m going to step back and concentrate on one of the doctrines that form what it means to be Christian. Really I’m just going to concentrate on one aspect of doctrine; well, actually, I would argue the foundational Christian doctrine.

Grace Fellowship, has for the last number of years insisted that the Christian faith is not information or intellectual. We often talk about our relationship, and being with God, as much more important than what information we know. More important that what specifically we believe. I’m potentially putting words in the congregations mouth, maybe, but I wonder if we’ve swung too far in response to some problematic patterns in the church, away from faith and lifestyle becoming so separated from each other. Sometimes while I’m here I will think to myself, “Do I believe the same thing he believes?” I think we spend a lot of time assuming that we believe the same thing. But one of the primary things I learned in raising kids was that “assumptions destroy relationship.” There is no faster way to dehumanize someone than to assume you know what they think and not bother relating to them.

So it is in the interest of not dehumanizing you I want to get specific about a doctrine today.

First, let’s agree on what is a “doctrine”? Is “doctrine” just some religious word? No it isn’t. The definition of “doctrine” is “a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group.” Let’s name some famous doctrines.

  • The “Monroe Doctrine”; that was the principle originating from President Monroe in 1823, (a founding father) that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas will be viewed as a hostile act against the US. This was an imperial thought indicating that only the US could interfere with other countries in the Americas, but only because he never dreamed of direct interference with US elections.
  • The “Decisive Battle Doctrine”; this was a belief held by some in the Japanese navy (before what would become WWII) that you could win a war with a decisive naval battle/attack.
  • One last one, the “Truman Doctrine” (after WWII), that the US would at any cost seek to contain the Soviet Union.

So those are non-religious doctrines, umm, well at least non-Christian doctrines.

Back to the definition, though, I want to concentrate on the fact that a doctrine is taught. The word comes from the Latin words docere (teach) and doctor (teacher). Teaching is central to doctrine.

Beliefs are not self-evident. Christianity is not self-evident. It is not self-taught from observation of the world around us. A person doesn’t become Christian naturally. The Christian life, the Christian faith is taught. And Christian doctrines are the teachings of the church. In the reformed churches doctrines are often taught with “catechisms”. Catechism is just of a list of questions and answers. Think pre-internet FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions.)

The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination doesn’t have a catechism. But, we do have a Confession of Faith. You’ve probably heard rumors about this book. Here’s one. The book’s title is Confession of Faith for Cumberland Presbyterians. But … this is the actual confession. 24 pages. The rest is other stuff, like the constitution, rules of discipline, directory of worship, rules of order. Human stuff.

But here are 24 pages of doctrine. When I became an elder, like all the elders here, as part of my ordination as an elder I affirmed that this Confession of Faith contains the essential doctrines taught by the holy scriptures. That is helpful, I think.

The doctrines are not the teachings of humans, but the teachings of the holy scriptures. The Word and the Spirit are the teachers. Doctrines like this confession of faith, these are tutors. I hope that is a helpful distinction. Helpful to knowing how much weight to give to these doctrines. We should push back against these, but not to find human/reasonable answers, but to find what the scriptures (Jesus and the Holy Spirit) have to say.

So that was a long introduction to today’s sermon. I want to read one paragraph from here and then go to scripture to see how it helps us.

So here we go. From the our confession of faith:

4.12 Justification is God’s act of loving acceptance of believers whereby persons are reconciled to him by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When they in repentance and faith trust Christ, who is their righteousness, God gives them peace and restores their relationship with him.

We hear echoes of Galen’s sermon last week in this right? “Loving acceptance of believers” and “God gives them peace and restores their relationship with him.” This paragraph also says how this happens. “Persons are reconciled to him by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” And “When they (people) trust Christ, who is their righteousness” relationship is restored. So, “How does God reconcile?” … “Jesus” The answer here is, Jesus. We can be Christians because of Christ.

Let’s dig into this. How big is this? Let’s find out.

We had a very long reading from Joshua today. But even at that length there is context missing. Book of Joshua? What is that about? What happened earlier?

So, the book of Joshua, comes after the book of Deuteronomy and before the book of Judges. Both in the text and in the historical timeline. I was taught that the key verse to the book of Joshua is Joshua 23:14, “… not one thing has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed.” The book of Joshua is a book that tells the history of God fulfilling all of His promises made to Abraham concerning his offspring living in the promised land.

And what happened before our text? Here are four significant events recorded in the book before chapter 7.

First, the people of Israel were miraculously brought across the Jordan River on dry land. God again parted the waters for Israel to pass through.

Second, there was a revival! Specifically, Joshua circumcised all of the males of Israel. Apparently the practice was not done in the wilderness. But now they were in the land and they were again back firmly on the ground of God’s covenant.

Third, they celebrated the first passover in the land. In the wilderness they ate manna provided every morning. After this passover the manna stopped.

And fourth, God handed over the first city, Jericho. It is important that this was the first city. Jericho was the first fruit of the promised land. And God had instructed them that everything in the city belonged to him. And they were to destroy everyone and burn everything, and the things that could pass through fire (gold, silver and iron) belonged to him and were to be placed in the treasury of the tabernacle.

Everything in the city was under ban. The NRSV uses the word devoted. But the KJV uses the word cursed. And the NASB uses ban. Everything in Jericho was banned from the Israelites. It all belonged to God.

So the Jericho was defeated (a little unorthodox as military strategy goes) and they rejoiced and had a celebration in the camp. But what does the first verse of chapter 7 say?

1 But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, … took some of the things under ban, therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the sons of Israel.

Unfortunately, Joshua and the Israelites didn’t know it yet. To them city one was a success so they were eager to move to city number two. Some commentators, really blast Joshua and the Israelites here for going ahead without God telling them. But, I don’t know, I see them being eager to do what God has put in front of them. There is not any indication that they should have known. I could be wrong, and if I was talking about another topic I might read it differently.

Anyway, they prepared for the next city. Joshua sent spies, they reported back, a plan came together and fighters were sent to the city of Ai.

And they were soundly defeated. Israelite soldiers turned and ran and a few dozen of them died. And in verse 5 we read that;

… the hearts of the people melted and became as water. 6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.

My response to this is, at least, they turned to the right place. The people are shocked. “What happened?” But they didn’t question the elders, they didn’t start by rethinking the strategy. They went to God. I could learn from this.

Then Joshua prays and God responds! He says:

10 … “Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? 11 Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived.”

And he continues:

12 “… they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.”

The city of Jericho was under God’s curse. And the Israelites took some of the things that were cursed and brought them into the camp. That action, that sin, caused the cursed things to come into the camp and so the camp, the whole camp, was now also under God’s curse.

That is a definition of sin. God’s tells us to stay away from some things and some actions because He has cursed them. Why has He cursed them? I don’t know. That is God’s choice. He is God. He is free. There may be a reason we think is good, and there may not be. But it doesn’t matter. God has cursed those things, and when we do them anyway and bring them into our homes (and churches) then the curse spreads.

We often shake our heads at the antics of the Pharisees and scribes in the gospel accounts. But they understood this. They had read Joshua 7. God curses things for his own reason, and if we participate in those things His curse spreads.

But God also tells Joshua that there is a way forward. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.

And then God lays out what needs to happen and Joshua is eager to act. He tells the people to be ready and he wakes early to do what he is told the very next day. And then we see that there is a ritual (I think that is the best word) where everyone comes near (passes before the tabernacle and the ark, probably) and by lots they narrow down to tribe, and then to family, and then to household and finally to a man.

And then Achan stands before Joshua and Joshua says

19 “My son, I implore you, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” 20 So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I did:”

And Achan confesses in full. It was a good confession. He did not make excuses or say I didn’t understand, or I didn’t know. He knew exactly what he had done and he told Joshua plainly. Then Joshua sent people to find the items, and they ran to find the banned things. And they did find the banned things in Achan’s tent and brought them back to Joshua.

Then the banned things and Achan and his family and his livestock and his possessions were all removed from the camp and taken up to the valley. And then Joshua pronounced judgement and Achan was stoned and everything carried out was destroyed by fire.

And how does the chapter end?

26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of the place has been called the valley of Achor to this day.

One person sinned and brought cursed things into camp. As a result the LORD would not be with people until the cursed things and the sinner were removed from the camp and killed and destroyed with fire and then and only then - the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger.

This is the same God that Galen talked about last Sunday.

God has not changed. He does not change. He is God. We cannot reconcile what we read here and what Jesus said in Luke by saying God somehow changed his mind.

I want to look quickly at a text from Hosea. Hosea 2:15

15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

I think I look at this story in Joshua 7 with, well as though the events there live up to the valley’s name. Achor means trouble. This story to me looks like trouble. But in Hosea God talks about Israel (the she in this verse) and his recollection of this is that the valley of trouble became a “door of hope.” He also looks at this event as Israel responded to him. She turned back to him. It almost seems like there is a fondness. That might be too much, but God certainly saw this event a positive.

Joshua contains lots of symbolism and types when compared to the New Testament. Here the mound of rocks over Achan is a reminder that there was atonement made for Israel. This is a type. Achan sinned, but by dying he made it possible for the relationship between Israel and God to be restored. Unfortunately, he did not get to see the benefit, but Israel did.

But this shows what Paul lays out in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.” It also shows that it is possible for one to die to atone for sin, and that many can benefit.

But this story also insists that God will not be with a people that sins. Moving into the first epistle of John. 1 John 1:5 says, “And this is the message we have heard from Him (Jesus) and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Light and darkness cannot be in the same place. God and sin cannot be together.

But in 1 John 2:1-2 we read:

1 … And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

So let’s deal with the 50 cent word, “propitiation.” It means to satisfy a god or person . I probably should have defined “atone” earlier too. Atone means “to make up for a wrongdoing.” These both mean to repair damage in relationship as we are using them today.

So what is being described here in verses one and two. You could see this as a courtroom scene where a defendant (one of us) is brought before a judge (God the Father). We have a defense attorney (Jesus.) But this is not quite right. Jesus is not defending us from being labeled guilty. We are guilty. No Jesus says to the Father the judge, “this one IS guilty, but they need not die, because I already did. I already paid the price. I have already taken the curse and removed it from this one and died a cursed sinner, myself. So this one is no longer cursed but is clean.”

We are blessed to live after Christ died. Achan had no recourse. He sinned and so he was cursed. Israel was also counted a sinner until they separated out the curse and received atonement. We are blessed that even if we did the sin ourselves Christ can remove the curse from us. We are no longer cursed. Christ took it for us. That is what the gospel is all about. There is only one who can keep us for being like Achan. Jesus. Jesus has saved us from bearing the curse that we brought on ourselves.

It is not that the curse is not real. It is not that God has changed his mind about sin. It is that Jesus has died in our place.

And what should our response be?

Going back to the beginning of verse 1:

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. [then the part we just talked about] 3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Our response should by no means be to take advantage of the situation and sin as we please. Verse 3 is clear, we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Our response should be to love Jesus. Remember what the doctrine in our confession of faith said? “When they in repentance and faith trust Christ, who is their righteousness” We should trust and adore Jesus. Israel still needed to obey. We should trust Jesus to tell us what is cursed so that we can stay away from it.

In Joshua, God specifically told them what they were to do (not do, really) with the things of Jericho. It was not a secret. He told them expecting them to do what he said. It was not a trick. It was not something he expected them to fail at. He had every expectation that they could succeed in doing what he told them to do.

This is true for us now too. Jesus gave us commandments. We should trust Him. Why would we not? He took away our curse because he wanted to.

Verse 4 to 6 lay it out plainly:

4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Jesus didn’t give us these commandments thinking we could not do them. He made it possible by giving us the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. At the same time he made atonement for us when we failed.

When I go out racing on my neighbors sailboat, we all wear flotation vests. But my skipper still expects me to stay on the deck of the boat. Falling in the water is completely frowned upon. If one of the crew falls in the water the boat has to turn around and get the fallen crewmate. None of the other boats are going to wait for them and that fall in the water will almost certainly cost the race. But, really, losing the race is a best case scenario for falling in - with flotation. This may not be a helpful analogy, but as far as it goes, I think it works.

Jesus fully expects and desires for us to do what he told us, but he also provided for us so that in failing we won’t perish. But not perishing, while that is a HUGE relief, at the same time that is a really low bar isn’t it?

Our goal as Christians is winning the race. The Apostle Paul clearly talks that way. We don’t want to waste our time testing Jesus’s salvation. We also don’t want to waste our time testing alternatives to Jesus. We should trust Jesus. Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is our only Savior.

Grace Fellowship, let’s live as those who trust our savior is Jesus Christ. Let’s acknowledge and remember just how HUGE that good news is. And in response let’s adore Jesus and want to be like him. Let’s live lives following His commands and let’s walk in the same manner as He walked. Amen.

I don’t know about you, but in working on this text I have become acutely aware of my sin. Of the places that I question God. Where I think I can decide if this or that should actually be a sin. I also am aware of those places where I do not trust Jesus. Places where I look for another option. Another savior. But there is a response to those thoughts. It is to practice what I believe. To come before the throne and confess and repent and trust my advocate. Let’s take a few moments to confess our sins silently.

[90 seconds]

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, oh my soul! My sins are forgiven! The curse is removed from my body! Jesus has paid the price for my sin and he joyfully embraces me as adopted brother. Grace Fellowship, Praise the Lord! Rejoice! Grace Fellowship, our sins are forgiven! Hallelujah!

Preached at Grace Fellowship Community Church on September 22, 2019.