The popular insurance commercial asks the question, "What's in your wallet?" Today, I am here to ask you, "What's in your camp?" What's in your household that is keeping the blessings of God from coming to fruition? Is there sin in your camp? Is there sin in your household? Are you living by the Word of God? Or are you living by the laws of the land? You say, "What's the difference?" Paul writes in Romans chapter 12 not to be conformed to this world, that would be the land. But we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. How do we renew our mind? By obeying Joshua 1:8. "This book," that would be the Bible, "shall not depart out of your mouth. But you shall meditate on it day and night."
Our minds are to always be centered in the Word of God. Our minds are to always have the Holy Scriptures echoing throughout our souls. This book of the law, the law of God, is to be the very core of our mental capacity. We are to live by it. We are to worship by it. We are to base our decisions on it. We are to always have the Word of God so fresh in our minds, anything and everything should remind us of a passage of Scripture!
Is there sin in your camp? Today we are going to look at Joshua chapter 7 in its entirety and relive the account of when sin entered the camp of Israel and the consequences that came as a result. They were commanded by God not to touch the treasure of Jericho. The Bible calls it, the "accursed thing". And as we are about to read, one man took it upon himself to disobey the command of the Lord and, as a result, brought sin on the entire nation of Israel! Read with me now, Joshua chapter 7, beginning on verse 1. We're going to read the whole chapter today.
"But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the country.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.” So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water. Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?” So the Lord said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Get up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel: “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.” In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to families; and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households; and the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man. Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’ ” So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the clan of Judah, and he took the family of the Zarhites; and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man, and Zabdi was taken. Then he brought his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. Now Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.” So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.
Father God, bless the reading of Your Holy Word today. Let this teaching touch the hearts and lives of all who read this message today. Let the grace of God ring in the homes of every person here and let the peace of God reign in their hearts today, in Jesus Name we ask it in faith believing and expecting. Let all of God's children say, "Amen!"
Consider the fall of Jericho. Four hundred and thirty years of slavery in Egypt was followed by forty years in the heat and the grit of the desert. With Joshua as their leader, God released a plan that would begin the conquest of the Holy Land for the Jewish people. Think of Jericho as firstfruits. It was the first city that stood between Israel and the Promised Land. They are a nation of slaves, who have never marshalled an army. They are learning the principles of combat as Joshua is teaching them. But they're far from a mighty army right now. So, God is saying, "I'm going to fight this fight for you, because this first city belongs to Me." God made it clear: He was giving them Jericho.
There was only one thing forbidden and that was the gold and the silver in Jericho. And that's according to Joshua 6:18-19. "And you by all means, abstain from the cursed things: lest you become cursed when you take the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse of trouble for it. But all the gold, and the silver, and the vessels belong to Me, saith the Lord". Because Israel fully understood the law of firstfruits, every one of them got the message except one guy, Achan. There's always one guy in the crowd that thinks he's smarter than anybody else. That night, they went to bed in Israel after Jericho collapsed. And Achan is laying in his tent, saying, "All of that money is just a few hundred yards right over there. I can slip from tent to tent in the darkness and get gold and silver. I'll be rich for life." He went over there and got it. He came back, buried it in his tent, rolled back on his cot, and said, "I'm rich"!
The next day, Israel went out to fight AI, a little, insignificant army. It would be like the Kansas City Chiefs playing a group of neighborhood kids in a football game. They should have cleaned their clock, but instead, they got their backsides handed to them on a platter! Joshua sought the Lord in prayer along with the elders of his people asking God, "What's wrong"? God says, "Get up! Quit praying! There's sin in your camp!" There was a tent-by-tent search of every tribe. Achan had time to repent, because there were thousands of tents to inspect. Eleven tribes were searched. Achan's tribe, the tribe of Judah, was last. And they came to his tent, and Joshua came to the tent and said, Joshua 7:19, "Achan, give God the glory". Give what you took.
Achan had stolen the glory of God because he took the things that belonged to God. The result, what happened? Achan, his wife, his sons, his daughters, every animal he had, all his livestock were stoned to death by Israel. They stacked their bodies in a pile and burned them to ashes to purge Israel of the sin of taking what belonged to God. The Bible says, "I am the Lord: I never change". Have you stolen what belongs to God? Think about it. Because of one man's disobedience, the entire nation of Israel suffered the
consequences. They had to deal with the Achan factor before they could come back and get the blessing of God.
But, you don't have to take what belongs to God to bring sin into your camp, nor have it brought in your house. Sin can infiltrate your home without you even knowing it! Sin can penetrate your home and you are fully aware of it! I've known people over the years who claim to be Christians, claim to be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. They faithfully go to church every Sunday, then they live like little hellions the rest of the week! I know one person who's like that. They go to church, they serve in the church, they profess God, they profess the Name of Jesus, yet they allow their daughter and her boyfriend to shack up in their home! There's sin in the camp!
I've known self-proclaimed "Christians" who have pornography and pornographic material in their home! There's sin in the camp! I've known people in the church who were having extra marital affairs with people who were married themselves! There's sin in the camp! These are people I call, "Christians in name only". Many of you know or have heard of "Dog, the Bounty Hunter". Here's a man who claims to be saved, claims to be a born again Christian, and yet you watch him on his show and hear him spew the most vulgar profanity you've ever heard in your life! There's sin in the camp.
James 3:10, "Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so."
Colossians 3:8-11, "But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, FILTHY LANGUAGE out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him Who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all."
Point: People often ask me what's wrong with cussing and swearing. "Where in the Bible does it say not to cuss or swear?", they ask. There it is. Colossians 3:8-11. The "Taylor" amplified version, "THOU SHALT NOT CUSS!"
I've known people who claim to be saved and play the lottery. "What's wrong with that?", you ask? Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Matthew 6:25-34, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one [a]cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
People who play the lottery are people who are worried about money. They worry about how they're going to pay their bills. They worry about how they're going to buy food and clothing. And here Jesus is saying not to worry about things like that. Why? Because God will provide for us. The point of this passage is simply not to worry about how you're going to get by from day to day. God's got this. Worry is like a rocking chair. It'll give you something to do, but it'll get you nowhere!
Don't worry about clothes. Most of you have your own shopping mall hanging in the closet anyway. Don't worry about food. Half the country is on Weight Watchers. So, what are you worried about? God promised you provision and protection. And when you have God on your side, who could possibly threaten you? Tell that "Big Bad Wolf" wannabe, the devil, "Blow all you want, you backstabbing turncoat! I shall not be moved!" Praise the Lord for His provision and protection today.
If you play the lottery and claim to be saved by the grace of God, you're a hypocrite! Why? Because when you play something like the lottery, you are laying up treasures for yourselves here on this earth that is prophesied in the Bible as doomed to be destroyed by fire. When you play something like the lottery, you are telling God, "God, I don't believe You will do what You said in Your Word You would do and meet and supply all my needs according to Your riches in Glory through Jesus. I don't believe You will honor Your own Word. So, I'm going to go out into this God-less, sin-ridden world and get my provision from it!"
Let me tell you something, God will not bless you, He will not make a way for you, nor will He provide for you as long as you are trying to do it all on your own! God is waiting for you to trust Him and have faith in Him to do what He said He would do. We often say, "Jesus take the wheel!" But how many times have we said that and still hang on to the wheel ourselves? If you want God to move in your life, if you want God to bless your finances, if you want God to save your marriage, your home, your family, your loved ones, LET THEM GO! AND LET GOD MOVE IN YOUR LIFE! STOP HANGING ON TO THE WHEEL! IF YOU REALLY WANT JESUS TO TAKE THE WHEEL, LET IT GO!!! Praise the Lord for taking the wheel today!
You'll be amazed at what God will do for you if you just let go and let Him take over. But some of you have sin in your camp! What's in your camp that is keeping the blessings of God from you? What is in your life that is keeping God from moving on your behalf today?
I knew a lady in the church many years ago who was having an affair with a married man. It was her prayer that God would allow him to divorce his wife so they could be together! I've got a reality check for that woman. God is not about to allow something His Word says He hates! Is there sin in your camp?
I am truly amazed by how people in the church are being so tolerant of things that would be considered blasphemy yester year. There was a time when marriages lasted in the church. There was a time when people came to the house of God full of Holy Ghost fire shut up in their bones just itching to get out. Nowadays, most churches make you feel like you just left a funeral! Yours!
Many churches today have forsaken the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead of preaching on sin, hell and the Blood of Jesus Christ that washes away all sin, churches have embraced doctrines that teach people to not be ashamed of their sins rather than repenting of them. Many churches today hardly ever have altar calls asking people who want to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. More and more people are leaving the church and living like the world today because the pastors and preachers are not preaching the Gospel!
A few years ago, there was a very well known Pastor on the Larry King show. Larry King asked him, "Is it true that Jesus is the only way to God?" "Is Jesus the only way to get to Heaven?" That coward had the gall to say, "Well, that's up to God." That's up to God? What Bible is he reading? Has he never read John 14:6? What did the Lord say here? “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Who else died on that cross?! Who else took stripes on His back for our healing?! Who else rose from the dead on the third day?! Who else ascended into Heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?! Did Mohammed do that? No! Did Budha? No! Did Allah? No! Jesus is the ONLY One Who died for our sins! Jesus is the ONLY One Who took our punishment for us! Jesus is the ONLY One Who rose from the dead and is alive forever more! Bless the Lord for His victory over death, hell and the grave!
Is their sin in your camp? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:28, "Let a man examine himself" I know he's referring to the partaking of the Holy Communion here, but it doesn't just apply to that, I can assure you. Repentance should be a daily thing. We should always repent of sin everyday. Why? Because we can go into this world and sin without knowing it. We can sin and be fully aware of it. With the way this world is today, I wouldn't dare lay my head down on my pillow for the night without repenting of any sin I may have committed that day. And I'm not about to take such a chance. I want to be sure of my repentance.
The problem with sin is that is doesn't have to be a huge sin to cause disruption in your life. Sin typically starts small and grows and festers in one's life if they fail to repent on a daily basis. When that happens, sin grows like a cancer and before you know it, you have a huge cancer in your life called unrepented sin. And unrepented sin will keep the blessings and the promises of God from coming to pass in your life.
The word "Repentance" is just a word, and many people really don't understand the essence of the word. Here it is. "Re" means to return. "Pent," as in penthouse, which is the highest level in any building. Return to the highest level of relationship with God. That's repentance. Adam and Eve, walking with God and talking with God, that's the highest level of existence. Conscience screams back to the author and the finisher of our faith, back to peace, back to the Word of God, back to holiness, back to righteousness, back to truth. "Thy word is truth". Ladies and gentlemen of America, our nation must return to the yea and the amen of the Word of God or we will lose this nation!
When you do wrong, the divine umpire screams in your ear, "Stop it"! Most people become hard of hearing when conscience starts speaking. They have selective hearing. Your children have selective hearing. All of us parents here can testify to that, can't we? You could be sitting at the dinner table alone with your spouse and just whisper in the kitchen, "Let's take the kids out for ice cream," next thing you know, you hear a scurrying through the house. They're dressed, and in the car before you could get the keys and meet them there. But tell them to take out the trash. "What? Me"? And getting them to move is like pushing a cow out of the road! It ain't happening, brother. That's when you get "the whip", meaning your belt. Give it just one snap in your hands and I promise you, you'll never see anyone move so fast! LOL!!! The pharisees caught a woman in the act of adultery. They brought her to Jesus. Under the law of Moses, they had the right to stone her to death. But Jesus said, "He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone." One by one, they dropped their stones and walked away in shame of the sins they committed themselves. They left under the conviction of God. Leaving only Jesus and the woman. And He asked her, "Woman? Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." What did He say to that? "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." Don't let sin into your camp ever again. Is there sin in your camp?
The point is the law affected the outside of a man. If you could keep the religious rules, you were acceptable. Yet you could be as mean as a two-headed snake. That's true. America's churches are full of pharisees. They live, keeping religious rules. You have a form of Godliness, but you're denying the power of God thereof. There's sin in the camp. Jesus looked at his crowd one day, and said, "Prostitutes are going to heaven before you do". The pharisees, who caught the woman in adultery, were fine on the outside. But when Jesus wrote their sins in the sand, they dropped the stones in their hands because they knew they were guilty. That's John 8:9. They were convicted by their own conscience.
If you have sin in your camp, God cannot bless you. God cannot prosper you. God cannot heal you. Why? God cannot move where sin abides. Look at our passage for today. Achan stole the forbidden treasures of Jericho. What happened as a result of that? Israel got a beatdown from a small, nothing happening army of Ai. It would be like Rhode Island winning a civil war against Texas! By all means, Israel should've annihilated them. But because they had sin in their camp, sin they didn't even know about, God was not with them in that battle. Think about that. If you have sin in your camp, just like when Israel went out to fight Ai, God will not be with you. God cannot be where sin is. He will not be where sin is! That's just all there is to it!
Why did the earth go dark when Jesus hung on the cross? Because God could not stand the sight of our sin immersing His only begotten Son. 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Luke 23:44-45, "Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two."
God cannot stand the sight of sin anymore than a squeamish person can stand the sight of blood. God hates sin. And He cannot stand to see it on you, your family, your loved ones, or me. Is there sin in your camp?
I know a woman who recently divorced her husband. They were married for over 20 years. Most of that marriage, her husband cheated on her with other women. And yet she stayed in the marriage, not wanting the sin of divorce on her soul. Her husband did more than just cheat with other women. He watched porn, he had a collection of pornographic magazines, he would go out and drink almost every night. Finally, she filed for divorce. We were talking about it once and I told her what Paul said about such situations. Her husband never went to church with her, he never received Christ as Lord and Savior, and it reminded of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:15, "But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace."
I told her not to let the guilt of divorcing her husband get to her. Jesus said in Matthew 5:32, "But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason other than adultery causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." He also said in Matthew 5:28, "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Now, in her case, even though she is the one who filed for divorce, she is only making it official in the eyes of the law. HE is the one who divorced her. How? By having extra marital affairs and watching porn. That is biblical foundation for her to make it legal and leave that marriage. I'm not advocating divorce in any way, shape, or form. But, the Bible is very clear on this point. Because her husband initiated the infidelity, he is the one who divorced her in the eyes of God.
Malachi 2:13-16, "And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying; So, He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. “For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” says the Lord of hosts.
“Therefore, take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
When this man committed the acts of adultery against his wife, he broke covenant with her and God. A thing Malachi says He hates. So, HE is the one who divorced her as far as God is concerned. She's only making it legal in the eyes of the law. There is no bondage under God for her. None. Even if he had never touched another woman, which he obviously did, he lusted after them by watching porn and looking at pornographic magazines and images. Jesus said, "If a man looks at a woman and lusts after her, he has ALREADY committed adultery WITH HER in his heart."
Now that tells me two things, one, adultery and lust causes divorce from your spouse in the eyes of God. Two, it IS possible for you to put sin on another person. See how serious sin really is? See how deadly it can be? Is there sin in your camp.
The Bible says there are four kinds of conscience. There's a good conscience in 1 Timothy 1:5. There's a sered conscience, in 1 Timothy 4:2, where you say, "God has departed from me and hears me no more, and not by dreams and not visions". Saul said that when he went to the cave of the Witch of Endor. Are you sitting here, and there was a time in your life that you could hear God's voice, but not now? His voice has become distant and now you hear nothing. Is it because there is sin in your camp?
Thirdly, there's a pure conscience, 1 Timothy 3:9. Do you have a pure conscience? And lastly, there's a defiled conscience in Titus 1:15. What kind of conscience do you have? How many of you would say, Pastor, I have sin in my camp. There is sin in my home. Today, I want to be led of the Holy Spirit. I want to rid my life and my camp of this sin. I want more of God's presence. I'm willing to crucify my will for God's will. I want to live by His word. I want to have a pure and undefiled conscience? I want this sin out of my camp today! If that describes you, I want to pray this prayer with you. Let us pray together. I want everyone to lift your hand and pray this prayer with me.
Heavenly Father, in the authority of Jesus' Name, I come before your throne of grace. And I ask You to forgive me of my sin and all transgressions that have defiled my conscience. I ask You to cleanse my home, my life and my camp of sin. I ask today that You would give me a pure conscience: and that from this day forward, my spiritual man would rule my carnal man to not let me be swayed by the numbers that resist the righteous. But let me be led by the sovereignty of God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. From this day forward, I choose righteousness, holiness. I choose to honor the Word of God in word and deed. I choose to cleanse my life and my camp of all sin today, in Jesus' Name, I pray and ask it in faith believing and expecting. Amen.
