Let's Calculate The Cost Of Hidden Sin – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Spiritual mountaintops can be followed by deep valleys, especially when we allow sin to remain hidden. Fresh from taking Jericho, Joshua learned this the hard way after his humiliating defeat at Ai. Today, a sober lesson on how seriously God takes sin.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, God's judgment after the loss at Ai begs the question, why does God not exact the same penalties today? You know, Dave, we read these passages of Scripture with bewilderment, don't we?

Because of Achan's sin, he and his family were stoned to death. We read that and we say, well, thank God that doesn't happen today because we are under grace. That's true, but remember this, God takes sin just as seriously as he did in the Old Testament.

The punishments are different because indeed we are in an era of grace, but if you think about the final judgment you understand that God hates sin just as much today as he did back then. I'm holding in my hand a book entitled Conquering the Fear of Failure, and of course, as you might guess, it has a chapter on Ai, it has a chapter about the sin of Achan, and it is applied to our lives. I believe that this book is going to be a tremendous blessing and we make this resource available to help you in your spiritual journey. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Simply go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. Now let us learn from the past that we might not commit the same sins in our day or in the future. Father, we pray that you shall take the words of a man and turn them into the very words of God. We pray that even those who came here today without any intention of becoming serious with you might be surprised by the prompting, the power, and the strength of your spirit. And we recognize that the task before us is an impossible one, and that is why we give it humbly to you and pray that you shall do in our hearts, do in my heart, do in the staff's heart, the choir, all we pray, do in our hearts that which is well pleasing in your sight and grant us the grace to accept whatever you show us in Jesus' name.

Amen. Sometimes when a tire explodes, when you have a flat tire, the reason actually is because of a microscopic failure or separation that was going on for a long time. In the very same way when we think of our moral lives or spiritual lives, oftentimes when we see something happen that is detrimental and wrong, the seeds have been planted long ago. One of our tasks at times is to try to find the real root cause of various things. Economists want to find the root cause of the ups and downs of the economy. Sociologists want to find the root cause of the problems that we have in our homes, the breakup of the American family. Counselors, they have the challenge of trying to find the root cause of various kinds of behavior. Why is this person so angry? Why do they behave violently?

Why is it that they have such an addiction to gambling? What a counselor tries to do is to find the root cause. Now I want you to know today that there are some causes that cannot be discovered unless we are spiritually minded. To put that differently, secular man oftentimes is unable to uncover the root cause for two reasons. First of all, the root cause may be in an area that is beyond his investigation.

And also, it might be in a place that is totally unrelated seemingly, totally unrelated to the actual behavior itself. I can imagine that if you're thinking, you're saying, Pastor Luther, what in the world are you talking about? Well, I hope you were asking that because I want to tell you. I want to give you an illustration from the Bible of what I mean and I believe it will become very clear. Take your Bibles and turn to the seventh chapter of the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter seven. In chapter six, we have that marvelous victory and Jericho falls.

The walls fall down flat. Not a single Israelite lost his life in the battle of Jericho. But when chapter seven opens we have something different.

I'm picking it up at verse one. But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things, that is things that God said belong to him and that were to be destroyed or either put into the treasury. Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zemri, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah took some of them, that is these devoted things, so that the Lord's anger burned against Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai which is near Beth Avon to the east of Bethel and he told them go out and spy out the region.

So the men went out and they spied out Ai. When they returned to Joshua they said not all the people have to go against Ai, send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people for only a few men are there. So about three thousand men went up and they were routed by the men of Ai who killed thirty six of them.

They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes and at this the heart of the people melted and became like water. What went wrong? Chapter six complete victory, chapter seven thirty six men dead on a battlefield.

Well what did go wrong? Well let's ask some military men as to what their analysis is of the cause of this defeat. So we talked to one military general and he said no problem, he said there weren't enough men, they underestimated the manpower that they needed, three thousand men was not enough. So we meet a second general and we say what went wrong here on the battlefield and he says well it wasn't really a problem of men, he says they didn't have the right equipment. The Israelites were there and they did not have proper swords and so forth and if you want to win you need some hardware that they didn't have. We talked to a third general and we asked his opinion and we see he says it's just a bad strategy. You had enough men, you had enough weapons but this is what you needed to do.

You needed to go around the city of Ai and then pretend that you are beginning to flee and then you set ambushes along the way and you capture them that way, it's a matter of strategy. Interestingly, God says it was none of those. Do you realize it's because a man by the name of Achan took something that belonged to God and he hid it in his tent and God says that's why you've got problems out on the battlefield and we want to say to ourselves wait a moment, what in the world is the connection?

What possible connection could there be between 36 men on the battlefield dead and someone who takes something that he shouldn't have and hides it in his tent? Those two have no relationship to each other. God says that he makes the relationship, that sin has consequences that are unpredictable, haphazard, sin always obeys the law of unintended consequences and sometimes sin can affect things distantly that appear to be totally unrelated to the things so affected. What we'd like to do today is to take a look at this passage of scripture and notice three relationships that will help us to understand the connectedness, I hope there's a word like that if not there is now, to understand the connectedness of sin. Let's open our Bibles and look at the text.

First of all, I want you to know that people are interrelated, they are connected. Notice I read seven verse one but the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to devoted things and then it goes on to talk about Achan who was from the tribe of Judah. Now quite frankly, if I were from the tribe of Simeon, I'd protest and I'd say that wasn't me, that wasn't anyone related to me, it is one man, one bad apple in the whole barrel so why do you say that the Israelites acted unfaithfully? It's interesting to notice what God himself says.

Joshua falls on his knees before the Lord, before his face and the Lord said to Joshua in verse 10, stand up, what are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned, they have violated my covenant which I commanded them to keep. Notice the plural, they have taken some of the devoted things, they have stolen, they have lied, they have taken them with their own possessions and you want to say wait a moment, not all of us, it's just one person. God says one of you does it, all of you are affected, people are interrelated. This was true in ancient Israel, it's true today in families. Families are interrelated. You find that if there is sin in the family, oftentimes that sin spreads like a poison and of necessity all other family members are affected by it in one way or another.

There's no way that you can just simply isolate it and say this is one person's problem, it is a family problem. In fact, God says that he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Now many people misinterpret that, it can be very disappointing if you had a bad father but actually it says to those who hate me, if you are a God lover, you can break the effects of a bad sinful family. But if you're discouraged because of that, be encouraged because the next part of the verse says and I show loving kindness to multitudes to those who love me and follow me. I think one of the most blessed instances in scripture where God's heart is revealed is where the Lord said to Solomon one day and remember strictly speaking one could argue that Solomon should never have been born because he was born to Bathsheba who should never have been David's wife but God said to him one day he said Solomon you know what I'd like to do, I'd like to do something good for you and I'd like to bless you for your father's sake my servant David. Now isn't that wonderful of God? But the simple fact is there is a connection among people.

Israel has sinned, the one man sinned. Churches are connected. The effect of our church here whether it is in Costa Rica or other parts of the world where the church exists somehow either our fire for God or our coldness toward God affects the body of Christ I believe in some way worldwide. Churches are connected.

An individual church has connections. Do you realize that if there's someone here listening to this and you have sin in your life there's sin in the camp something that you have hidden figuratively speaking something that you're not dealing with something that you are involved in that is sinful and destructive that God out of heaven could say Moody Church has sinned and we might say to ourselves wait a moment I didn't do that. God says but there's sin in the camp and a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

I've used the illustration before of trying to contain incense when you burn it in a dormitory room at the university. You can put towels on the bottom of the door you can try to shut it in but pretty soon you can smell it on the second floor and you can smell it in the elevator somehow sin just can't be contained neatly it has negative consequences beyond its immediate surroundings. First Corinthians chapter five the man is living in immorality and Paul is chastising the church for not dealing with it and then Paul says don't you know that a little leaven does leaven the whole lump don't you know that if you allow sin in the camp that everyone is going to be affected and somehow it lowers the standards for everyone are you not aware of the fact that you can't isolate sin it has to be sometimes cut out like a cancer so people are related.

Now between you and me because it's just us talking isn't it? Do you realize that your spiritual life affects me and my spiritual life affects you there's no way that we can live in isolation as if to say whether or not I'm backslidden doesn't matter to others yes it does it harms the whole body. God says you're interrelated. Well not only are people interrelated but sin is interrelated.

Now this is a tremendous study on human nature. We're jumping to verse 19 when Achan is discovered and I'll be mentioning that in a different context but it says in verse 19 Joshua said to Achan my son give glory to the Lord the God of Israel and give him the praise tell me what you have done do not hide it from me. Achan replied it is true I have sinned against the Lord the God of Israel this is what I have done. Now notice if you're in the habit of underlining your Bible here there are some verbs that have to be underlined I saw notice that I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylon 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels I saw it I coveted it in my heart I took it that means I stole it next phrase I hid it in the ground I saw it I coveted it I let that sin grow in my heart I stole it and now I hid it. What an interesting progression in sin in our lives sins are interrelated they come in clusters. Did you know that it's impossible for you to sin in one area without doing it in another?

Did you know that it's not possible for you to break for example the seventh commandment thou shalt not commit adultery without breaking at least five or six of all the other commandments? It isn't that neat you just cannot compartmentalize your sin and say it stays there it affects other aspects of your life and it spawns other sins. The fruit of the spirit is like that too of course you can't say well you know I've got a lot of love but there's no joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith and meekness.

You know if you have love which is the first fruit of the spirit you're going to have at least some of the others because these fruit of the spirit they come together they grow together but sin is like that too. As a matter of fact this would be a good place for me to give you some laws of sowing and reaping. Paul says whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap.

Could I just tick them off for you very quickly and this certainly applies here to the experience of Achan. First of all you reap what you sow. You reap what you sow. One of the worst things that can happen to you is that you steal and get by with it because stealing will generate more stealing unless it is severely dealt with. That's true of other sins you lie and somehow the lie is beneficial to you and there are lies that are beneficial like the Sunday school girl said that a lie is an abomination unto the Lord but a very present help in time of trouble.

So you can lie and it can be beneficial but you will then tell greater lies soon your entire life will be a life of deceit. You sow sensuality you will reap sensuality because we reap what we sow and those weeds in the ground continue to get stronger. That's the first law of sowing and reaping. Let me give you a second you reap more than you sow.

Oh listen carefully to this. You know I was brought up on a farm and I know that when you plant a seed in the ground for example we would plant wheat and we'd seed maybe one bushel of wheat per acre and yet we might reap 30 or 40 times that. In the very same way sin is never stagnant it keeps pushing you and pushing you and going past one boundary after another that you determined you would never cross because sin has within it this idea that you reap more than you sow. You don't see the end result and the consequences they are hidden from you. I do think of David he commits murder first of all though adultery now when he committed adultery he had no idea that he was going to commit murder. I should say the adultery led to the murder the murder led to other deceits pretty soon he loses his whole family and you can see in David's life he never recovered emotionally he never regained his position of authority with his children and sometimes when I look at the way in which his life ended basically a very sad defeated bad father though he had some marvelous qualities he was a bad father the simple fact is that once that sin began to grow he reaped more than he sowed.

It looked so small and innocent but the consequences eventually were devastating. Now let me give you a third law of sowing and reaping and this one may be the most important everyone listen up at this point the law is simply this you reap in a different season than you sow. You see sometimes you sow and you say to yourself well there are no consequences you can go and put seed in the ground and you can plant that wild oats as people sometimes speak of it and you go there the next day and it has not germinated it looks as if the soil has been largely untouched and there is not a single weed or stalk of wild oats that has to be uprooted and you say see there's no problem well there is a problem because you don't reap you don't reap when you sow you reap after you sow and that's why there are so many people today with all kinds of problems let's take for example the issue of immorality. I would say that at least fifty percent of all problems in marriages can be traced back to an immoral background. Now at the time you say well it's not going to affect me we're going to take care of this and then suddenly you marry the person with whom you are involved thinking that all is going to be sweetness and light and on your honeymoon you begin to have terrible terrible vicious arguments of hatred and guilt and you say well where's all this coming from?

Almost always it's coming from some seeds that were planted and you don't reap in the same season that you sow you reap a little later on. You say well what do you have to do about that? Well the answer is the weeds need to be pulled out of the ground by the roots because they will continue to grow they will continue to bring a bitter harvest and it will go on and on and on until the root has been pulled out through confession through repentance through responsibility in terms of accountability that's how seriously we have to deal with this business that we call sin. My friend today you and I need to understand how seriously God takes sin and that's why we have to deal with it very radically if sin is taken lightly the solution oftentimes is a light one that doesn't work but thank God that he is there for us to forgive and to give us a brand new beginning. We here at Running to Win always ask ourselves the question how can we help you run the race of life and to do so successfully? Well I have in my hands a book entitled conquering the fear of failure lessons from the life of Joshua. We're making this book available to you because we believe it's going to help you you know Joshua not only experienced victories but as we know also great defeats and he also misread situations and made a covenant that he should not have made so how do we navigate all of these decisions of life? I think that this book is going to be a tremendous help for a gift of any amount it can be yours you go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 and I want to thank you so much in advance for helping us you've heard me say this before but Running to Win is now in 50 different countries in five different languages why? As a people just like you and we want to say thank you to you so go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 remember the name of the book is conquering the fear of failure lessons from the life of Joshua.

God has given us this book in the old testament so that our lives may be changed challenged and otherwise rerouted for his glory and for his honor thanks so much for helping us. You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time more on God's watchful eye and why our personal purity is of such great importance to him as we engage in spiritual warfare thanks for listening for Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.