Sin is Serious

Let there be light.

Our Father, as we look at your word together, we recognize that there are many passages, many stories that are difficult.

There are hard things that happen.

And we find it hard to understand it.

So we pray that by your Holy Spirit, you would shine your light upon your word so that we can understand it.

That we can apply it to our lives.

Help us to see it as you see it.

And that it would change us and transform us so that we become more like Christ.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, this week, after 16 years on the run, Ratko Mladic was arrested and sent to The Hague.

That's the International Criminal Tribunal.

Mladic was the Bosnian Serb Army Chief during the Bosnian War in the early 90s.

You've probably seen the accounts on the news.

He's being charged with extermination, murder and genocide for carrying out the Shrebshanitsa massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.

It was a brutal and violent act.

Ethnic cleansing at its worst.

And justifiably, Ratko Mladic is now on trial for those crimes.

And he deserves to be punished.

Now, as we read through Joshua chapter 6 and 7, we looked at chapter 6 last week, we can easily come to the same conclusions.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

Look back at chapter 6 for a minute.

Israel have come forward.

They've come to the first city that lies on the edge of the Promised Land.

Under God's orders, they are told to attack Jericho.

Under God's orders.

And we read what happens.

Chapter 6, verse 21.

They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it.

Men and women.

Young and old.

Little toddlers.

Little children.

Cattle.

Sheep.

And donkeys.

Sounds like extermination.

Genocide.

And ethnic cleansing to me.

And after that, we get to chapter 7 and we read about Achan.

One of the soldiers who was involved in taking Jericho.

And, well, he just took a few spoils for himself.

A few goodies.

Then look what happened to Achan.

Chapter 7, verse 25.

Joshua said to Achan.

Why have you brought this trouble on us?

The Lord will bring trouble on you today.

Then all Israel stoned him.

Then all Israel stoned him.

And after they had stoned the rest.

The rest there is his wife.

His sons and his daughters.

Presumably children there too.

They burn them.

They burn them.

Sounds like something the Taliban would do.

It's barbaric.

And it's violent.

On reflection, if Joshua were alive today, he would be hauled in front of the Hague.

In fact, there would be loud calls for God to stand trial in the International Criminal Tribunal.

As we said at the very beginning, these two chapters are some of the most difficult passages to come to terms with in the Bible.

But we mustn't confuse justice with violence.

This is not about a violent, sadistic God who unleashes his anger like a rat go maladage.

No, this is a God who is taking sin seriously.

And is intent on dealing with sin and working his justice in a rebellious and a wicked world.

Now before we get stuck into chapter 7, let me just show you how this is true.

First of all, just go back to Genesis chapter 15.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 15 verse 16.

Genesis 15:16

The context here is God has given his promises to Abraham.

He's promised to Abraham that he's going to become a great nation.

He's going to have his own land where all his descendants will live.

And he says this in verse 16.

In the fourth generation, Abraham, your descendants will come back here.

That's into the promised land.

For the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

Now the Amorites, they were the people who were living in Jericho.

The first city that they came and attacked.

And the time span between Genesis 15 and Joshua 6, where the battle takes place, is 600 years.

Year after year, decade after decade, century after century,

the sin of the Amorites has mounted up one on top of the other

until God says it will reach its full measure.

Year after year, generation after generation, every child that is born grows up to be worse than his parents.

And the cycle goes on and on and on, century after century.

Finally, God intervened.

And he brought his judgment on a wicked and sinful nation.

And Jericho was destroyed.

So this is not a mad general like God, wielding his power in acts of genocide.

No, this is a God who is extremely patient.

600 years of patience.

But nonetheless, he takes sin seriously.

The second passage in relation to this is Deuteronomy 9.

Go to that, Deuteronomy chapter 9.

Deuteronomy 9 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 4.

Deuteronomy 9:4

You see, we could think that as Israel march into the Promised Land, as they attack Jericho,

that in some way Israel are better than everybody else, superior, that they're good.

And God is pleased with them.

And that they deserve the land.

But this is what God says.

Deuteronomy 9, verse 4.

Deuteronomy 9:4

After the Lord your God has driven them out.

That's the Amorites.

After God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself,

The Lord has brought us here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.

No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you.

It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going to take possession of their land.

But on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

To accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

Understand then that it is not because of your righteousness, because of your goodness,

that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess.

For you are a stiff-necked.

You're a stubborn people.

Yes, God uses Israel as an instrument of justice, not because they were superior,

but ultimately because of the nation's wickedness.

In fact, later on as we read through the history of Israel,

God would use other nations like Assyria and Babylonia to bring his justice upon Israel.

So this is not about a vindictive, violent God who is throwing his weight around.

No, this is a God who is just, who takes sin seriously, and he will deal with it.

The judgment that we see fall on Jericho is God's reasoned, fair and just response to ongoing rebellion and sin.

So when we get into chapter 7 of Joshua, we read in verse 1,

that the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things that were the spoils.

Achan, son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of them.

So the Lord's anger burned against Israel.

You see, we shouldn't be surprised if God gets angry with sin.

In fact, given what's happened to the city of Jericho, we should be expecting it.

And the big question for us as we look at this chapter is,

not why did God do this to these people?

The question for us is, why has God not done this to me?

Why has he not done it to our nation?

If God takes sin so seriously, why does it seem like that right now he's backed off from it all,

and he's not doing anything about it?

Well, we'll come back to that later on.

But first of all, as we look at chapter 7,

we're going to look at the seriousness of sin.

Firstly, the nature of sin.

Most people think of sin as just simply breaking divine rules,

but it's much deeper than that.

Sin is ultimately seeking to live apart from God.

It's about making someone else or something else more important to you than God.

Look at how God views what Achan has done.

In verse 11 of chapter 7 of Joshua.

He says,

Israel have sinned.

They have violated or broken my covenant,

which I commanded them to keep.

They have taken some of the devoted things.

They have stolen.

They have lied.

And they have taken them and put them with their own possessions.

Yes, stealing was going on.

Yes, there were lies.

But ultimately, he says,

it was a violation or a breaking of God's covenant.

Remember, God had rescued these people,

and he had committed himself to these people.

He was loyal.

He was faithful.

He promised to care for them.

He promised to provide for them,

to bless them,

and in return,

they were to love God,

and they were to reflect God in the community in which they lived.

They had everything they needed in a relationship with God.

So to break the covenant,

to break that commitment,

was saying to God,

I don't need you.

I can live without you.

Look at how all of this is unpacked after Achan has been caught.

Look at verse 20.

Achan replied,

It is true.

I have sinned against the Lord,

the God of Israel.

This is what I have done.

When I saw in the plunder,

a beautiful robe from Babylonia,

200 shekels of silver,

that's about five pounds in weight,

and a huge wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels,

I coveted them.

I wanted them.

And I took them.

And they're hidden in the ground inside my tent with the silver underneath.

You see,

the sin is not just stealing.

The sin is not just telling the lies.

It's a rejection of God.

It's saying to God,

You're not enough.

I need something more than you.

I'm going to replace you with something else.

So when Achan stole,

he was replacing God with things and possessions.

When Achan told lies,

he was seeking his identity and his value outside of God.

What people thought was much more important than what God thought.

Sin is making things in people more important to you than God himself.

As one writer put it like this,

All sins are attempts to fill voids.

Because we cannot stand the God-shaped hole inside of us,

we try stuffing it with all sorts of things,

which only God can only fill.

Now that's not only an offence to God,

the God who made us and the God who owns us.

Our sin actually destroys the community in which we live.

Replacing God leads to destroying the community.

You see, when we choose to live how we want,

we say things like,

Well, it's my life.

I'll do what I want.

It doesn't affect you.

My decisions are my own.

But the truth is,

our choices have a huge effect on others.

Look at Achan.

He stole items which he buried in his own tent for a rainy day.

But look what happened when Israel went out on their next mission.

Back at verse 4.

They'd taken Jericho.

They were then going to move on towards Ai.

And here we read in verse 4.

So about 3,000 men went up.

And they were rooted by the men of Ai,

who killed about 36 of them.

They chased the Israelites from the city gates as far as the stone quarries,

and they struck them down on the slopes.

Why did that happen?

Well, we're told in verse 12.

That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.

They turned their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction.

I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

You see, the principle here is that one man's sin.

Well, it's only me who did it.

It doesn't affect anybody else.

But it did affect everybody else.

It affected the whole community.

And that's the point.

Our selfish choices have a profound impact on the lives of others.

Go back to how we understood what sin is.

How it replaces God with things and people.

So if I make family and home more important than God,

if I replace God and make my family and my house more important,

then that means I'm going to care less for other families and their needs,

and that's what brings about poverty.

If I make getting a highly paid job more important than God,

if money becomes so central to my life that I replace it with God,

then I will think less of those who are so well paid.

People who don't have as much as me,

well, I'll just consider them not really anything significant.

If I make finding a partner more important than God,

if I make my wife or my husband or girlfriend or boyfriend,

if I replace God with them,

well, then I'm going to ignore other people

and what their needs are.

And that's what's gone wrong in our society and in our culture.

And you multiply that over and over again,

and we can see that when we replace God with things and people,

we begin to destroy the community in which we live.

We destroy our own families.

We destroy our community.

We destroy our nation.

The slides that we saw there in Peru,

why is there the poverty in Lima?

Because people replace God with things and everything else

and people get left out.

People aren't treated like human beings.

Sin affects the whole community.

And that is why God is taking sin so seriously in this chapter.

That's why in chapter 1, in verse 1,

it says God's anger burned against Israel.

When Achan stole,

he was simply replacing God with things

and it affected the community deeply.

So that's the nature of sin.

Then there's the problem with sin.

It leaves us with two problems.

First sin is so serious,

it is always going to be found out.

Achan thought he had done a good job, didn't he?

He managed to smuggle it back to his house,

to his tent,

dug a hole and he buried the silver and the gold.

Nobody knew.

Nobody saw.

But God was aware of what went on

and he sought to expose his sin.

And you could imagine the tension in the camp.

We read about it in verse 16.

It's all been made known to the community.

Somebody's stolen something.

Well, who was it?

There were four million of them.

Well, you could imagine the tension.

All the tribes were told in verse 16.

They all come forward,

tribe by tribe,

twelve of them all together.

And then they single out the tribe of Judah.

The others breathe a sigh of relief.

But there's still a lot of them.

So the clans of Judah come forward,

one by one.

And out of those clans,

the Zerahites are taken.

I wonder what Achan was feeling at this stage.

Probably getting a bit sweaty in the palms,

I would imagine.

Then the whole clan of the Zerahites

come forward by families.

All the families are there,

one by one.

And then the Zimri family are taken out.

And they all come forward,

reducing in number all the time.

Achan.

Think he's going to get away with it?

Then the Zimri family come forward,

each represented by the head of the house,

the man coming one by one forward,

each one going along the line,

not you, not you.

Achan.

Son of Carmi,

the son of Zimri,

the son of Zerah,

of the tribe of Judah.

was singled out.

What was Achan thinking?

Did he think he could somehow escape being found out?

Did he think somebody else would cover for him?

Not tell?

Did he think God wouldn't take it seriously

and that it just really didn't matter?

Well, the point is,

God does take it seriously.

And no one can hide from God.

It makes us think how stupid we are

to try and hide from God

or pretend that it really doesn't matter

when I tell a porky

or when I do something that I ought not to do.

Sin will always be found out.

And that's a problem

because, second,

sin is so serious,

it will always be judged.

Look at verse 24.

Then Joshua, together with all Israel,

took Achan, son of Zerah,

the silver,

the robe,

the gold wedge,

his sons and daughters,

his cattle, donkey, and sheep,

his tent,

and all that he had

to the valley of Achor.

Which means trouble, by the way.

He was in trouble.

Joshua said,

Why have you brought this trouble on us?

The Lord will bring trouble on you today.

Then the family were taken out.

All his cattle,

all his donkeys,

everything he owned.

And they stoned him.

And after they had stoned the rest,

his sons and his daughters,

they burned them.

Now we find this action

violent, don't we?

Barbaric.

Find it hard to read.

Find it hard to stomach.

How could God,

a God of love,

permit?

How could God decree

that this should happen?

Now while these questions

are understandable,

and I've gone over,

over, and over,

and over again this week,

our questioning

only reveals

our own attitude to sin.

The point is,

we don't take sin seriously.

That's why we think

the penalty is too harsh.

The reality is

the penalty for Achan

is so severe

because sin is so serious.

And I think his family

are all included

because, well,

they all lived in the tent,

they all knew what went on,

but they didn't say.

In other words,

sin against an infinite,

pure,

and holy God

has infinite consequences.

And we find passages

like this difficult

only because we don't think

sin is such a big deal.

We mess about with it.

We play with it.

It doesn't matter.

God won't mind.

Well, it does matter.

And God does mind.

And I guess

as we think about

these issues,

there will be those

who will say,

well,

God's not like that anymore.

That's the God

of the Old Testament.

We're in the New Testament

now and things are much better.

Things are much different.

Well, it's true.

Things are very different

in the New Testament,

but not as we would expect.

In the Old Testament,

God's judgment is local

and it's temporary,

but when you read on

and you get to the New Testament,

it becomes global

and eternal.

God's attitude to sin

doesn't lessen.

It actually becomes greater

as you read on in the Bible.

Listen to this,

how God's coming judgment

on sin will be.

If you want to,

you can have a look

at Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation 14 · chapter mention

If not, just listen.

Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation 14 · chapter mention

This is picturing

God's judgment upon the world.

Revelation 14 verse 17.

Revelation 14:17

Another angel came out

of the temple in heaven

and he too had a sharp sickle.

It's a big sharp blade

for cutting things.

Still,

another angel

who had charge of the fire

came from the altar

and called in a loud voice

to him who had the sharp sickle.

And he says,

Take your sharp sickle

and gather the clusters

of grapes

from the earth's vine

because its grapes are ripe.

The angel swung his sickle

on the earth,

gathered its grape,

threw them into the great winepress

of God's wrath.

They were trampled

in the winepress

outside the city

and blood flowed

from the press

rising as high

as a horse's bridle.

What's that?

About four foot?

For a distance

of 1,600 stadia.

That's about 300 kilometers.

Quite gruesome, isn't it?

Yes, it's imagery.

Yes, it's a picture.

And the image here is

of in the past

when people went cutting grapes,

they would cut off

the bunches of grapes,

they would carry them

to the great big wine vat

and they would put them

in the big press

and all the slaves

would get up on top

and they would trample down

all the grapes,

squishing it all the way down.

And the juice from the grapes

would run out from holes

in the bottom

of the winepress

and they would gather it

and they would make their wine.

Well, the picture here

is of God's final judgment

coming down into the earth,

taking up all the peoples

because they are ripe.

Their sin has mounted

on top of one upon the other

and God has finally intervened.

And they are thrown in

to this great big wine vat

and they are trampled upon.

So much so that the image here

is horrific and terrifying.

That their blood would seep out

through the holes in the bottom,

that it would cover

300 kilometers wide

and four foot deep.

Yes, it's a picture.

Yes, it's imagery.

But it's telling us loud and clear

that sin is a serious problem.

And God will take sin seriously.

But thankfully,

God has a solution.

Go back to Joshua chapter 7.

Joshua 7 · chapter mention

I wonder,

did you notice

that when Achan sinned,

all Israel

were held accountable?

Look at verse 1.

It says,

the Israelites

acted unfaithfully.

Achan,

son of Carmi,

took some of them.

And in verse 11,

we read,

Israel has sinned.

They have violated

my covenant.

They have taken

some of the devoted things.

They have stolen.

They have lied.

Quite clearly,

only one person

had stolen.

But yet,

God's judgment

was on the

whole of the nation.

There was a corporate guilt.

If one had sinned,

it was counted

as if they had

all sinned.

Now,

in our individualistic culture,

we find that strange.

We find it very unfair.

But we must understand

God's relationship

to the people.

Israel were called

to be God's representatives

on earth.

They were His image bearers.

They bore His name.

They were to be

a holy nation

amongst the nations.

They were to reflect

God's character.

As people looked at them,

they were to be

everything that God was.

So when God saw

one sin,

it was like

the whole community

had failed.

Sin was so serious

that the threat

of contamination

of that kind of behavior

spreading out

through the people

had to be dealt with.

In other words,

they failed to live

as God's people.

And isn't that

the sorry story

of all God's people

throughout history?

From Adam and Eve onwards,

made in God's image,

made to reflect

His purity,

His character?

But they didn't.

They were shut

outside the garden.

No one can represent God,

it seems,

in all His perfection,

in all His holiness,

in all His purity.

There is no one

who is without sin.

And we are all

under God's

terrible judgment.

But thankfully,

God has His solution.

God is a God

of justice.

But it is never

at expense

to His grace,

to His compassion,

to His kindness,

and to His love.

And God longs

for a people

who would represent

Him fully

on earth.

and in search

of a true

representative,

He sends His

one and only Son,

the God-Man,

Jesus Christ.

He is the one

who stands in for us.

He is the one

who represents

for us.

Almost as a reverse

of Achan,

when we see all those

tribes come before God,

and slowly but surely,

it all boils down

to just one.

It's as if God

looks across the world

and He says,

who will represent me?

Not one person,

not one nation,

not one country,

no one.

Until finally,

it comes down

to Christ.

The only innocent,

pure,

perfect one

stands out

to represent

the nations.

And as our

representative,

that means that

what happens

to Jesus

happens to me.

Jesus so identifies

with us

that my life

becomes His life

and His life

becomes my life.

Jesus comes

and lives

the perfect life

for me.

He lives the covenant

that I could never live.

He obeys

where I could never obey.

He lives the holy life

that I could never live.

But more than that,

He dies the death

that I deserve to die.

He dies the death

that I deserve to die.

You know,

it wasn't until

Achan stepped forward

that he admitted

his sin,

that he came clean,

that he was punished.

And then the judgment

was removed.

One had to die

for that nation

or they all would die.

Achan,

guilty as he was,

died

so that the many

would not die.

And we're told

in verse 26

of chapter 7,

then the Lord

turned from His

fierce anger.

Isn't that what

Christ has done?

Representing us,

treated as you

and I deserve

to be treated.

All our sin,

all our failure,

Christ saying,

I will stand in

for you.

I will represent you.

And God's wrath,

as we picture Christ,

is poured out

upon Christ.

He is trampled

on for me.

He is crushed

for me.

His blood flows

instead of mine.

One dies

so that the many

would not have to die.

Amen.

God has not

stopped

taking sin

seriously.

We might think

He's backed off.

He's not doing

anything about it

anymore.

But He has.

He's intervened

by sending

His true representative.

And the reason

why we are not

judged in the same

way today

is because Christ

was judged

for us.

and we can

run to Christ

and find

ourselves

in the safety

and security

of Him.

Where His love

is poured out

into our lives.

Where we are

set free

and given

freedom to live

as His representatives,

His people

here on earth.

To change

the world

in which we live.

To show people

where sin

has broken down

society,

where it has

affected families,

and affected

one another.

And we can

talk of a solution.

We can talk

of Christ

who dies

for us.

But who

changes us.

And creates

His church

to be a new

community of people

who will live

for Him.

Who will reflect

Him in His

society.

Who takes

sin seriously.

And will

treat people

the way God

has called us

to treat them.

These are

difficult passages.

But yet

they remind us

of who our

God is

and all that

He has done

for us.

Don't let

these passages

go by

without letting

the seriousness

of it

deepen our

understanding

of what Christ

has done.

let's pray.

Our

Father God,

we do

come before

you humbly.

in the silence

we confess

our own

sin afresh.

We thank

you for

Jesus.

That He

was trampled

on for me.

That He

was crushed

for us.

Thank you

that you

have set us

free.

that you

have given

us a new

way to

live.

Your

people

representing

you here

on earth

help us

to live

well for

you.

We ask

this in

Jesus'

name.

Amen.

We're

going to

sing

together.

you

to

hear

this song

gives us

an insight

into the

world

in which

we live.

The

seriousness

of sin.

How our

own

individual

sin,

not just

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.