This morning in a few minutes, I'm going
to be speaking from Joshua chapter seven.
So you may begin to find that place
in your Bibles if you would like.
Let's stop and pray.
Now, Father, all things are from you and
through you and to you.
To you be the glory.
And we do not want to be of
those that Jeremiah spoke of who did not
ask, where is the Lord?
We do ask with hungry hearts.
And we pray, come Holy Spirit and speak
to our hearts this morning.
In Jesus' name, amen.
There have been a number of times in
my Christian life when I have gone through
a painful struggle over my own sins and
failures.
At those times, because of my personality, my
natural motivational gifting, at those times I have
been tempted by two extremes.
Prophets are extreme.
Either to get into bondage about every little
imperfection in my life or to say it
is too hard to be holy.
Do any of you understand my struggles?
Do you understand my struggles?
And that is why I am reluctant about
my own message.
I am reluctant, not because I don't personally
want to have God speak to me.
I want him to speak to me, but
I'm reluctant because I do not want Satan
to take advantage of the truth of God
to bring anyone into bondage when God wants
to set them free.
That makes it something I have to be
very careful about when I speak as I
will this morning.
Therefore, right at the beginning of this message,
I want you to listen to me very
carefully so that you will understand and not
have Satan to bring you into some kind
of bondage about what I have to say.
So I wanna begin by saying, I am
not talking about sinless perfection.
And when God says, be holy for I
am holy, he is not talking about sinless
perfection.
God's holiness is perfect.
Our holiness is imputed through the righteousness of
Christ, hallelujah.
So we are perfect in God's sight in
Christ.
Then God's holiness is imparted to us through
his indwelling presence as he lives out his
life through us, but never perfectly.
Do you have that?
Not an excuse, but just a care.
I am talking this morning about dealing thoroughly
with those things in our lives that God
is leading us to deal with at any
given moment.
It's a long statement, so listen to it
carefully as I say it again.
I'm not talking about sinless perfection.
I am talking about dealing thoroughly, thoroughly, with
those things in our lives that God, not
somebody else, not even the preacher, that God
is leading us to deal with at any
given moment in our life.
Now, please look with me at our scripture
for this morning, Joshua chapter seven, and I'm
going to begin reading with the first verse.
But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to
the devoted things.
They had taken the city of Jericho.
God had said, do not touch anything.
Totally destroy that city.
Do not take any spoil, destroy it.
But someone had sinned.
Achan, son of Carmi, the son of Zimri,
the son of Zerah of the tribe of
Judah, took some of them.
So the Lord's anger burned against Israel.
Now, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai,
which is near Bethaven, to the east of
Bethel, and told them, go up and spy
out the region.
So the men went up and spied out
Ai.
When they returned to Joshua, they said, not
all the people will have to go up
against Ai.
Send two or 3,000 men to take
it, and do not worry all the people,
for only a few men are there.
They just decided on their own.
They didn't ask God.
So about 3,000 men went up, but
they were routed by the men of Ai
who killed about 36 of them.
So notice that Achan's sin caused the death
of 36 innocent men, fathers of families, husbands,
and their families dead because of Achan's sin.
They chased the Israelites from the city gate
as far as the stone quarries and struck
them down on the slopes.
At this, the hearts of the people melted
and became like water.
Then Joshua tore his clothes, fell face down
to the ground before the ark of the
Lord, remaining there till evening.
The elders of Israel did the same and
sprinkled dust on their heads.
Verse 10, the Lord said to Joshua, stand
up.
What are you doing down on your face?
Israel has sinned.
Now, I'm not going to read the entire
story.
It would be quite a long chapter, but
the result was that they cast the lot,
and the lot took the tribe of Judah,
and they cast the lot again, and it
took some families of Judah, and they cast
it again to finally come down to Achan's
family.
And at that point, Joshua said to Achan,
give glory to God, my son, confess your
sin.
Tell us what you've done.
And he confessed it.
He said, I saw a beautiful piece of
clothing.
I saw some silver, some money.
I saw a wedge of gold, and I
coveted it, and I took it, and I
hid it in my tent and buried it
there.
And they went and found it and brought
it and laid it out before the Lord.
And the result was that Achan and his
family and all that he had was destroyed.
Now, I'm not going to speak about that
part of this story this morning.
That would be another message about how our
sin affects other people, because it does.
No man lives unto himself, and no man
dies unto himself, says the scriptures.
We never live in a vacuum.
So whatever comes into our lives of good
or evil affects other people.
When God works in our lives by his
grace, that blesses other people.
When sin takes over in our lives, that
hurts other people.
And there's no way we can avoid that.
People say, well, I'm not hurting anybody but
myself, but we always hurt others, not just
ourselves.
So many times when I confess my sin
to God, I say, Father, I have sinned
against you, and I have sinned against myself,
and I have sinned against my family, and
I have sinned against this congregation because I
have allowed sin in my life, which does
affect everyone who touches me in some way.
You aware of that, how serious it is?
And somebody says, wasn't it a terrible judgment
to destroy this man and his family?
He was guilty of the murder of 36
men.
And so it was civil law that took
over.
And as I said, I'm not going deeply
into that this morning.
But there are some things about this whole
thing that I wanna talk about.
And the first thing is the principle of
obedience.
It is always wrong to disobey God.
Is that right?
Are you sure?
It is always wrong to disobey God.
Is that right?
You're still a little weak.
Are you really hoping that sometimes it's not
really wrong?
It is not always wrong to take spoil.
That's very interesting.
Because finally, when they had taken care of
the sin and confessed it and had God's
cleansing, and they went to take Ai, God
said, now take the spoil when you take
Ai.
He said, for Jericho, don't take the spoil.
He said for Ai, take the spoil.
So it's not always wrong to take the
spoil, but it's always wrong to disobey God.
My friends, there are things that are not
wrong in themselves, but are wrong for me
if God says no.
There are things that are not always necessary
for everybody to do, but if God tells
me to do it, then it's wrong for
me if I don't do it.
Are you following me?
I'm talking about obeying God.
We live in such days of irresponsibility.
We live in days when people do not
want to be committed.
They don't wanna be committed to their marriage.
They don't wanna be committed to their job.
They don't wanna be committed to the church.
They don't wanna be committed to anything.
If you ask them to do something, it's
gonna take much commitment.
They don't want to.
They want to be, they don't like this
word, but they wanna be irresponsible.
They don't wanna be responsible or bound to
anything.
They want to be able to do whatever
they want to do.
But brother and sister, when you become a
Christian, you bring your life under the direction
of God, right?
And I'm not talking about salvation this morning.
We are saved by grace through faith.
It is a gift of God.
It has nothing to do particularly with what
I'm talking about this morning.
You're saved by God's grace and the shed
blood of Jesus and the work of God.
Amen?
Hallelujah.
I'm glad that's true.
Woo, it's a good thing to have the
heart established with grace.
But now that I am saved and now
that I'm grateful to God and now that
I am his child and he is my
father and he speaks to me like my
earthly father used to do.
And when my earthly father said to me,
do that, I almost said Richard do that,
but my middle name is Malcolm and they
called me Malcolm, but don't tell anybody.
And so if he said, Malcolm do that,
believe me, I what?
You better believe it because he meant business.
He never said it to be saying something.
If he said, this is what you do,
that's what I did.
And if he said, don't do that, that's
what I did not do.
Now there were some times when it didn't
work out like that, but then he had
a special place.
And he had a razor strap with which
he sharpened his straight razor.
And the razor strap was a wide piece
of leather and it hurt.
And it made me sorry that I had
not obeyed my father.
Anybody understand me?
Many of you were raised like I was,
thank God.
So what I'm saying is that it's always
wrong to disobey God.
And what I'm talking about this morning is
obedience.
God said, don't do that and they can
did it.
And there were terrible, terrible results from his
disobedience of God.
Now, when you disobey God, you're always sorry
for it, always.
Now it's amazing how gentle God is with
us and how patient he is with us
and how long suffering he is and how
he waits so long to discipline us, isn't
it?
I've gone back to God sometimes and I've
been astounded that he didn't discipline me for
something.
I said, oh, thank you.
I don't know how, why you didn't discipline
me for that, but I really thank you.
God is so patient, but I tell you
what, when you disobey God eventually, you'll be
sorry.
And when you obey God, you'll be glad
forever.
And my wife and I were sitting talking
yesterday at lunch and we got talking about
a phone call that she made the week
before last when we were back in Campbell
River for a few days.
And she called some old friends of ours
down in Gadsden, Alabama, a place where most
of you have never been, but where I
was a pastor for a few short, very
short years.
I think, if I remember correctly, around two
years, maybe slightly more.
And it was a very interesting experience.
Anyway, she was talking with this family and
they are dear friends and she was talking
to the lady on the phone.
Her husband had been on the board when
I was pastor there and they just had
a great time together.
And so my wife and I got talking
about that family and we got talking about
their children and we just enjoyed remembering these
people and their relatives and their friends and
all this group of people.
But you know, the reason we could enjoy
that and that it was such a joy
to us and we got so much satisfaction
out of it and so much blessing just
thinking about those people is because of one
act of obedience.
Because I was a very young pastor.
I tried to figure it up recently without
sitting down and writing it all out and
I probably should have, but I was under
25, I think, or right about there.
And that's pretty young to be a pastor.
And in those days, when you were the
pastor, you were everything.
And I tell you, I was not really
ready fully ready to be a pastor.
I thought I was.
Then I graduated from Bible college, but they
don't really teach you very much.
And I really didn't love people very much
then.
God really changed me since then and I
really love you.
But you're just fortunate you didn't get me
then.
And so things didn't go very well.
And after about two years, the board called
me in for a board meeting and fired
me.
They asked me to resign.
And I tell you, it was devastating.
It was absolutely devastating for me.
And I just, I said to Anita, I
thought I was called into the ministry, but
I guess I'm not.
I guess I'm a failure.
I guess I'm not meant to be a
pastor, blah, blah, blah.
And you know, I'm ready to quit.
Give it up.
I can't do it.
I thought I could do it, but I
can't do it.
Of course, it was right, I couldn't do
it.
That was right.
And a couple of the elders came to
me and said, now don't you just leave,
you stay here and fight.
Ooh, that would have been a bad decision.
Anyway, our wonderful district superintendent came in and
he put the whole thing together properly and
eased me out of there.
But it was amazing.
I mean, in that board meeting, I had
a man tell me that one of the
reasons they were asking me to resign was
because of the way I tied my tie.
You think I made that up, but I
didn't.
It was a real, it was wacky.
One man said, I really was a good
preacher, but I was a lousy pastor.
And another man said, oh, he thought I
was pretty good pastor, but I couldn't preach
worth a hoot.
It was a bad night.
And it was a bad number of days
afterwards.
And I would have quit, but our superintendent,
great man of God, he and his wife
just loved us and brought us through it
and sent us off to another church that
was worse than that one.
And with less people too, believe me.
And so that went by and about six
months after that, as I was praying, God
said to me, now what you need to
do is write a letter to that church
board and confess to them all your failures
as their pastor and all the sins that
I've showed you and the ways you failed
them.
And don't you say one word to them
about anything wrong they did.
You say, didn't they do anything wrong?
Sure they did.
But God said, that's none of your business.
You write the letter, humble yourself and confess
to them all your faults and ask them
to forgive you.
And then you leave it.
Now we're at the point of obedience or
disobedience.
So now what are we going to do?
Well, I prayed about that, wrestled with it,
dealt with my pride and the part of
me that loves to argue, had to really
crucify that a long time ago and wrote
the letter.
Well, I received a lovely letter back in
which they acknowledged my confession and said they
forgave me.
And then I waited for their letter of
confession.
And I'm still waiting.
But you wouldn't know how important what happened
next was unless you lived in the South.
But in the South, they have ever so
often things at churches they call homecomings.
And everybody that's ever been part of that
church in all its history come back for
a day and they have all day meeting
and all day eating on the grounds.
It's something else.
And they try to bring in all our
former pastors and everything.
But because I had written that letter and
God had used it to bring peace and
peace to my heart, after a while, I
did get a letter from them.
And guess what was in it?
An invitation to be one of the speakers
at the homecoming.
Couldn't preach worth a hoot, but.
And so we went and we had a
wonderful time and people hugged us and loved
us and it was great.
And preached and ate and went home.
Well, a couple of years went by.
I received another letter.
It was from the man whose wife, my
wife was talking to a week ago on
the phone.
Because he was one of the main instigators
in getting me out of there.
And it was a letter asking me to
come back and hold a week long revival
meeting in that church and to stay with
him, with them in their home.
Are you with me?
And I went back and we stayed in
their home.
And he and I went out calling together
and we prayed together.
And we had a wonderful time and a
wonderful meeting.
And everything was healed between us.
And we became close, close friends.
And I won't take time this morning to
tell you how I poured out my life
for that man when he lost his leg
and should have died in the hospital and
how God healed him and brought him through
it.
And we've been friends for many years.
About four or five years after that, I
got a letter from their district superintendent and
saying that church had approached him to ask
me if I'd come back and be their
pastor.
I prayed about it, didn't go.
But I'm telling you this story this morning
because I want you to know that it
pays to obey God.
And there are some of you sitting here
who have disobeyed God and you know you've
disobeyed God.
And that thing is festering in your life,
whatever it is and has been festering in
your life for a long time.
It's keeping you from spiritual victory.
It's keeping you from being a blessing in
your Christian life and a blessing for God
because there are things in your life that
are wrong.
You know they're disobedient to God.
You know you're not doing what he wants
you to do or you're doing what he
doesn't want you to do.
And you've not dealt thoroughly with that disobedience.
And you haven't come to a place of
surrender and confession and maybe restitution and obedience,
but you better do it.
You better do it.
I've been in ministry 50 years since then.
I wonder, I wonder sometimes how much blessing
there would have been if I hadn't obeyed.
But it's wonderful to sit there at the
table of my wife yesterday and talk about
that family and the love between us and
the love between us and the people there
and know how God had worked because of
one step of obedience.
And some of you have people you need
to forgive.
Some of you have dishonest things that you
have done in your past.
You know it was dishonest.
You've tried to cover it up.
You've tried to justify it.
You've tried to excuse it.
You've tried to explain it away.
You've tried to argue with God about it,
but it was wrong.
It was dishonest and you have to make
it right.
And God is not going to let you
be blessed until you do.
And the nation of Israel represents an individual
Christian who covered the sin and whosoever covers
his sin shall not prosper, but who so
confesses and forsakes it shall have mercy.
And so God is calling on us about
this matter of obedience and disobedience.
And God is saying, you've got to go
back and deal with that issue and get
it straightened out and cleansed and obey me.
Then there's the principle of honesty or confession.
In 1 John 1, verses five to 10,
we read these words.
This is the message we have heard from
him and declared to you that God is
light.
In him, there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him,
yet walk in the darkness, we lie and
do not live by the truth.
But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another in the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin.
At the close of a sermon, a woman
went to the preacher and asked, what is
the matter with me?
Every time I go to church, I start
itching terribly.
She pushed up her sleeve and showed him
the rash on her arm.
I go crazy trying to keep from scratching
the life out of myself.
I'm going to stop coming to church.
I can't stand it any longer.
The minister asked, does this happen in other
churches?
She replied, any church.
He asked if he might discuss the problem
with her doctor.
She gave him permission.
Now, this is interesting.
The medical doctor said, this woman is suffering
from what might be called internal eczema.
She's mentally scratching herself on the inside and
I haven't been able to get at the
real cause.
Later conversation, the pastor's office brought out the
fact that this woman had been systematically stealing
money from her employer over a period of
years.
She began by borrowing small amounts she intended
to pay back.
She took more and more until now it
amounted to a good many thousands of dollars.
The pastor said the only cure was confession
and restitution.
They'll fire me, she said.
He replied, maybe so.
Nevertheless, she did it.
She was fired.
Her employer said he had no choice, but
he added, since you've made this admission voluntarily
and since you say you'll pay the money
back, I won't prosecute you.
In fact, I'll give you a reference as
a conscientious person.
The woman, by the way, was immediately cured.
And I haven't time to tell about the
woman, but I had a woman in a
church I pastored who had all kinds of
skin problems, but I found out she had
a lot of other problems.
And when we checked with what the doctor
had said to her about her skin problems,
he said it is an emotional problem, not
a physical problem.
And I said to her, it's a sin
problem.
And so it was.
Then there's a principle of repentance.
Total cleansing means restitution where indicated.
2 Corinthians 7, 10 and 11 says, "'Godly
sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation "'and
leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.'"
See what this godly sorrow has produced in
you, what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves,
what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern,
what readiness to see justice done.
Here is somebody who's really repenting, who says,
I'm gonna make this right as far as
I can possibly make it right.
So Dr. Clarence Lieb of New York had
a patient with headaches, fatigue, tension, rapid pulse,
gastric disturbances, et cetera, et cetera.
He finally suggested that his troubles were caused
by a disturbed conscience, but the man denied
it.
Finally, however, the man confessed the following sin.
He was executor of his father's large estate.
He had arranged things so his brother living
in Europe was receiving far less than the
will indicated.
The man protested frantically that he could never
tell his brother who trusted him completely.
Finally, under Dr. Lieb's urging, he wrote a
long letter making full confession and financial restitution.
Dr. Lieb escorted him to a mail drop
in the hall of the medical building.
The man dropped the letter in the slot,
took a deep breath, turned, looked the doctor
in the eye and said, thanks, I feel
as if a terrible weight has been lifted
off me.
I feel good, I know I'm cured.
I'm just talking about one little result and
I'm not even talking about our conscience this
morning.
But my friends, if we try to cover
our sin, no matter how many years go
by, if we try to cover our sin,
we will not prosper.
You say, what can I do?
Well, it wouldn't hurt to do a personal
moral inventory and I'm going to just read
it off to you quickly and it's based
on the 10 commandments.
So let me ask these questions.
Does God have first place in my life?
Have I put anyone or anything ahead of
God?
And there's thousands of Christians that have, they're
guilty of idolatry.
Do I treat God and sacred matters with
reverence?
Am I taking adequate time from my relationship
with God and my personal restoration?
Number four, am I treating my family and
relatives right?
Number five, is there anyone I need to
forgive?
Number six, am I practicing sexual purity?
Number seven, are all my dealings honest?
Number eight, do I speak the truth in
fact and intention?
Number nine, do I practice stewardship in regard
to my mature possessions or in my covetous?
And I want to close with this this
morning.
A well-known pastor was in a city
away from home to speak.
Right before he was to go on the
platform, a man rushed up and wanted to
talk.
I can't now, the minister said, but I
will after the meeting.
He gave the minister his card.
After the meeting, the man was nowhere around.
The card showed him to be a prominent
man in the city.
Back at the hotel, the minister decided to
call the man.
The man was surprised and said, I just
wanted you to pray with me.
I thought if you would pray with me,
perhaps I could get some peace.
There's nothing to prevent us from praying together
on telephone right now, replied the minister.
I never heard of that, said the man.
Why not, asked the minister.
Phone is simply a gadget of communication.
You are some blocks from me, but by
means of the telephone, we are together.
Besides, the Lord is with each of us.
He is at both ends of this line
and he is in between.
He is with you and he is with
me.
All right, he conceded.
I'd like to have you pray for me.
The minister prayed.
When he had finished, he heard sobbing at
the other end.
Won't you pray, asked the minister.
I can't talk, the man said.
Well, go on, cry for a minute or
two and then pray, said the minister.
After a few moments, the man started.
First hesitantly, then with a great rush, he
poured out his heart.
It was filled with hate, frustration, and failure,
a mass of it.
Finally, he prayed plaintively.
Dear Jesus, I have a lot of nerve
to ask you to do anything for me
because I never did anything for you.
I guess you know what a no account
I am, even though I put on a
big front.
I am sick of all this.
Dear Jesus, please help me.
Then the minister prayed again.
Lord, at the other end of the telephone
wire, place your hand on my friend and
give him peace.
Help him now to yield himself and accept
your forgiveness and your peace.
There was a long pause in the man's
voice saying, I shall always remember this experience.
And I want you to know that for
the first time in months, I feel clean
inside and happy and peaceful.
My friend, all around us and even within
the church are many of God's precious children
who are struggling and who wonder why they've
never been able to accomplish much for God.
But there's something buried in the tent, something
covered up, something, some disobedience, some sin, something
that needs to be dealt with thoroughly.
Let us bow in prayer.
I'm going to ask for us to stand
with our heads bowed and our eyes closed.
Just quietly standing, our heads bowed and our
eyes closed in prayer.
On the right side of the platform, there
is a prayer room.
It's been prepared with a carpet on the
floor where you can kneel if you like.
There are chairs there where you can kneel
or you can sit, whatever's comfortable for you.
And there's some of you who really need
to spend some time in there in prayer
before we leave this morning.
You know that God's pulling at your heart.
And so while we're just standing here quietly
in prayer, no one looking around, I want
to invite you to just make your way
forward and up to the right, up the
steps to the right side of the platform
and into that prayer room where it's private
and where you can meet with God before
you leave this morning and say yes to
him.
Whatever he's saying to your heart, whatever it
is, say yes, Lord, I'm ready to obey.
And we're going to just stand here for
a few moments in quiet prayer.