The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E47 - Unconfessed Sin

Episode Date: June 29, 2020

Hey church, it's Devo Time. And if you have a Bible, I'd love for you to turn with me to Joshua Chapter 7. We're going to be there today. I am not Pastor Jovey. This is Pastor Jobi's Devo Tom, and I'm not him, obviously, and I'm grateful that he's asked me to step in during this time. I'm Todd Hickox. I'm the Fleming Island campus pastor here at the church, and it's an honor to be with you today. I hope you and your family are doing really well during this time. I'm grateful for this time, man. I'm thankful that we're diving into the Word of God day in and day out because we want to know what it said. I love the Bible. I want to know what it says. Paul tells Timothy that it's profitable for doctrine and reproof and correction and instruction and righteousness. And I think that is what we're doing.

I think during this time, as we take the time to sit and really dive into what it says, we're being instructed in righteousness and Jesus being our righteousness. And Jesus being our righteousness, He allows the Holy Spirit to teach us what he said in this word. And so I'm thankful for the way that you have leaned in during this time. It's been really, really encouraging. And so I believe every page whispers his name. And so we're going to be in the Old Testament today. And you may think, like, man, we're going to be talking about the gospel, but we're going to be in the Old Testament.

Yes, that is why I love, again, the Word of God. Everything points to the center, which is Christ. need for a Savior. So I'm really excited about that. So Joshua chapter 7, man, we're going to be just focusing on sin a little bit today. Sin. What do we do with sin? As children of God, once you have surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, and he has given you life, and he has given you the ability to see, are there things that cloud your sight? Are there things that go unconfessed and undelt with in your life. On my way here,

coming over the Buckman Bridge, man, I just really noticed a haze in the air, you know, and that Saharan dust is kind of settled in. And I look at my weather app on my phone, and it says, man, it's a clear blue sky. It's just a dusty, dusty time. I have the ability to see, and I can see that all the indicators point to the fact

that it's a clear day. Yet something is blocking my view of the heavens. And I think that is a good illustration. As I was headed here, I was reminded of this is what sin often does in our life when it goes undelt with. And so in Chapter 7 of Joshua, it'd be good to, like, read this thing in context. And a few weeks ago, Pastor Jobi stepped into Joshua as Joshua assumed leadership in the nation of Israel. Chapter 2, you read the awesome story about how the spies are protected by Rahab, who's the prostitute in Jericho. An amazing story about how the Israelites, they come into their promised land. And again, it's this promised land,

and they have to get there by way of water, again, much like Exodus, Moses leading the nation through the Red Sea to their freedom. And now they're stepping into promise and again, having to go through water, which is the Jordan River, an amazing thing in Joshua, chapter three that happens. And Joshua's a good leader, so he reflects and praises God for bringing them here. And now you step into chapter five and it's an interesting chapter because there's a whole new generation of people that have to be circumcised. Totally different conversation that we'll have, you know, maybe later about that, but it's just a reminder that obedience is often hard. And man, we looked at Christmas at a passage of scripture at the end of Joshua 5 when the commander of the Lord's army is standing there

ahead of Jericho and with his sword drawn and Joshua goes to him and he says, man, are you for us or against us. And the reply of the commander of the Lord's army is, no. I have not come to join you in your story. I've actually come to invite you into mine. And we know that as a Christophany or an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. And then the Battle of Jericho happens, which is amazing. And we step into chapter 7 with a lot of victory and a lot of really, really good things that are happening. And so when you read verse 1 of chapter 7, it says this, but the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things for Aiken, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, son of Zara, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the

Lord burned against the people of Israel. Verse one is essentially a summary of the entire chapter that you're about to read in chapter seven. And so to summarize, probably verse two through nine, And what happens after that, again, you're stepping into chapter seven with a bunch of victory, right? And so Jericho's happened. Man, they're in the promised land. They're taking ground.

The entire book of Joshua is about the conquest of the promised land. And what begins to happen is people are like, man, AI is the next city, Joshua. So don't send the whole army up there. Just send a few thousand of us and we'll take care of business and we'll come back and we'll keep on moving. Well, what happens as a result of the summary we just read in chapter one, the nation's, of Israel actually gets turned around and sent back. I mean, they get it handed to him when they get to AI. And what happens is Joshua falls before the Lord and he begins to say things like, oh, that we would just have dwelt beyond the Jordan. Why did you bring us here, God? He starts getting confused

about his calling as a leader. And this is often what sin does. Satan is the author of confusion. And when you cannot see clearly, often your vision is clouded for where God wants to take you. And Joshua begins to just doubt his calling. But look at verse number 10. It says this, the Lord said to Joshua, and I love this. It says, get up. Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. They've taken some of the devoted things and have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. So let's just stop, let's just stop right here and give context to what is happening here. There's a couple of things that I noticed just from these few verses. Joshua, the response to Joshua from the

Lord is Israel has sinned. But we just read in verse one that it was a person. It was Aiken that sinned. And what he's referring to is in chapter six when they took over Jericho and they saw among the plunder, what we're going to read in just a second is everything was supposed to be devoted to destruction, as in given to the Lord. Don't take this stuff. It is mine. Don't take this stuff. It's going to be destroyed. What we're going to find out is some people took some stuff, namely Aiken, took some stuff. But what the Lord is saying is Israel has sinned. Do you think, this is, this was interesting to me as I'll study in this, do you think that your sin, my sin, has an effect on the people that are around me. I begin to think about my attitude sometimes and how my wife is affected by that.

I begin to think about how sin can affect my life and the people around me. If I were to take a piece of fruit and put it right here, say a great fruit, a big, juicy, awesome great fruit, and I was to take a mallet and hit that thing as hard as I could. The people in this room would be, they'd get juice on them, they'd get some fruit on them, and it's like shrapnel, right? It's It's like shrapnel. The impact happens right here. But the shrapnel and the result of it is going to be a cleanup all over the room. And I think that is what's happening here as a result of the sin of one man.

But Joshua is told by the Lord, get up, and we're going to deal with this. Somebody has taken something, stolen it, lied about it, and put it among their belongings. I would ask you, what's among your belongings that just doesn't belong there? What's among your belongings has maybe been swept under the wrong? rook? Is it an addiction? Is it maybe a relationship that's maybe drifted out of bounds with somebody that's not your spouse, even if it's something that nobody knows about? Has your money become an idol in your life? Again, it's something that nobody necessarily knows about, but maybe it's starting to affect the people that are around you. Well, praise God, we're going to be able to see what

happens in this story. And again, every page of this scripture whispers the name of Jesus. What then happens is the Lord tells Joshua what is what is next he says man consecrate yourselves because tomorrow we're going to deal with this essentially he says we're going to cast lots and and then the tribe's going to come and the clan and the family and the man is going to be found out and casting lots in the Old Testament was a way that they were able to discern the will of God Proverbs chapter 16 verse 33 says that the lots are cast in the lap but the decision belongs to the Lord and so they would cast lots and essentially what happened. In verse 15, I love what it says, and he who has taken, listen to this. This is the seriousness of this scripture. This is the holiness that God is after.

He who is taken from the devoted 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 an outrageous thing in Israel. So in verse 16, it says, 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 Zaheights was taken. And he brought near the clan of the Zaheatheitz man by man and Zabdi was taken. And he brought near his household man by man and Aiken, the son of Karmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zara of the tribe of Judah was taken. Now get this. In verse 19, it says this. Then Joshua said to Aiken, my son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him.

him and tell me what you have done. Do not hide it from me. Did you know that in confession, it's an act of worship. You are bringing glory to God and worshiping him by agreeing with him. All confessing is is agreeing with God and what he says is right and wrong and what we have done being right or wrong. Our confession is in agreement with God. And in that, it's an act of worship. And so what begins to happen is he says, tell me, tell me what you've done. It's a reminder in the book of James. James chapter 5, I believe it's in verse 16. It says to confess your sin to one another that you may be healed.

Your confession to one another brings healing. We're seeing that right here. And Aiken answered Joshua in verse 20, truly I've sinned against the Lord God of Israel. And this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil, a beautiful cloak of Shinar, 200 shekels, of silver and a bar of gold that weighed 50 shekels. I coveted what was there and I took it for myself. And see, they're hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath. His confession led to a repentance. And that repentance looked a whole lot like identifying exactly

what it was and where it was. And so after that, Joshua and verse 22 sent messengers and sure enough it was exactly where he said it was. And in the end of the chapter, we see that Aiken bears that sin. He bears the consequence and the wrath of the Lord in that sin, and him and his belongings and everything that he had were stone and burned and a pile was heaped upon him. So there's some interesting things that happened here. One, I think that confession, when you name it specifically, there's something there, there's a richness there in an act of worship. When you just say, Lord, I confess my sin. That's one thing.

But when you name it very specifically, that is another thing. And then the result is he bears the weight of his sin. And like I said, this entire thing whispers the name of Jesus. And I love this. This story points. It continually points to our need for a Savior because the righteous demands of the law cannot be met in me. Cannot be met in you, but they were met.

met in the life of Christ. It's Jesus and everything that he has done for me. Because according to Romans chapter 3 verse 23, it says all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 623, Paul reminds us that the wages of sin are what I earned because of my sin is exactly what Aiken earned because of his sin and that is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That gospel-centric verse is what brings life. to me is a New Testament believer, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because you see, Paul later also reminds the Corinthians that he made him, he being God, made him who is Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin, that we might become

the righteousness of God in him. So Jesus took on my sin himself and he bore the wrath of God on the cross. He took the punishment for my sin. That is a man. That is a man. He took the punishment. That is a the gospel. And that is why when I read chapter 7 of Joshua and how sin was dealt with, I'm also reminded that my Savior Jesus bore my sin on the cross. And not only did he die a death that I deserved and he took my place in that, but he raised to life and gave me an abundant life that I can now live. So what I now do when I handle sin, when I deal with sin, when I'm clouded, when my vision is clouded and I just can't see, I confess my sin because he's faithful and he's just to forgive me of my sin. Jesus being the just and the justifier is the faithful one,

even when I'm not faithful, to forgive me of my sin and to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. And I can confess with somebody that I'm vulnerable to, whether it's in my disciple group or somebody that's even on our staff, they're my family. And I'm able to confess that sin. so I want to tell you run to the one who has given you righteousness. Run to God. Run to the son. He's rescued you and he's given you life and abundance. And he's freed you and justified you from the penalty of sin and the power of sin.

And worship him and confess and repent of your sin. And he's faithful and just to cleanse you. Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for your goodness in our life. Thank you for this Old Testament. reminder of Jesus and how this right here points to what he has done on the cross and when he said it is finished counted for me and when I place my faith in you Jesus and when I surrender to your lordship I'm able to run to you when the presence of sin is in my life I'm able to run to you

because you are faithful and just to forgive me of that sin Jesus thank you for bearing the weight of my sin thank you for being blamed for my sin. You didn't deserve it, and I did. And because you're my Savior, you've saved me, and I worship you, and I'll run to you. Thank you for the Word. Thank you that it knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Thank you that it cuts deep. And I pray that right now, if there's someone that is listening to this that has sin that's just kind of swept under the rug,

and they're just not telling somebody about it, whether it's addiction, whether it's the mishandling of something, relationships, money, whatever it may be. God, I pray that they would run to you and they would confess. They would run to someone and they would confess and they would be healed. And I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.