THE ACCURSED THING
by Pastor Jim May
Joshua Chapter 7
Joshua 7:1, "But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel."
Achan - a man whose name is translated as “one who troubles”, has been associated with a great sin against God for over 3,400 years. His sin may not have seemed so great to him. In fact, to most of us it may seem to be such a small thing. But Achan’s sin proved to be a sin that was so very costly in the end. Achan’s sin brought God’s judgment upon Israel and it cost the lives of 36 of his friends in battle. Achan’s sin cost the lives of every one of his own family. All of his sons, his daughters, his wife and everything he owned was utterly destroyed because of Achan’s sin. And, his sin brought one of the greatest defeats in battle that the Children of Israel ever suffered. From that day until now, wherever, and whenever, the name Achan is spoken, it is always spoken in sadness and sorrow at the remembrance of what happened to him, for he sin in The Accursed Thing.
How many of you remember this story of what Achan did to bring such a terrible judgment upon himself, his family and the people of God? Perhaps you can quote this story to me because it has been taught about, preached about and spoken of times without number, and by much greater preachers of the Gospel than I could ever claim to be.
But with all of this teaching and preaching on Achan’s sin, I wonder how many of God’s own people are still committing this sin today and taking of The Accursed Thing? I wonder how many more of God’s people will be destroyed, how many more defeats the church will have suffer, or how many more people will destroy their own brothers and sisters in Christ by partaking of The Accursed Thing?
Don’t be fooled or blinded my friends. There are still a lot of Christians who fall into the same trap that Achan fell into. There are still a lot of people who are numbered among the Children of God, who go to church week after week, who fight in the battle against the devil right along side of the Faithful, and who are recognized by all of us as being a part of the Chosen People of God, but they are also partaking of The Accursed Thing and bringing a reproach, bringing defeat, bringing God’s wrath, and even bringing about the death and destruction of those very people that they think they are trying to help.
As I was seeking God, asking Him to show me what the church needed to hear from His Word this morning, I began to sense that God wanted to speak to someone, or maybe more than one, about partaking of The Accursed Thing.
I know that God’s Word will speak to you this morning. Perhaps, for some of you this message will only serve as a reminder, as a teacher, or as a Word of Exhortation. You are not guilty of taking of The Accursed Thing. For you I say, Thank you Lord.
Thank you for those who are fighting the battle with us today. Thank you Lord for giving us some faithful warriors who will lift up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and carry that sword faithfully into the battle, helping us to drive back the forces of Hell. It is you who are faithfully living your life, to the best of your ability, in holiness and purity, while you are faithfully supporting the work of the Kingdom of God, faithfully giving of your finances and your service to the church and faithfully obeying and following the Holy Spirit as He leads you through life.
But there is someone, and maybe more than one, for I don’t really know your heart. Only God can really know, and you will know before this message is through, whether God is speaking to you or not. I have no doubt that there is someone who will hear this message today and know that God is aiming this arrow from His Word directly at your heart and life. For you I pray that you will hear and heed this warning and learn from the example of Achan, and repent of the sin of partaking of The Accursed Thing, before God has to bring you into judgment.
I do not want to see anyone, especially one of our own brothers and sisters in the Lord, a member of the Family of God, face the wrath of God for partaking in The Accursed Thing.
Hear the Word of the Lord please! Don’t turn a deaf ear to what the Word of God and the Holy Ghost is speaking to your heart this morning! Get out of your mind anything that is distracting to you for the next 30 to 45 minutes because what I have to say to you is more important for your life and the lives of everyone you love than anything else that you could think of. It’s more important than what you are going to eat for lunch. It’s more important than what you are going to do this afternoon, or tomorrow. It’s more important than what clothes you are going to wear, or what plans you have made.
What I have to say to you right now, directly from the Word of God and under the anointing power of the Holy Ghost, is so important because it can mean the difference between life and death, both physically and spiritually, for everyone you love. It can mean the blessing or the cursing of everything that you have worked for all of your life. It can mean the eternal life, or the eternal damnation of your own soul and the souls of your friends and family. This is not a game. This is a warning directly from God to stay away from The Accursed Thing lest you face the same judgment as Achan, for if we do not obey God and follow the leading of the Holy Ghost, then we place ourselves under the power of the Law and the only power that the Law has is to bring punishment for sin.
You might already be thinking, “Well Brother May, don’t we live under Grace? Doesn’t God forgive us of our sin if we repent? Doesn’t God’s grace save us? Aren’t we made righteous through the Blood of Jesus and not by our own works of Righteousness?”
Yes, we live under God’s grace. We are saved by grace; and without the grace of God not one of us will enter Heaven’s gates. Yes God will forgive us for our sin if we confess that sin to our Father and Heaven. He is Faithful and Just and will forgive us if we ask Him to. No, there are no works of righteousness that will save you, for you are not saved by Good Works. If we could, then man could earn his own salvation and there would be no need for a Savior. Yes, you are made righteous because of the Righteousness of Christ. You are given Robes of Righteousness when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and surrender your life to Him.
But there is the key! The key is that you must live a surrendered life unto the Lord. When you give your life to Jesus, you have to give your life to Jesus. It is no longer your life to live any way that you want to – it is a life that is given wholly and completely unto the Lord for Him to use as He wills. It is a life that must portray the Lord Jesus Christ to the World. It is a life that exemplifies the holiness of God, the purity of Righteousness, faithfulness of service and the perfect Love of God, and not just once in a while, or on Sunday morning, but every hour of every day that you live.
Paul said in Romans 6:14-15, "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid."
You are living under a time of grace but the fact that God’s grace abounds to all men does not give us the right to willfully and continually and knowingly continue in partaking of The Accursed Thing. The power of Grace in your life will be negated and you will become cursed of God, just as surely as Achan was, if you continue to partake of The Accursed Thing.
Now that we have established the fact that partaking of the Accursed Thing can, and will, bring destruction and death to your body and soul, and we have established that this message is a warning to those who do this sin, let us examine what The Accursed Thing really is so that we can avoid it at all costs.
How many of you really want to know what The Accursed Thing is? Do you think that it’s important to know? Are you willing to hear the Word of the Lord today? Then listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church and to your heart today and heed the call of God as He speaks to you because this is serious business.
Achan’s story in Joshua chapter 7 will give you the answer as to what The Accursed Thing is. Let’s read some of it.
Joshua 7:2-4, "And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few. So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men:…"
The city of Ai was just a small city. It should have been no mare than a stepping stone for Israel as they claimed the Promised Land that God had given them. Joshua didn’t seem very alarmed at Ai’s presence. He sent a scouting party out to take a look and they came back with a report filled with confidence that they could take the city with ease.
This battle is going to be easy, or so they thought. This is a small city. Ai’s walls were thin and easily broken, the city was small, and it didn’t have a large army. And besides, if God can defeat a city like Jericho so easily, then Ai is nothing at all. We can do this with one hand tied behind our back. We don’t even need the whole army, just send a few thousand of us and let the rest have the day off.
I have seen the time, in the church, where it seemed that the things that should have been so easy to do, have actually came very near destroying the church. Maybe it’s just a small matter like what color should the carpet be, or should we use chairs or pews, or should we pave the parking lot – you know, matters of business that hardly seem that important spiritually at all. And yet these small battles have split and destroyed so many churches that it boggles the mind.
There is an ever present danger that the Work of the Lord though any local congregation will be stopped and the people will live in defeat simply because of a small thing that they could not overcome.
Likewise, in the life of a Christian, we see this same scenario at work. We sometimes look at the battles that we face, the little things, the Ai’s in our life, and we think to ourselves, “Oh I don’t have any problem defeating that little sin.”
Suppose a little habit begins to form that you don’t give much thought to. One of the greatest problems in the church today is one that begins just like this. That’s the sin of pornography. You can’t go though life for long without seeing or hearing something that relates to this sin. At first thought, the Christian will say to himself, well this is no big deal. I can whip this enemy. Then the next thing you know, he loses his job, his family, his home and his very soul because of that “Accursed Thing” that he didn’t repent of.
There is the “Accursed Thing” of worldly music and entertainment that glorifies sex, drugs and living for the devil, that seems like such a small thing for us. It won’t hurt me to be a part of the crowd for a while and listen to the music. I can take it or leave it and it won’t affect my spirituality. I can go and not be a part of the crowd. I can even sit there with a beer in this hand, a smoke in the other, and I can think about God, and it’s all right. But how many people today are so hooked on it that they will go to hear their favorite band before they will be in the House of God to worship the Lord that they claim to love? How many today are no longer in the House of God at all, or at least seldom show up, because they are living under the power of that “Accursed Thing”?
There is the “Accursed Thing” of gambling. You would be amazed at how many people who claim to love the Lord are found at the casinos on Friday night, throwing their hard-earned money into the devil’s offering plate and then don’t have the money to pay their tithes or support their families for the rest of the week. It seemed like such a small thing in the beginning, but now they are living under the power of that “Accursed Thing”.
There is “The Accursed Thing” of the love of money. It’s not that we love that dollar bill in our wallet. We don’t take it out, hug it, kiss it, snuggle next to it and stroke it on the couch. We don’t hold it in our hand and feel “at one with that piece of green, or colored paper”. No, it’s not the paper, it’s things it will do and get for us that we love. The love of money translates into the love of the things of this world.
Most Christians don’t think that money is a big battle for them except that they can never seem to get enough of it to make ends meet. But let them get the chance to make more of it and they will forsake the church, forsake the Lord and forsake their own family to chase that dollar bill. Everything thing else begins to take the place of serving God. We see it every Sunday morning when we leave our neighborhoods for church and watch other people who claim to be Christians out mowing the lawn, or hooking up the fishing boat, or barbequing in the back yard. They thought that the battle over the love of money was a simple battle that they could win easily, but now they are living under the power of “The Accursed Thing”.
That little sin that besets you; that little fox that is spoiling your vine; that little thing in your life that is destroying your victory and stealing your very soul; that “Accursed Thing” in your life that you think you have control over; is going to spell absolute defeat for your soul and your life if you don’t get rid of it now!
Notice what happened when Israel went against Ai. The last phrase of Joshua 7:4 says, "… and they fled before the men of Ai." The battle that should have been so easy was lost and men were killed, and Israel fled in terror before that little band of Ai.
Have you wondered why you can’t seem to get the victory over some of the sin in your life? Have you wondered why your testimony to your family and friends has not been strong and they have not accepted Jesus into their hearts and lives? Have you wondered why your love for God seems to be less today than it was a short time ago? Have you wondered why there are so many financial difficulties in your home? Have you wondered why it seems that others are being blessed while you languish in despair and need? Have you wondered why you are discouraged, down trodden, sickly and depressed while others with less trouble than you have are always feeling “up” and happy?
Perhaps it’s because you have hidden “The Accursed Thing” in your life and you are trying to get by with sin in your heart that you don’t think that anyone knows about. If you have “The Accursed Thing”, it brings God’s judgment, and it will bring death and defeat to you, your family, your friends and to the church if you don’t get it out.
Joshua 7:6-13, "And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you."
Sometimes I ask the Lord, “Why Lord, why do we see so much defeat in the church? You have promised that the “gates of hell shall never prevail against us” and yet we see the church hurting and struggling. I see ministry that doesn’t seem to be working like it should. Souls are not being saved in the altars. Revival in the hearts of God’s people just isn’t happening. We seem to be fighting demons every time we come together to worship God. The children are really being rebellious. The teenagers aren’t living the way they should. The adults aren’t being as faithful as they could be. I have to struggle against the powers of darkness just to get a message. Lord, what’s going on here? What’s wrong?
Then I hear what God is saying to Joshua.
It’s because there is sin in the church! It’s because someone in the church has taken of “The Accursed Thing” and made it a part of their life. Until you get “The Accursed Thing” out of the church, you will live a defeated life. The church can’t win the battle against sin if sin is in the church. God’s Spirit will not bless a church, or a people, or a person that tolerates “The Accursed Thing” in the church.
Then I hear the Lord saying to Joshua, and to me, “Get up, preach the Word, don’t cull what I have to say to the people. Tell them what I want them to hear and I’m going to hold you accountable for every word because you are supposed to be their shepherd, so speak the truth. Tell them to get sanctified and tell them to do it now! There is “The Accursed Thing” in the church, somewhere among the members of the church, and until “The Accursed Thing” is dealt with, you will not stand when the battles come against you and the church will live in defeat!”
People of God, I have to stand here today and say that this is exactly what the Lord has told me to tell you this morning. Either we get “The Accursed Thing” out of the church or the church will be live in defeat and never really see the victory that God wants us to have!
Let’s read some more of the story in Joshua chapter 7.
Joshua 7:15-26, "And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: And he brought the family 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: And 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. And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD 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, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day."
I don’t’ want to see the church living in the Valley of Achor, constantly fighting for survival, feeling defeated and not having a real move of the Living Spirit of God, covered with a pile of stones from the judgment of God. I don’t want to see any of you in that pile of stones either, living in absolute defeat.
I believe that God is giving us a message today, a warning if you will, to get “The Accursed Thing” out of the camp before His wrath is poured out.
Since I do not believe that the church will be defeated because God said that the gates of Hell would never prevail against it, then that leads me to only one conclusion and it’s the frightening realization that God is getting tired of the sin in the church and the sin in the life of individual Christians and He is going to force “The Accursed Thing” out of the camp, no matter what it takes.
I’m no prophet, but I believe that I have been given a prophetic word to those whom God is speaking to this morning. You know who you are, or you will in just a moment as the Holy Ghost begins to speak to your heart. This is God’s word to you personally!
Hear what the Spirit is saying to you right now, and I speak these words to you under the direction and anointing of the Holy Ghost, with all the Love that God can give to me for you, “Either get the sin out of your heart or God is going to leave you to go your own way. He is going to give you over to a reprobate heart and mind and you will no longer have a desire for the things of God. God is going to let you have what you want until you don’t want anymore of it. Whatever it is that is coming between you and serving the Lord the way you should, is going to become the absolute focus for your life. God is going to let you serve the devil if that’s what you want to do but it’s going to cost you dearly.
First, your relationship with your spouse and your children, if you have any, is going to be destroyed.
Second, your finances are going to become so bad that you will have to throw up your hands in surrender and lose what you have worked for all your life.
Third, your friends of the world will forsake you because they see you as a hypocrit, and you will forsake your friends in the church, because you won’t feel comfortable around them anymore.
Fourthly, and most importantly, God is going to drive you out of the church and out of the camp of his church, and away from the Family of God, and give you over to the devil in an all-out, and last ditch, effort to bring you to a place of repentance.
Fifth, if you don’t heed this warning, and repent of “The Accursed Thing”, and turn back to God in full confession of sin, and then completely surrender your will to God’s will, then you will not make Heaven your home and you will spend eternity with the damned.”
That’s the end of the quote of what I know that the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me to give to you in this message but let me add something to this.
If you are listening to this message, this warning, and you know that the Lord is speaking directly to you, then you may have already seen the beginnings of the five judgments in your life. There’s already trouble in your relationships. There’s already trouble in your finances. There’s already forming a division between friends and family. There’s already “coldness” in your heart against the things of God and you don’t love coming to church as much as you should. And, finally, you are already beginning to doubt your own salvation.
Now, you may not be experiencing all of these things, but I believe that you are experiencing some if not most of them.
That’s God’s warning to turn around now and get rid of “The Accursed Thing” in your life while you still can.
You don’t have to suffer defeat. You don’t have to face God’s judgment. You can come to him right now, in full confession for sin, and repent of it.
Come to this altar this morning and repent of “The Accursed Thing” before it brings your soul to destruction. I don’t want to stand before your grave, as you are covered with the stones of death, and weep over your destruction.
Come now, Come while you can and Repent of “The Accursed Thing” in your life.
