Joshua 7:19-21
Basic Lessons, Part 1
In "Basic Lessons, Part 1," Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Joshua 7:19-21, focusing on Achan's confession as a chronicle of sin's ensnarement and destruction. He details the first two steps in Achan's fall: the presentation of forbidden objects to the senses and the excitation of desire (coveting). Martin applies these lessons by urging believers to discipline their eyes, cultivate eyes of faith, and guard their hearts, while also highlighting the absolute sinlessness of Christ as the only hope for sinners.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 8 sections · 49 min
- Introduction to Achan's Confession and its Significance 0:06
- The Basic Lesson: Sin's Ensnarement and Destruction 4:23
- Achan's Fall: The Presentation to the Senses 6:46
- Exhortations: Disciplining the Eyes and Cultivating Faith 14:21
- The Second Step: Excitation of Desire (Coveting) 23:13
- Defining Coveting as Sin and Idolatry 24:18
- Application: Universality of Sin and Guarding the Heart 32:14
- The Glory of the Sinless Savior and the Call to Believe 38:08
Key Quotes
“though we have no reason, to believe that the confession of Achan was one which flowed from a regenerate heart, it is a confession which does contain the essential elements of all true confession of sin.”
“And the basic lesson of Achan's confession is to be found in the fact that it is a chronicle of the soul's ensnarement by sin and the ultimate destruction that sin brings to the soul thus ensnared.”
“He was not looking at them in faith. For to look at anything in faith is to view it through the eyes of divine revelation.”
“What the mouth is to the state of the body, the eye is to the state of the soul. It is the inlet to the soul.”
“Coveting is desiring that which cannot be obtained without violating the law of God.”
“covetousness which is idolatry it's saying God I don't like the way you've arranged things you've said all of that should be destroyed I want some of it spared I want to be God and give the orders that's idolatry”
“my friend that heart full of covetousness is enough to damn you a thousand times over that's why in the judgment the scripture says God will judge men according to the secret of the heart”
“without sin that means without coveting without one twitch of the finger of desire that's our savior and that obedience is what becomes mine if I believe on him”
Applications
All listeners
- Learn to discipline your eyes, or you'll make no progress in the Christian life, through fervent prayer, conscious effort, and spiritual discipline.
- Seek to cultivate eyes of faith, viewing all things as they are declared to be by God's divine revelation.
- Seek to train your children in the concept of disciplining their eyes and viewing everything as God looks upon it, especially in a media-saturated world.
- Recognize the absolute universality of sin, understanding that covetousness itself is sin and enough to damn a soul.
- Guard your heart above all else, for out of it are the issues of life, and all declensions from God's law start there.
- Engage in heart exercise, wrestling with God in secret prayer over the sins of the heart, such as coveting.
- Flee to Christ, resting the weight of your sin-sick soul upon his perfect obedience and death, if God has given you a sight of your heart's sinfulness.
- Flee afresh to Christ, throwing yourself upon his perfect righteousness, recognizing that your acceptance is not in your performance but in his.
- Pray for Christ to give you of his Spirit to be content with the Father's allotments and to take your undisciplined heart in hand, drawing it after himself.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 84 paragraphs, roughly 49 minutes.
Introduction to Achan's Confession and its Significance
Welcome to the 7th chapter of the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter 7.
Time will not permit us to engage in any kind of an extensive review of the things we have previously discovered in our verse-by-verse study of this very helpful portion of the Word of God. Suffice it to say that the chapter contains a record of the sin of Achan in its commission, a record of the sin of Achan in its fruition, and a record of the sin of Achan in its purgation from the camp of Israel.
At our present point of study, we are focusing our attention upon the confession which Achan gave after he had been charged to give such a confession by Joshua, which charge came on the heels of God's discovery of Achan as the guilty one within the camp of Israel. Follow, please, as I read. Joshua 7, verses 19 through 21. And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done.
Hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Of a truth I have sinned against Jehovah, the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I, When I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonish mantle, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. We prefaced our study last week, or I prefaced the study with the statement, that though we have no reason, to believe that the confession of Achan was one which flowed from a regenerate heart, it is a confession which does contain the essential elements of all true confession of sin. God sovereignly and powerfully drew from this man's mind and lips a confession which is in a very real sense the pattern for all true confession of sin. In our study last week, we noted but two things. First of all, its basic character.
It was given in strict conformity to divine directions. It was given in strict honesty as in the divine presence. And then we noted in the second place its basic ingredients. It contained a clear acknowledgement of the person offended by his sin, of a truth I have sinned against Jehovah, the God of Israel.
It was made, this confession, with unreserved acceptance, acknowledgement of the person responsible for his sin. I saw, I took, I coveted. And thirdly, it contained a thorough acknowledgement of the particulars of his sin. Thus and thus have I done.
And we concluded from that study that all true confession will contain these essential ingredients and partake of these basic characteristics. We need not think of it as a confession. We need not think of it as a confession. We need not think of true confession necessarily following this pattern in terms of sequence.
We're not saying that our confessions of sin must be made in these words. But wherever there is true confession, as one analyzes that confession, he will find that these ingredients are there, these basic characteristics are present. Having considered then the confession in its basic character, the confession in its basic ingredients, I want to direct your attention this morning to a consideration of the confession of Achan in its basic lesson.
The Basic Lesson: Sin's Ensnarement and Destruction
And the basic lesson of Achan's confession is to be found in the fact that it is a chronicle of the soul's ensnarement by sin and the ultimate destruction that sin brings to the soul thus ensnared. Third, Achan's confession not only contains the basic characteristics of true confession, the basic ingredients, but it sets before us this basic lesson of how sin destroys a man from its first allurements, from its first propositions to its ultimate destruction. And that will be our concern this morning and this evening, God helping us to see the elements, individual elements, and the elements of sin that are present in the confession of Achan. We are learning this basic lesson as they speak to us in our present circumstances. And you will notice in the first place that Achan, in this chronicle of how he fell into the sin, tells us in these words, I saw among the spoil that there was a presentation to his senses of the forbidden objects. And that is always the first step to sin of this nature.
We are not dealing now. We are dealing now with sins that are what we would call the reflex response of our corrupt nature. You stub your toe getting out of bed in the morning, and you mumble some words that do not bear repetition publicly or privately. Well, those are sins that we might call the reflex response of our indwelling corruption.
But we are dealing now with sins that come by means of definite temptation or solicitation to evil. The kind of things that we pray against when we say, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil or the evil one. And the first step in falling before such sins is always, as we find it in the text, the presentation to the senses of forbidden objects. When I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonish mantle and two, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight.
Achan's Fall: The Presentation to the Senses
Go back and relive the situation. The walls of Jericho have fallen before the mighty power of God. Achan along with the other men of Israel is going up, each man before him, with the torch in one hand in order to burn and to plunder and perhaps a bag in the other in order to collect the gold, the silver and the precious metals to bring them back. For the treasury of God.
And in that situation and notice it was in a situation in strict obedience to the command of God. We may say in the very center of the will of God that his eyes lighted upon a garment, a wedge of gold and this goodly silver. And in that situation of performing the precepts of God, the eyes, of Achan became the inlet to the sin of Achan. Eyes which were the gift of God, for the scripture says he that made the eye shall he not see. He giveth to all life and breath and by means which was the gift of God. These eyes beheld objects in the course of doing the will of God. So it was the gift of God, his eyes, beholding things that he could not help be in the midst of doing the will of God that became the step to his downfall. And here's the crux of the issue. And if you get this this morning, and if I could get it across
by God's help in 10 or 15 minutes, I feel we could dismiss the congregation. We'd have enough to meditate upon, apply, reflect upon, not only for the rest of today, but for many days to come. Here's the crux of the issue. Here's the crux of the issue.
Here's the crux of the issue. Achan's eyes were eyes which at this point were not operating within the sphere of faith and under the discipline of divine revelation. If so, the moment his eyes lighted upon the garment, when I saw among the spoil of goodly garment, the moment his eyes lighted upon the gold and the silver, you know how he would have looked upon them? He would have said, he would have said, that is a beautiful garment as it appears in isolation. But viewing it with the eye of faith, within the framework of divine revelation, that garment is a detestable object. God has pronounced upon it fire. God has pronounced upon it destruction. Because that garment is part and parcel of the whole way of life of the Canaanites who live in the kingdom of God. The whole way of life of the Canaanites has come to its full measure.
And God is pronouncing judgment upon those nations. And everything that marks the nations, God wants to underscore the lesson as they go into that first and mighty city. Everything is under the frown of God. The total way of life is under his displeasure. And so Achan, if he was viewing that garment with the eye of faith, would not have seen something that he could even envision as adorned him and making him a bit more handsome. The moment his eyes looked upon the gold, he should have seen not just gold that may in exchange bring this, this and this. He should have viewed that gold as being wrapped up in the hand of Jehovah. He should have viewed the shekels of silver as being enclosed in the hand of Jehovah. And his problem was, he viewed the garment and the gold and the
goodly silver. in isolation from what God had said about them. He was not looking at them in faith. For to look at anything in faith is to view it through the eyes of divine revelation.
It's to view it in terms of what God, it really said it's a thing of Christ. What did God say the gold was? A thing possessed. Bring it to me.
That's what God had already said. He made that very plain in chapter 6, verses 18 and 19. So when Achan confesses, And so it is with us, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and dear unsaved man, woman, fellow, or girl here this morning, the first sin is this presentation to the senses of forbidden objects. And most frequently, the sense that brings us into most trouble is indeed the eye. Was not this the case with Eve? We read in Genesis 3, 6, When she saw that it was a delight to the eyes and good for food.
It can be with the other senses, such as touch, hearing, tasting, smelling, or the images etched upon the mind. But most often, most often, our problem is this presentation to the eye gate of some forbidden object. And often that forbidden object comes before us in the path of doing the will of God. Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness when before his eyes passed all the kingdoms, all the kingdoms of the earth.
You read it in Matthew 4. It says, And Satan taketh him into a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth. Here were these objects presented to his sense of sight. Where?
In the center of the will of God. Driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. Dead center in God's will, if we're going to use that terminology. And here was the presentation.
And we learn from this, the great, the great lesson that the eyes are the inlet to the soul. Your eyes and my eyes,
my soul, what your mouth and my mouth is to our bodies.
All that goes into your body, apart from any kind of inoculation you have, or that which you may breathe in and may indirectly affect you, but that which goes in the normal way is by mastication, swallowing, and then assimilation through the bodily process, until what I eat becomes part and parcel of what I am. What the mouth is to the state of the body, the eye is to the state of the soul. It is the inlet to the soul. Now if this be true, then several exhortations are in order.
Exhortations: Disciplining the Eyes and Cultivating Faith
If sin begins with this presentation to the senses of forbidden objects, and if the eye is most often the inlet to the soul, then three exhortations are very much in order. Number one, learn to discipline your eyes, or you'll make no progress in the Christian life. By fervent prayer, by conscious effort, by every available means of spiritual discipline, learn to discipline your eyes. David is an example of the place of prayer.
Psalm 119.37 Turn away mine eyes, from beholding vanity. Lord, you have this world. Vanity.
Lord, don't let me look at it as though it's something substantial. For the world passeth away in the lust thereof. We're not playing tricks on ourselves. We're saying, Lord, don't let my eyes play tricks on me.
Help me to be a man of faith, a woman of faith, to look at an object, not as a neutral object, but to look at it in terms of what you've said about it.
Learn to discipline the eyes by prayer. Spiritual rigor such as Job knew when he said, I've met with my eyes. He said, I've entered into agreement with my eyes. When my eyes would say, look upon that young maid, he says, no,
look upon a virgin. He had his legitimate wife. When his eyes wanted to drink in the beauty of a forbidden object, he said, no, I have made a covenant.
Solomon said to his son, let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before. Let thine eyes look right on. And when there are the forbidden objects that come across the path, even in doing the will of God, don't turn aside to look at them. Let thine eyes look straight on.
Jesus said, if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. That's what I'm talking about when I say a legitimate exhortation based upon this principle is learning the discipline of the eyes. Prayer. Confidence with our eyes.
Looking straight on. Secondly, seek to cultivate eyes of faith. That is, eyes that view all things as they are declared to be.
Go back to Akin. If one looked at that garment in the gold and not to look at it, he never would have taken them.
It's when he said, that garment is a beautiful thing that will make me appear beautiful.
That wasn't the truth. It was an accursed thing that would accursed him and his entire family and the entire nation. And that's what God said the garment was. In chapter 6, he said, if anyone takes of the spoil, the nation shall be accursed.
God had spoken clearly.
He didn't look upon it in faith. And that's where our trouble comes. God says in 1 John 2, 15-17, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. That thing that you look upon, God says, it's passing. It's passing.
And all attack. Solomon underscored this with his son. He said, when you pass by the house of the immoral woman, and she says, here is a her. He says, no more.
Look upon her house with the eye of faith. And when she perfumes her bed, and comes out and seeks to entice you, and said, here is the her. Now, is God overstating the case to scare us? No.
He's telling us as it is. He's telling us like it is. It is the house of death. He says, look upon it as such.
Seek to cultivate eyes of faith with reference to your body. It's a temple of God. God forbids impurity, abusing that body. Look upon it as such.
I dare not make it a temple house. Of lust. I dare not make it that which is undercut in its usefulness because of inordinate eating. Why?
It's a temple of God. It's not a matter of my personal appearance before men. It's the temple of God. And yet, when I'm tempted to fuss on it too much, I must look at it for what it is.
Dust that's going back to dust.
And when I'm too concerned to primp it and care for it, remember in a few short years the worms will be feeding on it. Look upon it as God says it is.
I know some of you really wrestling with the problem that only affluent societies have. The problem of inordinate eating. My friend, here's the crux to the whole matter. Here's the crux.
When that extra piece of pie and those things and the rest are there saying, take me, I'll make you feel good. No, you say, no, no. To take you is to defile my conscience with the guilt of my inordinate appetite. To take you is to pile pounds on my flesh that cause me to lose my own respect and the respect of my kids or my husband or my wife.
Start looking at that piece of pie, that forbidden object for you with the eye of faith.
And the TV guy says, look at me. I'm an innocent movie.
You say, no, you're not an innocent movie. You're a subtle attempt to bring the perspectives of the world into my living room. Be gone!
I'm an innocent pie. No, you're not an innocent pastime.
You see what I'm talking about? That the eye, that the eye must be cultivated to look at all that it sees in faith. Learn to discipline the eyes. By the grace of God, cultivate eyes of faith.
And I speak a word to parents. Seek to train your children in this concept. There's a little ditty that is sung so frequently and it's one of those that I think is well worth hanging on to. Be careful, little eyes.
What you see. Be careful, little eyes. What you see. There's a father up above looking down at you in love.
Be careful, little eyes. What you see. And we live in a day that Solomon didn't have to reckon with. We live in a day that Paul didn't have to reckon with.
There was no printing press back then. There were no billboards. There was no television. There was no mass media.
But if in that day of relative insulation from stimuli coming out coming to the eye gate we have all these warnings how would Paul write in our day? How would Solomon write if he lived in our day? And oh, we need to give to our children the legacy of careful warning and admonition to learn the discipline of their eyes or they're never going to make it. And we must train them to look upon everything as God looks upon it.
The whole subtle thrust of the advertising that is done at every level is to convince you that things bring happiness things bring stature things bring standing things bring and it's not true. It's a lie. We must help our children to look upon these things with the eyes of faith. Well, the first step to Achan's sin in this sad chronicle of his declension ultimately to destruction is there was the presentation to the eyes of forbidden objects.
The Second Step: Excitation of Desire (Coveting)
But in the second place there was the excitation of the eyes of forbidden objects. The excitation of desire for the forbidden object. Look at his terms. When I saw there's the presentation then I coveted them.
From presentation to the senses there is the excitation of desire for the forbidden objects. I coveted them. That is my desire was set upon them as objects that would serve my best self in the future. The fingers of my heart wrapped themselves around the garment the gold and the silver.
That's what Achan is saying. The object passed before my senses upon the presentation to my senses not looking upon it in faith but looking upon it as neutral object. The fingers of my heart went out and grasped. I coveted them.
Defining Coveting as Sin and Idolatry
The garment the gold the silver. Now this necessitates spending a moment to define what coveting is in the sense in which Achan uses it. Coveting is desiring that which cannot be obtained without violating the law of God. Coveting is desiring that which cannot be obtained without violating the law of God.
Now sometimes it expresses itself by desiring a thing unlawful in itself. Even the garden. That tree and anything on it was unlawful in itself. So the moment there was desire for anything on that tree a leaf an apple a pear it was sin because the whole thing was forbidden.
But sometimes it's desiring a thing lawful in itself but not lawful in my present circumstances. You look at the tenth commandment thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife. It may be right for a man to desire a wife. But if in the present circumstances she belongs to someone else then to desire her is sin.
The desire for a wife is not sin or even the desire for that individual were she free to marry is not sin. So you see coveting is the setting of the desire upon any object which can only be attained by violating Now in this setting it was an unlawful thing because God had said everything is devoted to destruction all the precious metals are mine. And what has come home to my heart with power and preparation and I hope the spirit of God will bring home to us this morning in presentation is this that this very coveting is in itself sin. Sin is transgression of the law. Right?
The tenth commandment that embodiment of God's law says thou shalt not therefore the moment we covet we've already though we may for instance the man who covets his neighbor's house may have to attain it but the very coveting and he may add the sin of thievery to the sin of coveting the man who covets his neighbor's wife may commit adultery to enjoy the sensual pleasure of the illicit relationship but he has sinned long before he's committed adultery with her in act he's been guilty of the sin of coveting in his very desire now this may be a new concept to some of you but it's biblical and I hope the spirit of God will drive it home because if he does it's going to blow the lid off your heart and what comes out isn't going to be pleasant and this is exactly what happened to the apostle Paul remember what he said in Romans chapter 7 and I want you to look at it it's the most accurate commentary on our text this morning Romans chapter 7 here is a man who could testify as he does in Philippians chapter 3 that his external life is touching the requirements of the law was blameless but what about his internal life
verse 7 of Romans 7 what shall we say then is the law sin God forbid how be it I had not known sin except through the law I had not known coveting you see what he's saying when I came to understand what coveting was then and only I understood what sin was ignorant of sin ignorant of sin ignorant of sin that's his confession except the law said thou shalt not covet but sin finding occasion wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting for apart from the law sin is dead and I was alive apart from the law once I didn't see myself as a slain sinner standing under condemnation needing the balm of the gospel but when the commandment came and in the context that commandment was the tenth commandment when I began to understand that that commandment blew the lid off my heart and that whenever my heart desired any forbidden object or a legitimate object that could not be attained apart from disobedience to God when I saw that I saw myself what God declares me to be sin revived and I died and the commandment which was unto life I found to be unto death
for sin finding occasion through the commandment beguiled me and through it slew me see what he's saying he's saying that he came to an understanding of the nature of covetousness that it is sin in itself that's why that apostle could say in Colossians 3 5 covetousness which is idolatry not it leads to idolatry it is idolatry would anyone say that idolatry was not sin covetousness is idolatry in what sense almighty God in his providence and sovereign disposition of his world and his people and his gifts has said you shall have this portion in life with this station in these circumstances look at Achan you shall be my instrument to put the torch of destruction to everything in Jericho but the gold the silver and the precious metals now what does Achan do he says I'm not content with God to give the orders I will not believe that that God is wise and good and gracious and right in his demands therefore seeing something that I feel will be in my best self interest the garment the gold the silver I'll take them to myself what's he doing he's making a god of his own desires that's the essence of idolatry covetousness which is idolatry it's saying God I don't like the way you've arranged things you've said all of that should be destroyed
I want some of it spared I want to be God and give the orders that's idolatry and so it is whenever the heart is coveting it is guilty of idolatry and oh dear people is not this the history of our hearts the eyes or our other senses are fixed upon forbidden objects perhaps in themselves legitimate but in our relationship to them illegitimate but they are not attainable except by disobedience to the law of God then when there is this exaltation of desire or lust this excitation of desire or lust we're in that terrible place where passion and desire begin to cloud the judgment all of the forces of sin are marshaled to do one thing now to batter down the resistance of the conscience and the principle of grace within the heart of a believer and to secure the consent of his will to do what his coveting demands must be done to gratify the inordinate desire and once we're in that place when things are passion and longing are battering against man's soul seeking the consent of the will for we never sin against our will never don't you say I did it against my will no
Application: Universality of Sin and Guarding the Heart
and it's that securing that then is the next step as we shall see in the unfolding of the text but oh dear ones if this be the problem with Achan that following the presentation to the senses of the forbidden object there was the excitation of desire for that object then what a lesson Achan speaks to us this morning let me draw out three lines of pointed application this passage and its broader references we've tried to expound it this morning certainly is enough to convince anyone here of the absolute universality of sin who amongst us would dare to say I'm not a foul sinner if he understands that covetousness is sin if you are convinced that the very who amongst us is so stupid so blind as to say I am no sinner my friend is it possible that in this place here today is someone so ignorant of his own heart that he would say I am no sinner I am no sinner
when every desire you've had from the time you were an infant that was set upon forbidden objects whether it was cookies that mama cooked and said they're for company and you cannot have them or the full-blown subtle conniving desire of the businessman who's out to cut his competitor's throat and everything in between if we're convinced that inordinate desire desire for forbidden objects are objects that cannot be attained without violating the law of God then we must say with Paul sin by the commandment brought all manner of concupiscence evil desire within me oh may God give someone a sight of his heart this morning who may think all is well because coveting is never led to murder it's never led to adultery it's never led to thievery my friend that heart full of covetousness is enough to damn you a thousand times over that's why in the judgment the scripture says God will judge men according to the secret of the heart for many will be impeccable in the external deeds of the life whose true condition can only be known by the thoughts of the heart second application is to show us the necessity
of guarding our hearts Proverbs 4.23 guard thy heart above all that thou guardest for out of it are the issues of life go back to Achan what would have happened if and we can only speculate what would have happened if when there was the presentation to his eyes Achan had called himself at the first risings of desire when is it where the fingers of his heart were being unfolded and began to reach out if he had said no no no that garment is not a beauty to adorn Achan's back it is a cursed thing to be a monument of the righteous angle of God if he had guarded the heart he never would have had to say and I took and they are hid and they are hid and they are hid he never would have felt the first blow of that stone that struck his body he never would have heard the cry of his own wife and his own children as the stones came pummeling down upon them if only he had guarded the heart but once he let the fingers of his heart take them it was only a matter of time before these physical fingers would lay hold of the objects guard thy heart and oh dear Christian I plead with you this morning learn to guard the heart that's why a true Christian knows wrestling's in secret that he wouldn't even share with his wife his husband her husband child his friend
for the true Christian who's conscious that all of his declensions and deviations from the law of God start in the heart this is the great engagement in his secret prayers pleading with God for the ordering of his heart unite my heart to fear thy name my friend do you know anything of heart exercise wrestling with God over the sins of the heart I covet it coveting is a matter of the heart you don't covet with your hands your feet your tongue your ears you covet with the desires of the heart but thank God and I think this will have to be the closing note this morning this passage not only shows us the universality of sin the necessity of watching the heart but bless God it shows us the glory of our Savior you say the glory of our Savior how do you find that here ah listen listen if ever God is to accept sinners and say of those sinners they are perfectly righteous I can enter into loving communion with them because I see no spot in them sinners must have a righteousness so perfect that the burning eye of God can find no spot in it and there's only one man who walked the face of the earth who had such a righteousness the father who knew the heart of his holy son
The Glory of the Sinless Savior and the Call to Believe
could say of that one this is my son my beloved in whom I'm well pleased think of it think of it think this morning and this to me is just it just transcends the power of human reason and thought to grasp from the dawning of consciousness in that holy child Jesus not once when he saw the neighbors day after Christmas of course they had no Christmas I'm just using contemporary illustration when he saw them with more toys than he had never once did the fingers of his heart go out and say I want it perfect contentment with what God had allotted him never once when he was in school and someone else was chosen to give the peace the little poem at the Christmas program never once did he say I want that position no coveting no coveting no coveting never once for had the eye of God discerned in the holy heart of the son of God one whisper of coveting at any future he could not say my son that one act of would have warranted the wrath of God so when the scripture says he was holy harmless undefiled
think what it means he was holy he was a true man with physical eyes that beheld all the objects that all other human beings beheld it was in the course of doing the will of God that the whole kingdoms of the earth were spread before him in all of them and he knew they were rightfully his but he knew that a cross lay between him and the attainment of them and he said get thee hence there wasn't the twitch of a finger in his heart to reach out and seize the kingdom in any other way but the way appointed by the father oh dear ones may we fall at the feet of our savior Lord Jesus thou art sinless oh how glibly we say it do you see what it means now when you're gripped with the fact that coveting is in itself sin that not once was that holy heart defiled and what did he live in he lived in a situation of poverty and he never caught coveted wealth son of man hath not where to lay his head he saw the imposing stature of Rome and all of its authority and he never once coveted a wrong kind of overthrow of that government you meditate upon it
I tell you it's mind-blowing holy harmless undefiled living in poverty surrounded by wickedness his eyes presented the scriptures says with all the things with which our eyes are presented for he was tempted in all points like as we yet without sin without sin that means without coveting without one twitch of the finger of desire that's our savior and that obedience is what becomes mine if I believe on him and then that savior went to the cross to bear our sins what's it mean our sins our sins all of those own holy longings of our hearts along with all the deeds and words they produced but just to think of those longings alone is enough to say Lord Jesus can it be that you allowed your pure spotless soul to come into such close proximity with my sin that the father imputes to you my sin makes you to be sin on my behalf that I might be the righteous of God in you oh dear unsaved friend this is what we mean when we say believe
on the Lord Jesus we mean rest the weight of your sin sick soul upon his obedience and his death if you're so stupid is to think well I think I'll get by I haven't done too much my friend it's only right that God should consign you to hell for you're saying that Jesus Christ lived and died for naught you're saying I don't what he is and what he's done but if this morning God has given you enough of the sight of your heart that you say oh God if that's what sin is every single inordinate longing from the dawning of my consciousness how can I stand oh my friend if he's brought you there flee to Christ flee to Christ for he is made unto us righteousness and I say to you dear child of God who trembles at the thought of the awful potential within your own breast who must say with aching I have seen and I have coveted times without number child of God remember your acceptance is not to be found in your performance but in his flee afresh to Christ throw yourself upon his perfect righteousness say oh God the more I see of what sin is the more I'm driven out of myself
not to despair but into your beloved son and then you look to that Christ to give you grace to walk as he walked Lord Jesus give me of your spirit that was content with the allotments of the Father in the midst of suffering in the midst of poverty Lord Jesus you never coveted Lord Jesus by your own life and power do that in me which I cannot do for myself and any Christian who's been half awake this morning can certainly pray a prayer something like this Lord Jesus my heart is an undisciplined mass of inordinate desire you take it in hand and draw it after yourself and if you can't pray that my friend then I just blamed out your Christian what's the great abiding lesson of Akin's confession it is the lesson of the chronicle of how the heart is drawn aside into sin may God help us to see the lesson learn from it and by the grace of God to be preserved so that we shall not find the destructive power of sin crushing us as it crushed Akin God willing tonight I want to move on to the two more
points that are in this matter from the presentation to the senses to the excitation of desire there was the commission of the act necessary to enjoy the forbidden object then there was the deception attempted in order to cover the sin but finally there was the awful destruction upon the sin and the sinner and some of you may not be here tonight God may snatch you out before we gather and I'm going to close God willing tonight with a note that is a sobering one if you could draw near to that scene when the rocks begin to fall begin to pummel down upon Akin and upon his family ask Akin Akin what pleasure is your coat giving you now what pleasure is your bag of silver and your shekels your wedge of gold doing you now and I'd ask that question to every one of you who clings to your Babylonish garments who clings to your sin and the rags of your own righteousness how will you evaluate when the stones of God's judgment begin to press upon you and you find yourself in hell my friend this is what we're dealing with you may not have come to this place expecting to deal with such issues but those are the issues with which we traffic may God help us
by his grace to lay them to heart and to respond in the light of them let us pray our father when we come into the orbit of concentrated focused attention to the issues of sin and grace the glory of Christ in his obedience we feel that these things are beyond us above us we cannot attain unto them and yet we know that they are the very life blood of all true spiritual experience oh be pleased blessed Holy Spirit apply the things expounded this morning oh apply them with power deal with those that are strangers to grace may the sight they've received of their hearts drive them to Christ may we as your people appreciate as never before the perfection of his obedience oh Lord Jesus we do love you we love you as the holy harmless undefiled spotless son of God make us more like yourself take our unregulated undisciplined hearts into tow
and make them make them we pray fit dwellings for your presence have mercy upon us seal the word to us dismiss us with your blessing and be with us this day that we may bring praise and honor to you Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage containing Achan's confession is the central text, providing the framework for understanding the progression and nature of sin.
Paul's personal testimony regarding the law and coveting is expounded as the most accurate commentary on Achan's experience, defining coveting as sin itself.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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