The Key to Unbroken Victory

Pastor, teacher, and author, Adrian Rogers, has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth, simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. God has planned, God has programmed for you a life of victory, unbroken victory. However, many Christians are not living in unbroken victory. Christians are saved, but they're being defeated day by day.

They have a saved soul and a lost life. I want to talk to you today about the key to unbroken victory. Now, the Bible always admits the possibility of defeat, but the Bible never teaches the necessity of it.

To the contrary, the Bible says, thanks be unto God who causeth us always, always, always to triumph in Christ Jesus. Read with me Joshua chapter seven and beginning in verse one. Now, this chapter takes place right after the defeat of mighty Jericho.

You remember the story. When the children of Israel marched around the city of Jericho for seven days on the seventh day, seven times, they gave a shout and the walls came tumbling down. They have come into the land, the promised land to conquer it, and they have won a mighty, mighty, mighty victory. Now, this episode takes place.

It begins with a conjunction in the negative, but. But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zara, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Avon, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said unto him, Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the people to labor thither, for they are but few. It's a small city, Ai, and a small name, small city. And so they went up thither about, of the people, about three thousand men.

Now watch this. And they fled before the men of Ai. They had conquered mighty Jericho.

And now this insignificant little city sends them running like whipped puppies. They had failed. Now why had they failed? Why was Israel defeated?

What is the key to constant and perpetual victory? How did they miss it? What happened? Well, use your imagination.

I can imagine a scene like this. It's midnight now over the ruins of Jericho. The city lies in rubble. There are broken columns and crumbled walls, disarray. Outside Jericho, the camp of Israel is pitched. And here is each tribe in its place, and the tents are there.

The moon is looking down on that scene of desolation as the walls came tumbling down. Everybody is asleep. It's quiet.

Did I say everybody was asleep? There's one man who's not asleep. He's a man whose name is Achan. I see him as he comes to the door of his tent and opens it and quietly, stealthily makes his way from that tent. And out of the place where his tribe is encamped, he makes his way over those fallen brick and rock, over that fallen wall.

He makes his way into the city there, into the marketplace. And he begins to look around, and the moonlight shines down on something that is silvery. And he notices that there's a bag there, and the mouth of that bag is open. He picks up the bag and looks, and there are 200, 200 shekels of silver. He is a soldier.

He's never held that much money in his hand at one time. He picks it up, and it runs through his fingers like water. He puts it back in the bag and holds it in his trembling hand, and there he sees something now flashing like fire. Is it a piece of cheese?

No. It's a wedge of gold, pure gold. He picks it up, shines it, holds it. He's never seen that much gold at one time. He's got the silver, he's got the gold, and then there's something else flashing, sparkling. It's an ornament, a beautiful ornament.

It's on a garment. He picks it up, shakes the dust off it. Why, that came from Babylon.

Why, that's beautiful. He holds it up. Oh, his heart is beating wildly. He says, this I want, this I will have, and he takes the silver and the gold, wraps it up in the Babylonian garment, makes his way back over the rubble, back to his tent, looks around. Nobody has seen him yet, he thinks. He goes into his tent and rolls back his sleeping mat and scoops out the dirt, and he puts the Babylonian garment in there, and he puts the 200 shekels of silver, and he puts the wedge of gold, and he covers it, then rolls out his sleeping mat and lies down and goes to sleep.

At least he tries to sleep. There's a smile on his face. He says, I have done it, and nobody has seen me. And he was right, almost. There was one who had seen the whole thing.

Almighty God, watching from heaven. What had he done? He had committed a trespass and a terrible trespass. You say, well, Pastor Rogers, after all, it was a victory, and to the victor go the spoils. That's right, it was God's victory, and to God was to go the spoils. Go back to look, if you will, in chapter 6, verses 18 and 19. And God gave command concerning Jericho, and he said this, And ye in any wise keep yourself from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourself accursed when ye take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord.

They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. Now this belonged to God, and what Achan had done had taken that which belonged to God, he took it unto himself, and he brought to himself a curse. And now Israel that was to have gone from victory to victory to victory is defeated.

Now, I want us to look at that passage, and I want us to apply this Old Testament passage to our hearts as we live in this day and in this age. I want to give you four principles, and I pray, God, that he will etch these upon your consciousness today and help you to remember them if you want to live in unbroken victory. The very first thing, the very first principle that I want to lay on your heart is this, that great victories may be and are often followed by great defeats.

Great victories are often followed by great defeats. Now, what caused this defeat? Well, there were two that sinned that day or two categories. There was Israel itself, and then there was this man in specificity whose name was Achan. Now, what caused Israel's sin? Look, if you will, in this passage of Scripture, and you're going to find out that Israel's sin was carelessness.

Are you listening? Just sheer carelessness. Now, how was their carelessness shown? Well, first of all, when they went out to reconnoiter and they looked at Ai, they said, hey, we don't need to pray. We don't need to find God's will.

We don't need a spiritual plan. We have done it before, and we can do it again. You don't need to send a whole army, Josh. Just send a handful.

Send two, maybe 3,000, because they are insignificant, and we can do it. You see here that there was pride in their hearts, and the Bible teaches, does it not, that pride goes before destruction. So, first of all, there was pride. I wonder if today God has blessed you spiritually and you're coasting. You say, well, God has given me a blessing yesterday. God has helped me yesterday.

I did this yesterday, and so I can do it today. Pride goes before destruction, and pride is what? Presumption. They presumed that God was with them. They never stopped to check. They never sought out to see if there was any unconfessed, unrepentant of sin in the camp. After pride comes presumption.

If the child of pride is presumption, what is the grandchild of pride? Prayerlessness. They didn't pray. We're going to find out later that Joshua prayed. He prayed after he got in trouble. He prayed a whole lot, and God said, Joshua, get up. You're wasting your breath. Why are you praying to me now?

I wonder. I wonder today if there's some of you who are about to fall, and you've been great Christians, because now you're coasting. Now you're filled with pride. You think you are a wonderful spirit-filled godly person because you can look back to a string of victories, and now you're presuming that everything in the future is going to be just like it was in the past, and you stop praying. You stop seeking the face of God. You've stopped asking God to guide you and lead you, and you are guilty of the same three things that Israel was guilty of when little Ai defeated them, pride, presumption, and prayerlessness.

Huh? All right, now what about this man Achan that I just described a little while ago? We said that the sin of Israel was carelessness. What was the sin of Achan? His sin was covetousness, and that also is something that will cause you to fall and to stumble. When you're not satisfied with the lot that God has given you, when you want that which does not belong to you, nothing wrong with having gold or silver or a Babylonian garment, except if it is something that belongs to Almighty God and you are coveting that which belongs to Almighty God.

What? Look, if you will, beginning in verse 19 here of this passage of Scripture. And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, I pray thee, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done, and hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus, and thus have I done. Now watch this. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them.

Now just underscore that. If carelessness was Israel's sin, covetousness was Achan's sin. He said, I saw these things and I coveted them. What is covetousness? You never hear anybody confess the sin of covetousness.

And yet it was the sin that brought the great apostle Paul to his knees before God and showed him the wickedness of his heart. What is covetousness? It is an unlawful desire that grows in the soil of an unsatisfied heart, a heart that is not finding the glory of his presence.

And we're thinking now that we need something else to satisfy us, something else to make us whole, something else to give us joy, and covetousness becomes an octopus that comes around our souls and cannot be shaken off. The Bible calls it in the New Testament the love of the world. And the Bible says in 1 John chapter 2 verses 15 and 16, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now notice it doesn't say that you, the love of the Father is not in you because you love the world.

It's just opposite of that. If you love the world, it is because the love of the Father is not in you. That's the reason that I said that covetousness is an awful desire that grows in the soil of an unsatisfied heart.

The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of God's glory and God's grace. And I can tell you that both Israel as a nation and Achan as an individual had taken their eyes from the Lord. With Israel, it was pride, presumption, and prayerlessness.

With Achan, it was covetousness. And I want you to see the evolution of this sin. Listen to this man as he's confessing now. And look in verse 21.

First of all, what's the first step? I saw, look at it. And when I saw among the spoils, a goodly Babylonish garment. You see, he saw something that he ought not to have been looking at. Now had he been in the right place, he would never have been looking at all of that at that time. Many of you are going to get in trouble simply because of what you have put before your eyes. Some of you men are staying up late at night watching ungodliness on television while your wife has already gone to bed. Some of you businessmen are looking at things in a hotel room that you have absolutely no business looking at. Some of you teenagers are watching things now in cyber sex on the internet that you have absolutely no business looking at. You say, well, I just want to see. You feed your mind on these dirty movies and filthy magazines.

You get your recreation in a nightclub atmosphere and you're setting yourself up for a fall. He said, I saw. Then look at this thing. He said, I coveted. Now a desire, an unlawful desire is beginning to build in his heart. This octopus is beginning to wrap its tentacles around his soul. This was the time when he should have confessed. This was the time when he should have said, oh, God, there's something growing in my heart that is wrong. It's unclean.

It's impure, but he doesn't do this. You see, Achan was a thief in his heart first. A man is not a thief because he steals. He steals because he's a thief. It began in his heart. Out of the heart these things come.

It is covetousness that the Bible calls idolatry. Now watch this. I saw, I coveted. Now watch. I took.

Do you see that? He probably never would have thought at another time he would have done such a thing. There are some of you who feel, I would never do such a thing. You put yourself in that situation. You begin to look at unlawful things.

You begin to let that thing brood in your heart till it becomes covetousness. And then at that moment when that opportunity comes, you're going to take, remember what I told you sin was, an undetected weakness, an unexpected opportunity, and an unprotected life. An undetected weakness, an unexpected opportunity, an unprotected life. Here he was. He had an undetected weakness.

He was not satisfied with the things of God. An unexpected opportunity. There it was.

I saw it. An unprotected life. He was not praying.

He was not seeking God's covering. And so I saw, I coveted, I took. And now continue to read this.

Look at it again. And he said, and I coveted them, I took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tit and the silver under it. I hid.

This is the worst thing of all. The next step is to hide, to cover it up, to say it never happened. Now, there's some of you right now who don't want to think about what I'm talking about because in your heart, in your life, in your tent, there's buried some unclean thing. And the worst thing of all is to hide it, to deny it, to alibi, to excuse, to keep it hidden. So he digs down into his tent and he hides it and smooths the dirt over it.

Are you trying to do that today? Is there in your life an unconfessed, unrepentant of sin that is hidden? I am telling you that Achan could not have dug deep enough into the molten core of this earth to hide that sin. And yet he tried, and yet he tried.

Now, put it down. Many times, your greatest defeats are going to come after your greatest victories. And you begin to coast and take your eyes off of the Lord and get presumptuous or fail to be satisfied with God.

Now, here's the second principle. The second principle is this, that private sin is never really private. Private sin is never really private. Now, the Bible called this thing that Achan did and it's a cursed thing.

Why? Because the curse of God is upon sin and sin that is hidden and it will bring you into ruin. It will keep you from victory, that unbroken victory that God wants you to have. But now listen to me very carefully. If you are bound to sin, you're bound to suffer.

Just as surely as you put your uncovered hand on a hot stove, you're going to be burned. If you're bound to sin, you're bound to suffer, but you will not suffer alone. The Bible says, no man lives unto himself and no man dies unto himself. Your sin, my friend, will affect other people.

Private sin is never really private. Let me show you what Achan's sin did. Look, if you will, in verses 8 and 9 of this same chapter. Joshua is praying and he says, Oh Lord, what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it and shall environ us round and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

Joshua said, look, we are defeated. Oh God, disgrace to your name. Do you care about the name of your God? I had rather die by torture than to bring disgrace to the name of Jesus Christ. If there's hidden sin in your life, you're going to cause the people of God to stumble and fall and you're going to bring disgrace to almighty God. That's the reason that David prayed. He said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. I think, brother Jim, about the scandals that were in the church with some, they call tele-evangelists. Can you imagine how much fodder that was for the late night obscene talk show people as they laughed and joked and ridiculed the things of God and the name of our great God was dragged through the dust and the mire and the filth because of hidden sin.

What does it do? Friend, I want to tell you it brings dishonor to God, but I'll tell you what else it does. It brings defeat to your brothers. Look, if you will, in verse 12 of this same chapter. Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before their enemies because they were accursed. You see, don't tell me it's none of my business what you do.

And I can't tell you it's none of your business what I do. Folks, we are in this together. And when your heart is not right with God, when there's unconfessed, unrepentant of sin in your heart and in your life, not only do you dishonor God and bring dishonor to God, you bring defeat to your brothers and your sisters. The Bible says when one member suffers, every member suffers with it.

One drop of poison hurts the whole body. I'll tell you what else he did. Not only did he bring dishonor to God, not only did he bring defeat to his brothers, he brought disgrace to his family. Notice in chapter seven, verse one, but the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing.

That's the entire nation. But now watch this, for Achan, the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, the son of Zara of the tribe of Judah took of the accursed thing. Do you see how his families dragged into this thing? I'm not a perfect man, but I would hate to bring disgrace to my parents. And I would hate to bring disgrace to my children. But here was a man who sinned that he might've thought, I'm doing this all by myself, but he dishonored God. I'm doing this all to myself, but his brothers were defeated. I'm doing this all to myself, but he disgraced his family. Some of you are giving your dad gray hairs.

Some of you are pinching wrinkles into your mother's face. Some of you kids, some of you teenagers, there's sin in your life and you're disgracing your parents, your mother, your dad wouldn't die for you. And yet you've got this sin in your heart and in your life. And I'll tell you what else he did. He brought destruction to his loved ones. Look, if you will, in verses 24 and 25. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zara and the silver and the garment and the wedge of gold and his sons and his daughters, his oxen and his asses and his sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them into the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why has thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And they stoned him with stones and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Not just the man, but his sons, his daughters, his wife.

They're all stoned and burned with fire. You say that's not fair. That's not right. Well, you see what happened is he had corrupted his family. Where did he hide this?

Not outside the tent, in the tent. They had become partakers of this crime. And now his children are destroyed because of his life. And mister, if you go to hell, that's one thing, but God have mercy upon you if you drag your sons and daughters into hell too.

Because of your sin, hidden sin, wicked sin, vile sin destroys loved ones. A soul winner was going out to speak to a man about Jesus Christ. That man was a man like so many modern sophisticates today.

He was in the living room. He was acting icily nice to that man who was witnessing for Jesus. And he was, you know, coy as some people.

If you've ever witnessed much, you can see this man in your mind's eye. And he just said to the man, well, thank you. Appreciate your coming. Thank you for giving us those things to consider. Good day.

We may come down there to the church sometime and so forth. A little guy had not yet even started into school was watching this whole episode. The father was not even aware that the little boy was watching. He saw his dad and saw the soul winner and all of that.

He saw the soul winner with his shoulders humped over walking out in seeming defeat. That little boy jumped up into his daddy's lap, rubbed his daddy's beard and said as he looked into his daddy's face, Dad, we don't want to be an old Christian, do we? Dad, we don't want to be an old Christian, do we? They can read you like a book.

They know what's important to you. Here was a man that drug so much down with him. Your greatest defeats may come after your greatest victories when you get careless and dissatisfied. I'll tell you something else, private sin is never private. None of us live to ourselves. None of us die to ourselves. Here's the third thing and I want you to listen very carefully to me. Dear friend, every sin that you cover, God will uncover.

Have you got it? Every sin that you cover, God will uncover. Look if you will now in verse 16. And so Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes and the tribe of Judah was taken. And he brought out the family of Judah and he took the family of the Zarehites and he brought the family of the Zarehites man by man and Zabdi was taken.

And he brought the household man by man and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zara of the tribe of Judah was taken. And Joshua said unto Achan, my son I pray thee give glory to the God of Israel and make confession unto him and tell me now what thou has done, hide it not from me. Now, if one sin goes uncovered, Satan has conquered.

Listen to me, every sin that you cover, God will uncover. There is the ultimate revelation of that sin, the ultimate confession of that sin when Joshua said, give glory to God, now confess. Now, he wasn't giving glory to God so that he could get mercy. He didn't get mercy.

He didn't get any mercy. He was stoned and yet Joshua said, confess it, give glory to God. Did you know that every sin you cover will be uncovered to the glory of God? Every sin you cover will be uncovered to the glory of God. You know, that's what the Bible says, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. One of these days, if God does not get glory and mercy, God will get glory and judgment.

Are you listening? Every sin that you cover, God will uncover and that which is done in secret will be shouted from the rooftop. Things that you've done in your bedroom, things you've done on business trips, things that you have done that you think nobody knows about.

One of these days, it will be totally revealed. Everything you cover, God will uncover. Can you imagine, give glory to God? I can see Judas as he stands before the Lord. Judas, you denied him.

You sold him for 30 pieces of silver. Deny him now. I can see the blasphemer. Those of you who take God's name in vain and curse him, I wonder when you stand before Jesus Christ, will you curse him to his face? Those of you who have made your obscene jokes, you blasphemers.

Those of you who may be listening on this television program as a joke, you don't even know what you're tuned to. When you stand before him, your obscene jokes are not going to be so funny. You're going to meet the Lord. I'm telling you, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. There is the ultimate revelation of that sin, the ultimate confession of that sin, and the ultimate retribution of that sin. Here was a man who was judged, who was stoned, who was put to death for the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. And if any sin, one half of one sin ever goes by unpunished, Satan will have won. I must go to the last and final principle very quickly.

I've given you four. Your greatest defeats may come after your greatest victories. Private sin is never really private. Every sin that you endeavor to cover, God will uncover. That which is done in secret shall be shouted from the housetop.

A newspaper had this motto, if you don't want it printed, don't let it happen. Now here's the final thing, and I love this. Every sin that you uncover, God will cover. Every sin that you uncover, God will cover. I want you to imagine a scene that did not happen. I want you to see Achan as he plants all of that in his tent there and covers it up, rolls out his bed mat over it, and tries to sleep. And then he says, my God, what have I done?

How could I have been so foolish? Wife, wake up. Children, get up. Pray, look what we've done.

How could we do such a thing? Dig it up. Give it to me. Where's Joshua's tent? Joshua, get up. Get up, Joshua. Joshua, let me tell you what I've done. Oh, Joshua, I was a fool.

God said not to do this, and I've done it. Joshua, here's the silver. Joshua, here's the gold.

Here's the garment. Pray for me, Joshua. I've sinned against God.

Joshua, let's get an animal. Let's make a blood sacrifice. I need to be forgiven. Let me tell you what the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, and listen carefully. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Would God have forgiven him?

Absolutely. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Justice is God giving us what we deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. We don't need justice. We need mercy. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh him shall have mercy.

Now let's come back to where we started. I said to you, unbroken victory is God's plan for you. The key to unbroken victory is not perfection. It is continual perpetual confession, keeping your heart right, where there is no, no unconfessed sin, no private sin, no buried sin. I'm going to give you a testimony. You might think I'm bragging, but in my heart, there's no hidden sin. You see, I would be a sheer fool to try to minister and preach with sin in my heart. I'd hurt you. I would hurt this church. I would hurt my family. I would hurt my parents.

I would hurt my children. I would disgrace my God. But when we walk in the light as he is in the light, God blesses us. Your greatest failure may come after your greatest victories. Private sin is never really private. What you cover, God will uncover. But what you uncover, God will cover. And that's the reason Paul says in Romans chapter 4, blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Whose sins are covered how?

By the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Father God, I pray that you will help us today, Lord, to walk in victory before you. Lord, if there's some who don't know Jesus, that today they might come to know him as Lord and Savior. And help those of us who know you, Lord, not to be careless and prayerless. In your name we pray. Amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.