Well, I invite you to take your Bibles and let's turn to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 1 this morning. We'll eventually get to Joshua chapter 8, which will be our text for today. But we'll get a running start at it. Turn back if you would to Book of Joshua, chapter 1. Now, as you're turning there, I want you to think about what is one of the most simple verses in the Bible, and a favorite among Christians, maybe for you, it is your favorite verse. The verse is Proverbs 3:5. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” I bring that verse up at the beginning because I think it perfectly describes faith. Faith is trusting in the Lord with all your heart, and leaning not on your own understanding. It's the trust to believe that the Word has led us to lean upon, I trust in the Lord with all my heart, I trust in him with my whole person, not just my affections, but by my mind, my will, my whole self. I trust in the Lord, and I lean not on my understanding. So, faith in God means I trust his ways, even if they don't make sense, even if they don't come natural to me. Even if they don't match my inclinations. I trust his ways, not my ways. And Proverbs 3:6 will say, “In all your ways acknowledge him.”
So, what does faith look like? It looks like believing what God has said, not what you feel with your whole person, mind words, emotions. And I acknowledge that in every single moment of life, every single moment, I believe in him. That is what faith looks like. Faith looks like trusting in God and doing what he says at all times. Now, we could talk about faith in a lot of different areas of your life. We can talk about it in your finances and your family. We could ask what faith looks like in your worship, what it looks like at your work. But this morning, what I want to ask is, what does faith look like when I fail? What does faith look like, what does it mean to trust God when I fail? If you're a Christian, you understand that God has been unimaginably kind to us. He has saved us while we were his enemies. He has rescued us from our sin. He has forgiven us. And he did so by having Jesus come in, live the perfect life we were supposed to live, and then die the bloody death we should have had to suffer, and then take the wrath of God that should have been reserved for us. And Jesus took all of it so that we're completely forgiven in God's sight. God has been kind to us to forgive us. He's been kind to us to secure a home for us, that we have an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and will never fade away. He holds us in his hand, and Christ holds us in his hand. So, he's forgiven our pasts, he secured our future. And in the meantime, he's actually given us a new heart that wants to obey, and can obey, that we're no longer slaves of sin, but slaves of righteousness, He gives us the ability to follow his will. God has been so kind to us, which makes it so hard then when we fail. When we fall short of his commands. Friend, if you're any sort of normal Christian, like me or any of the Christians sitting around you, you find that your faith regularly is a failing faith, that we fail against the God who bought us, fail in our patience, fail in our self-control, fail in our self-less love. We fail to guard our mind and our mouth, and our eyes and our emotions. Perhaps you come here this morning, keenly aware and discouraged by your own consistent and frustrating and confusing failures. You can't believe you did that sin again. You can't believe you did that sin way in the past. You can't believe that you're showing up and your marriage is shaky, or maybe even nonexistent anymore. You can't believe that even after last week, even after celebrating the resurrection of Christ, you left here with so much boldness to share the gospel. And that Boldness has seemingly evaporated. You can't believe that once again, you failed.
So, what do we do? What do we do with failure? What does faith look like? What does it look like to trust God, even after we've failed him? That's the question that's going to get answered for us in Joshua, chapter 8. Joshua 8 will help us understand what to do with that. Now let's get the context. We're here in Joshua 1 to start. Let's see what's going on. We're reading through the book of Joshua right now, as a church. Who's been reading through it? A ton of people read their level. Yeah, let's go people. I love that. It's a great book. It's an older book. It's a book of battles. It's incredibly practical. But this book has a theme, it has a purpose, it has history with a theological bent. There's something the author wants us to see. One of the summary verses you can actually understand is Joshua 1:6, right there in chapter one. You could look down there. And it's a famous verse we know, but it says, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.” God is telling Joshua, hey, I'm going to give you the land. That's what the book of Joshua is about. God promised his people way back with Abraham that they would inherit the promised land, they are going to get the promised land, and God's going to be the one that gives it to them. But what Joshua needs to do, and all Israel needs to do is to be strong and courageous, not like inner strength, machismo, or anything like that. This is being strong to obey. This is unflinching devotion.
The summary of Joshua, you could say like this, God's words don't fail. So, you don't fail to obey God's words, God is faithful, so you need to be faithful in response. If you're reading through that, you'll see that in a couple of weeks at the end of Joshua 21, not one of the promises of God fail. So, you need to not fail to obey God's word. Let's move forward. Let's go to Joshua 7. So, we see this theme that God's giving them the land that people need to obey. As you're turning to Joshua 7, we know that Joshua 6 is the famous battle of Jericho, where the walls came tumbling down. And it seemed like this great victory, the first battle that they go on, and it's a conquest. But then we read chapter 7, and chapter 7 is an epic failure by the people of Israel. Look at Joshua 7:1, it says, “But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of YHWH burned against the people of Israel.” So, we get some insider information that Achan disobeyed. And Achan took some treasure that Israel was told not to take. And so, what happens in Joshua 7 is the nation goes to battle against this little city called Ai, or you call it AI, it doesn't matter. I'll probably do both on accident during the sermon. But they go to this little city called Ai, and they lose; they're defeated. They turn back. They haven't lost before, and Joshua is very confused and vexed by this; he grieves. Look at a Joshua 7:6, if you would. It says, “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads.” It's a sign of repentance and grief. And Joshua says, alas, oh Lord, YHWH, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all? To get us in the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? What's gone wrong? Something is off. Well, God tells him, what's wrong, as you have sinned, and I will not go to battle with you in your sin. I'm not going to be on your side if you're not acting like you're on my side. So, the next day they have this event where they're casting lots to see okay, who sinned against God? It's someone from this tribe, but someone from this family, someone from this clan, and Achan finally confesses, not because he confesses, but he's exposed, he's caught. And the end result, if you read this with us on Friday, the end result isn't that Achan is and his entire family is stoned and put to death, is under a pile of rocks at the end of chapter 7. which then brings us to Joshua 8.
So, as we come here to Joshua 8, you have this context. We have massive failure by the nation. There's an entire family who's had to pay for their sin right there. There's the pile of rocks to prove it. And now that gets us to chapter 8. Let's read this together and learn what faith looks like now. So, if you would, please stand for the reading of God's Word. We're going to read chapter eight. I'm going to read verse 1, all the way through verse 29. Joshua 8:1-29.
And YHWH said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.” So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them. 6 And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for YHWH your God will give it into your hand. And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.” So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people. Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel. Then YHWH said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire. So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. and when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped. But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua. When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai. But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. 28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.
This is God's Word. You can go ahead and have a seat. There's a lot going on there, a lot to figure out. The reason we read it all and study it all is we want you to know when I read my Bible, I needed to make sure I know how to understand what's going on. As we study it, we're going to continue to ask our question, what does faith look like when I fail? What does it look like to trust God after I've blown it? For responses, we're going to see four things that faith does.
Number one: “Faith believes that God responds to repentance with forgiveness.” Faith, when I fail, believes, trusts that God responds to repentance with forgiveness. There's a lot of things you can notice about that story. But if you were sitting and reading this, this whole book of Joshua in one sitting and taking a couple hours to do, the first thing you would notice is how quickly things have gone from very, very bad to good for the nation of Israel. I mean, at the very end of Joshua 7, we read, last verse of chapter 7 says “they raised a great heap of stones.” That is over Achan’s family. And then it says, Now the anger of Yahweh relents at that point. And what do we get? In Joshua 8:1, God says, Do not fear, do not be dismayed. Our rise, we're going to keep going with the battle. Take the fighting men to go get the land that I promised you. In fact, you see there in Joshua 8:1 that God says, “Do not fear, and do not be dismayed.” Why would he have to say that? Because Joshua was so broken over their sin and defeat in the last chapter, but what God is telling them is, hey, we've moved on past that now, and we're ready to move forward. God is treating Israel as if he has completely forgotten the sin they just committed against him, as if it never even happened. This whole thing moves forward without interruption; as of yet the game plan is still on. In fact, if you look at Joshua 8:2, when he says you shall do to Ai and it's king as you did to Jericho and it's king. Like, the language there in verse 2 and even verse 1 is very similar to the language you find in chapter 6. It's like Jericho all over again. It's like a new beginning again, we're just going to start afresh, like the whole incident of chapter seven didn't even take place. In fact, you realize that Achan is not even brought up again in the book of Joshua until Chapter 22. And it's not God that brings him up. It's the people of Israel that bring him up. Why is that? Because this is the nature of who God is. God forgives and God forgets. The God we serve is a God who forgives immediately and completely. That's who he is. When we ask the people of God, repent and ask forgiveness of our sin, we can expect that God will forgive our sin, because that is who God is. Let's park it here for a second.
Let's turn it over to the book of Micah. Micah chapter 7. I want to explore this theme for a moment of God's immediate and comprehensive forgiveness. Micah 7. If you need to go to the table of contents and then go to Micah, that's fine. I'll give you a second to get there. But we're throwing into Micah chapter 7. And as you're turning there, there are plenty of other verses that echo this theme in Scripture. Many of you are aware even without turning there. 1 John 1:9, which says if we confess our sins, he is faithful, he is trustworthy, you could believe him that he is going to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. That is God's nature to forgive those who confess their sins and repent. Look at Micah chapter 7 and we'll look at verses 18 and 19. Micah 7:18-19. Here's what Micah says. He says, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.” He delights to show love towards his people. Verse 19, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” What does God do with his people that repents? He treads under foot, stomps out their sins, so they don't exist anymore? What does he do with their sins that they asked forgiveness? He casts them into the very bottom of the ocean, where no one can dig them back up. That's who God is. It's his nature to forgive his people when it says he delights in showing steadfast love. What that's good for you and me, friends, is that when we ask for forgiveness from God, it's not something we need to convince him of.
We don't need to ask him to do something that's against his nature. It's his very nature, in his very delight to forgive sinners. It's what he loves doing. Take your Bible and go to Psalm 103. Turn over to Psalm 103. That would be a little easier to find. You know, this one. There are a few songs they have about this Psalm 103, it's going to be to the left. Psalm 103 is a famous song. That's about rehearsing the good things that God has done for us. And in this Psalm rehearses a lot of things, but one of those, one of the highlights is God's forgiveness. So, this song written by David, he says in Psalm 103:1-2, he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” So, here it is, blessed Lord, speak well of him, praise him, and do so not forgetting any of the good things he's done for us. What are those good things he's done for us? Psalm 103:3-5. “Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” Go to Psalm 103:8-12, it says, “Yahweh is merciful and gracious.” Do you see there that that doesn't say that God has mercy and has grace, it says he is a merciful God, it's who he is, it's just part of what it means for him to be God, as he is by nature merciful and gracious. “Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
Let me read you another one. So, I'll just read this one for Isaiah 43:25. You could jot that down for later. Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” Even these three verses I just pointed out, they all come from the Old Testament, which I love pointing out because sometimes we think grace is only like a New Testament thing. Like New Testament God is nice ultimately, and God he's kind of fierce. Oh, no, God has always been a God who delights to forgive sinners. Remember this that God has forgiven us? Let me ask you this morning. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God forgives those who repent? God forgives those who come to him in repentance, and who plead for mercy. I have to bring up this point. I'm nervous about two sorts of wrong ways of thinking that could be in this room. Maybe I'm wrong. But we've seen it enough. So, I want to help us think about a couple of things. The first would be I'm nervous about the person who emphasizes forgiveness, without any thought of repentance. There is a kind of, I would say, false Christianity out there, that says, well, God is just a forgive and forget God. God is just ready to move on. Whenever God is just, he's just quick to forgive. And it's true. God does forgive. God forgives completely. He forgives generously, He forgives immediately. But he forgives those who repent. He forgives those who confess their sins, who own their sinfulness, who don't just say that, oh, yeah, we're all sinners, but who says I am a sinner, and I personally need to be forgiven of my sin? See, my fear in this room in our time is that there will be those who assume forgiveness from God, without repenting towards God, they might be disappointed that their sin hurt others, they might be disappointed that they their sin was them failing to live up to their own expectations, but they don't see themselves as enemies against God who needed to be forgiven. Friends, if we don't confess our sins, and we don't repent of our sins, we are not forgiven of our sins. That's not how grace works. We have to own our sinfulness. We have to see we have nothing to offer God. And then God delights in swooping in and forgiving us. So be careful that we don't just assume forgiveness without repentance. But I think the second kind of person I'd be worried about in this room is those who are always wondering if they've repented enough, and thinking of their repenting enough and aren't thinking about forgiveness. How many of you have heard someone say, maybe you've said it yourself? I know God has forgiven me, but I just can't forgive myself. We've heard this. We've heard people say this. And I think when people say that I don't know if we should necessarily beat them up that there's things we like about that response. There's a brokenness. There's some shame, there's embarrassment. But I think there's something in that response that lacks faith. There's a lack of faith there. And you're forgiven because God forgives you. You're not condemned, because he has released you from your sins. And I know sometimes with our guilt, oh, we think about our sins, and we don't feel very forgiven. But you're not forgiven because you feel forgiven. You're forgiven, because God said so. You're forgiven because Jesus came to die for sinners. You're forgiven because Jesus lived that life, then died, that death, that tomb is empty, and your sins are no longer on you. You're not forgiven because you've accomplished a sense of forgiveness, you're forgiven because Jesus has paid it all. He's taken care of every single sin, that you have a confessional, and you can trust if you've confessed your sins to Christ. If you've been broken over your sins, if you've come to him, he forgives you, because that's what he says. Oh, friend, I get it. Our sins are so many. But his grace is greater than our sins. And so, we go to the Lord and say, Lord, I believe that you've forgiven me. But at times that I need you to help my unbelief, help me right now with these doubts. I'm stacking on my sins in my mind, that helped me to see that the righteousness you've given me is greater. I'm going to believe it. Because that's what you've promised. That's what God has done for us. If we go to God with our sins and say, Lord, I'm having a hard time forgiving myself because of this sin. You know what God's response is going to be. How many of you have done this thing before you've gone to your friend about something like years ago, and you've gone to your friend, you're like, hey, just so you know, I remember I did this thing to you. And I'm really sorry about that. And your friend’s going, I have no idea even what you're talking about, right? They don't have that feature. They don't even remember what you allegedly did to them. We go to God and we say, God, I'm having a hard time forgiving myself for this sin. And God goes, I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm pretty sure Jesus already paid for that. I'm pretty sure that that list of offenses, which was hostile towards us, was already nailed to the cross. You need to believe that I've paid for your sin. Hey, you're not holier than me. You sinned against me, not yourself, right? Believe me. I've forgiven your sins. And let's rest in that. That is such good news. We’re just saying that right about all our sins being paid for. Friends, that's good news this morning. If you're recognizing maybe for the first time, your own sinfulness against the Holy God, that that it's good if you see yourself as a sinner, because God forgives sinners who confess and repent and turn to him. What does faith look like when we fail? It believes that God responds to repentance with forgiveness.
And we're going to move to point number two. But before we do we need to make our way through the text as we're like two verses in. So, go back to Joshua chapter 8. We'll take bigger chunks. Now. chunk is a good biblical word. So, let's keep it going. Joshua, chapter 8. Let's get into the story as we move forward. So, we do read about this attack. Let's figure out what's going on here. And in chapter in chapter eight, verse two, it's God who says, Hey, you're going to open attack and lay in ambush against it. Now, as we read through it, and if you read through it this week, you might have noticed some of the details in this are a little bit confusing. And even if you read the commentaries on it, they don't have the exact details, right doesn't mess with the meaning, the meaning of the story doesn't change. But some of the exact details. They're hard to figure out. Let me show you what I mean by that. If you look at verse 3, it says Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men and sent them out. But in verse 12, he sends out 5000 men. And so, there's some questions of like, what's going on here? Was there a mistake at some point with transcribing the Hebrew there or what's going on? Again, the issue doesn't change the meaning of the story. So don't worry, this isn't like going to unravel the Bible or anything like that. What I think our best guess is that 30,000 describes the whole group of soldiers that went to attack. Well, 5000 were the ones that were set in ambush. I think that's the best way you could interpret it. But either way, the story doesn't change. The other thing is, you notice it gets a little repetitive. Like it says Joshua stayed at night with the people, that will say the same thing again, later in the passage. It seems that verse 11 through 13 is a sort of flashback. It's a sort of repeating again some of the details just to give a little more clarity. That's fine. That seems to be what's going on there. We see about a ravine and a valley. So, here's what's going on. Let me explain. Imagine where I'm standing up here on the Stage is the city of Ai. In ancient cities, they would build on hills for the sake of protection. And where the main camp we're assuming is the 25,000 is to the north of the city. So, it'd be straight out right out here. And the ambush would be set in a valley down to the west of the city. And some of you are going on, it says it's behind it. Well, it also says to the west, so let's explain why would they go to the west, because the sun rises in the east. So as the sun comes up, the king and his soldiers would see the army to the north. And if they were directly behind the city, they would also see the army to the south. But the West, they wouldn't necessarily see them down the valley, because it's still in the shadows of the city. Is that making sense? That's why they put the image of the sun still coming up, but that that area is still dark. So, here's what happens. Let's read through the story here. Joshua 8:14, “And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.” And at that point, every little Hebrew boy listening to the story of a twelve-year-olds like yeah, let's go. Alright, this is awesome. So then verse 15, Joshua is army they pretend they pull a fast one, a rope a dope. They're faking them out right here. Ai empties itself of all its soldiers chasing them. And then what do we have? Well, then Joshua raises the javelin, verse 20. “So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven,” the ambush should happen, and they give up, they have no power, and they're now trapped, soldiers are coming from behind the army in the front that they were chasing is now turned around and fighting them. This is a bigger army than they remember. They are only 12,000 max. And that's probably smaller than that, because 12,000 was men and women. It's an epic battle. It's awesome. So, what do we do with this? What are we supposed to notice? I don't think this is just meant to be like for military strategy, you know, so this won't help you with your game of Risk. I mean, I guess it could, but I don't know how you’d do it. What’s the goal here? What are we supposed to see? Well, one of the things you're supposed to see is God's activity in all of this. What's happening is you're seeing God's help. That's actually our second point.
Point number two. What does faith look like when I fail?: “Faith believes that God couples forgiveness with help.” Faith believes that God couples forgiveness with help. See all through this book. It's about God giving the land not Israel taking the land. That's important, right? It's about God giving land. So, remember, God is the one who brings them across the Jordan River. God is the one who helps them win the battle against Jericho. And God is highly involved. In this chapter. We see verse 2 that the ambush was his idea. He was the one that thought of it, even the timing of it. Verse 18, says that God is the one who says stretch out the Javelin that is in your hand toward Ai. God is the one who says alright, run the ambush. Now, go for it. Right. It's him that's involved. In verse 25-26, we read that that Joshua kept the Javelin held out until they won the battle. The picture there is it's of God's helping presidents. It's very reminiscent what happens in the book of Exodus when they're attacked by the Amalekites. And Moses holds up the staff and whenever they hold up the staff they win. The point being not that staffs and swords help you win the battle. The point is that God's presence helps a battle and that's supposed to be a sign of their dependence on God. He is the one who helps, and they are victorious. Pretty much because what God said way back in verse 1, I'm going to give them into your hands. What this tells us is that God doesn't just forgive, but he comes alongside his people to help them. And if point number one is about the immediacy of God's forgiveness, point number two is about the extent. He forgives so much, that he's going to help you a day where you previously failed. Oh, that's good news. That is such good news. And that's so much unlike us, right? That's so different than us. Because we forgive people but then we need them to like, make it up. You know, okay, you were late on that assignment for work, I'll forgive you. But now you need to work extra hours right now. You need to work overtime. You didn't do your chores, I'll forgive you. But your background music you get to listen to we don't get to listen to that now. Right? It's like, you get a redo, but you lose out on some things. Oh, no, God not only forgives them, but now he comes alongside and assists his people. I forgive you, and I'll help you obey. That is God's nature. Let's look at two passages and you'll discuss this in fellowship group this week. Gotta go to Philippians 2, because sometimes what we do and maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just the only one who struggles like this. I don't know. What we'll do is we'll mess it up. And we'll say, okay, you know, I'm really serious, and I’ve got to knuckle down. Like I do it on my own now, and I’ve got to be just really tough, because I'm not going to get help from everyone, I've blown it. We'll see that that's not God's attitude at all. That's not his attitude at all towards his children when they mess up. Philippians chapter 2, verses 12-13. And 13 is a popular verse. I'm sure many of you have heard this verse before. It’s Paul's talking about how to continue to grow. Verse 12. He says, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” He's not saying work for your salvation, is he saying work it out, strive to demonstrate all the more that you're a citizen of heaven. Strive with fear and trembling, with sobriety. But then he says this, “or it is God who works in you, both to will and to work.” So that's good news. God's I'm working because God's working in me, he's working on my will. And my work. He's, working on what I do my work and my even my desires, my will. But here's that little verse there at the end, it says, “for his good pleasure.”
So, I think some of us view God as like the angry basketball coach on the sidelines, who's like, ready to go off when we mess up. And we do the right thing. He's just not going to say anything, because that's what you were supposed to be doing all along, right. And we view God as the one that when we go say, God, I need you to help me with this, that he's the one who's going to say, Huh, those tears are great. I remember the tears last time you brought to talk to me about this. And the time before that, you talk to me about this. So maybe you should like, think about it for you come so emotional towards me. We think of God is being harsh with us and impatient. What we actually do is impose upon God the way we act. It's not what how God treats his children. It's not how he treats those who he's bought through his Son. Now it is his pleasure, his delight to come alongside and help you and help me even with that sin again. So, what he does, turn to your right, go to Hebrews, chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. What is God's attitude when I'm coming to him, asking for help with my temper, with my mouth, with my selfishness when I'm coming to him, talking to him about the same thing? Again, I'm talking to you again about this guy thought was going to be over. But what do I do with it? Well, Hebrews chapter 4 tells us. Look at verse 15. Speaking of we'll start in verse 14. Hebrews 4:14 says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” Who is this Jesus? Our High Priest, says, verse 15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus gets our struggle, he understands, he sympathized, he never sinned, but he gets the temptations that you went through him being fully man himself, having experienced them. And yet him being fully God having never given into those temptations. So, we understand your struggles, he gets your fight with the flesh. He sympathizes with you. He doesn't just feel bad for you. He feels bad with you in that. And what does it say? Verse 16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Oh, I love that. Because what I need all the time, if you're a Christian, what you need all the time is help. And what Jesus offers is help.
And that's what it looks like to have faith. I'm believing that God has not only forgiven me, but is walking with me in obedience. Friend, what this week do you need help in? What area of obedience needs help? Spend some time asking the Lord to help you by his Spirit and by his word, and through the encouragement of fellow believers to walk in his ways. And then after you pray that, believe that he heard it, and answered it, because you're in his son, and that's how he responds to us. Let's keep it moving. Let's go back to Joshua chapter 8. Joshua chapter 8. What does faith look like when I fail? Well, faith is going to believe that God responds with forgiveness to repentance. Faith is going to believe that God gives forgiveness, and he gives help.
On the number three number three: “Faith responds to God's forgiveness with obedience.” Faith responds to God's forgiveness with obedience. So, if we again, we're imagining that we've never read the book of Joshua before, and we're reading the whole thing in one sitting, one of the questions that's lingering for the first readers would be okay, well, they blew it last chapter, are they going to do it right this time? Are they going to figure it out? Or are they going to make the same mistakes? Again, I'm a little familiar with the history of Israel. They tend to make the same mistakes again and again and again. Is that going to happen here as well? And what the author highlights for us is that they obey, they continue to obey. We see that in Joshua 8:8, it says, “And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire.” You shall do according to the Word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you. This is Joshua talking, you shall do according to the Word of Yahweh. See, I have commanded you, hey, we're going to do what God told us to do. In fact verse 18, it says that “Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.’” Hey, they're listening to what God has told them to do. Again, verse 27, jump ahead a little bit to verse 27. God said only the livestock in the spoil of that city, Israel took as their plunder, according to the Word of Yahweh that he commanded Joshua. So, at Jericho, they were told they weren't allowed to take anything. No treasure, no livestock, nothing. It all needs to go. And they disobeyed. Here, God says, hey, I'm going to let you take the livestock. He wants them to take things they need from time to time, but it's according to his command. And what do they do? They obey. They take what he tells them to, they do not take what he forbids them to take. They submit to God, Israel’s sin, God forgave them. And what did they do? They start obeying. I think that is beautifully simple. It's beautifully simple because when we sin, sometimes what we do is we, we make ourselves sit in the penalty box for a bit. We're like, man, I need to feel it for a little while. I need to take every piece of my disobedience and just let this sin sit upon me. Or what we do is we like, come up with some plan to do something epic to make up for it. You know, I looked at that again, I shouldn't have, I was mouthy to my wife again. I was unkind to my kids again. So, here's what we're going to do. I'm throwing out every single device there is. My wife and I are going on a two week vacation to reconnect and we're going on a one family trip, and we're going to do something epic to make it up. That's great. I don't think that's bad. Some of those things might be good things. But maybe what you just need to do is just like, start obeying. Now, that's the deep inside. I have this week for you, right? You disobeyed, God forgave you. Now what do we do? Well, maybe we got our mouth again. And maybe we just start walking with God. He's forgiven us, right? So, there's nothing to do but just okay, well, now I'm going to obey his Word. I'm going to start doing what he's called me to do. And in fact, I'm going to be zealous about obeying his Word. I'm just going to be really, really strong in obeying what he's called. I don't need to beat myself up for it. He's forgiven me. And now it's time to obey.
Friends, that's actually what the Bible says real repentance looks like. So, you can look this up later, but you should jot down 2 Corinthians 7:11. Because in 2 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about there's a worldly sadness over sin. And then there's a godly sadness over sin. Sadness just kind of wants to soak and beat yourself up and sometimes can just be a form of pride. I'm just going to be sad until someone else tells me it's okay. But what godly sadness looks like is this Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:11. He says, “For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.” What looks like the right response to forgiveness is now zealous, steadfast obedience. I'm just going to obey all of God's commands. In fact, I'm sure that if I disobeyed that really big command, there was probably some little ones I was disobeying along the way, and I'm going to make sure I'm doing those. We don't have to overcompensate. We don't have to pay penance or anything like that. God is forgiving you; Jesus paid for it off. Now what do you do you obey? You believe God's forgiven you and you believe him by obeying his Word.
I think it's important we pause for a moment to notice what this point is. It's that we respond to forgiveness with obedience. It's the forgiveness than the obedience. Christian it's not the other way around. So sometimes what we do is we treat like it's I need to obey and then I'll be forgiven. That's not how this works. And I know you would say that we know good answers. How are you saved by your good deeds? Oh, no grace alone, right. But then we'll do things like, Okay, I've blown it again. So, I'm going to stop going to church. I'm going to stop reading and praying, I'm just going to like, work through my sin. And when I'm worthy enough again, then I'll return back to God. When I've like, I've dropped here, when I've worked myself up to here, then I can go back and be in God's presence again. That doesn't work for a couple of different reasons. Here's the first reason why. How do you know you've done enough to be worthy again? Somebody you know this, you'll never pay off that sin that you feel bad about. You'll never do enough, you'll never feel bad enough. You know, we’re saying, could my zeal know respite? No. could my to tears forever flow? None of those could pay off your sin? The second reason is by doing that, who gets the glory, then? Do you get the glory because you work to yourself back in a relationship with God? Or does God get the glory for forgiving a sinner like you? See, this is about avoiding burnout. And this is about avoiding robbing God of his glory. And if we were to sit back and look at this chapter for what it is, it is a story about God's magnificence. This is a God who forgives. This is a God who helps. This is a God who keeps his promises. This is a God who magnifies his name. That's why it's important we don't mess it up. Or we'll never feel the joy and the peace that comes with forgiveness first, and then obeying the God that's already forgiven us in Christ. If you're here this morning, and you're not a Christian, you've maybe been invited or checking this out maybe the first time, or you've been with us for a few weeks. Don't turn this into like, Okay, I'm going to clean myself up. And then I'll be like one of these people. I know God will forgive you today. He'll forgive you today. Be forgiven, then walk in his ways. Turn to him, and he can forgive you because Jesus died for your sin, such that if you cry out and say, Lord, I've sinned against you, and I can't give you a plan to work myself up. What I need from you is mercy. God forgives. And you can have all your sins paid for today. We need to obey in response to forgiveness. We need to obey, and we need to do so urgently.
In fact, that's our fourth point this morning. Number four. What does faith look like when I fail?: “Faith responds to God's forgiveness with urgency.” The last three times I've been able to preach I preached on Joshua 6, and then Joshua 7, and then Joshua 8. And this is a third time I’m going to get up here and going man, this is a really weighty, weighty section. Because in chapter 6, all of Jericho is wiped out. And in chapter 7, and entire family is judged. And again, here we find another city 12,000 people destroyed. What are we supposed to do with this? It's also if you look at the very end of where we read the very end of verse 29. We read about a great heap of stones left over. Now we've seen rock piles before in the book of Joshua, and we're what do we do with these rock piles? These rock piles are meant to be to remember things to say, hey, that's where that happens. So back in chapter three and four, there is a rock pile across the Jordan a rock pile in the Jordan, why are they looking to God? That's when God brought us across the Jordan River. And there's a pile of rocks in chapter 7. Well, that's where God judged Achan and his family. And here there's another rock pile. Then God destroyed the people of Ai. That's what God killed those people used us to judge those people. What are we supposed to learn from this? Here's what it is. It's not just we need to obey. We need to obey with urgency, because God judges sin. He judges it swiftly. Judges it quickly. Judges it severely. We read the scene here where it says that the king of Ai was killed and he was hung on a tree. And what that is telling us is he wasn't killed by hanging, he was killed and then hung. This goes back. You could write this down Deuteronomy 21:22-23. So Deuteronomy 21:22-23. In Deuteronomy 21, it says that if a man has committed a crime punishable by death, and he is put to death, you hang him on a tree, and his body shall not remain all night on the tree. But you shall bury in the same day for a Hanged Man is cursed by God. So he's not cursed by God because he's on the tree. He's on the tree because he was cursed by God. That was the idea you would put him to death. you'd hang up on the tree to say, hey, you're going to end up like this if you disobey God's commands, and then you bury him that day. We give him a burial, oh wait, we don't want to be crazy here, but don't be too barbaric. And that's what they do with this guy. They hang them up before sunset, they throw them at the city, they put the pile of stones on as a warning. Now some of us here they're like, oh man, how could God do this? This doesn't seem like the loving God. Friends, God is a God who judges, whether he judges by flood or by Israel or by fire, he is going to judge sin. Every single sin is going to be judged in the manner in which he judges it here gives us a picture of sometimes that God's judgment comes suddenly. There's a verse in Psalm 18:25-26. It says this, “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.” A better word than tortuous might be the word shrewd. That is, God judges swiftly and poetically. So, the people of Egypt, really think we're going to take out Israel by the Red Sea. And then last minute God wipes them out. In the book of Esther, Haman is feeling good about himself walking into the palace. I'm going to kill all the Jews right after this party. And then God has him killed on the very gallows he built. And in Revelation, you kind of get the idea that the beasts and his people probably think they're going to win until they don't. God's judgment isn't advertised not coming for forty more years, not coming for twenty more years. It sneaks up on you. It comes subtly, his judgment can come at any time. And it's a warning to us. It's a warning to any religious person. Chapter 7, it's a warning to any non-Jew here in chapter eight. It's a warning that you need to obey God's commands, because disobeying God's commands could bring judgment, and you don't know how much time you have. And so, friend this morning, if you do not know the Lord, it is a warning to you. I do not know how much time I have left. And what some people will do is say, man, this just doesn't seem right. I don't know if I can follow a God that this doesn't seem like a just way for things to end. Oh, friend, you know what the right response to this is? It’s not how could they kill someone to hang up on a tree? It's to think I should be the one that hangs on the tree. Because this very verse is referenced in the New Testament about Jesus's own death on the cross. Listen to Galatians 3:13. It says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.” God rescued us from the wrath of God by becoming a curse for us, saying curses everyone who is hanging on a tree, Jesus dies and on the cross is under the wrath of God so that we will never taste the wrath of God. And you can flee the wrath of God today by having someone else take it in your place. That is good news. But that is also why man, we see God's kindness and severity, we need to respond with obedience with urgency. Do not delay. Sin is a trickster; you do not want to fall into it.
That is what faith looks like. So, we have faith in God even when we fail. And then you know what's funny? This hap chapter then ends with like, a strange ending, look at verses 30 to 35. We're not going to read all five of these verses. But what they have here then is this is this ceremony I mentioned this a couple of sermons ago. It says in Joshua, build an altar to the God of Israel and mount Ebola. So what they do they build this altar. And what they do here is something that God had told them to do back in Deuteronomy 27 and 28. He said, When you get into the Promised Land, there's going to be two mountains. Okay, I want you to go before mount Gerizim and I want you to go before mount Ebola and I want you to read all the blessings of the law in front of Mount Gerizim. And in front of Mount Ybor, I want you to read all the cursings of the law and, and what's going on here, let me tell you what's happening. And this is the last little pointer thing. This right here is a summary. This is a summary for visual learners. That's what you could call it, a summary. Some of you are visual learners. So, here's what I want you to do is imagine the scene, right? You're standing here and off to the right over there is Mount Gerizim. And over there is Mount Ebola and you're hearing people over here, read all the blessings that come with obeying the law, and all the cursings that come with disobeying the law. And as you're hearing it, here's what you're getting ready in my life. I've got two choices. I can choose the favor of God and obeying him, or I could choose the wrath of God and disobeying him. That's it. It's that simple. It's here or here. That's what's going on here with this ending. And by the way it has to do with our response to God's word. Do you see in verse 35 says there is not a word of all that Moses commanded Joshua, that he that he did not read before all the assembly of Israel. So here we go. It has to do with all of God's commands, not just a few. You read it before all the women and the little ones and the sojourners who lived among them. That's interesting. The sojourners would have been non-Jews, non-Israelites, not Hebrews. No, this is telling us these verses right here, 30 to 35. You can read them later. This is like the spoiler the twist at the end of the movie for chapters 6, 7, and 8. If you're reading chapters 6, 7, 8, you're going what's going on in these chapters? Well, verses 30 to 35 explain it. Here's what's happening in chapter 6, 7 and 8. God's people obey, they're blessed. they disobey they're cursed. People disobey God's command, they face his wrath, people obey, they receive God's favor. And by the way has to do with Jew or Sojourner, Jew or non-Jew, Rahab chapter six obeys God's Word; her family is delivered. Achan chapter 7, a Jew, disobeyed God's command and he is cursed. See, has nothing to do with pedigree has nothing to do with heritage doesn't matter for you. If your family is Christian, your grandma was a Christian or any of that. What does Jesus say in Mark chapter 3? “Who are my mother, my brother and my sisters, those who do the commands of God, those who keep my word?” Friends, faith in Christ is a lot of things. It's recognizing our sin. It's turning to him and receiving forgiveness, it's receiving new life. There's all sorts of fun, beautiful, glorious steel theological terms we can consider. But, you know, it ultimately comes down to, are we going to obey his commands? That's what it looks like to follow him. Lord, I'm going to obey you today. I'm going to obey you. And with my family, I'm going to obey you in this trial. I'm going to keep trusting you and submitting to your word. Friends, do you love the Lord? Has he forgiven you? Then let's obey him by believing and doing all that he's commanded us. Let's pray together.
Father, we're thankful for this morning. thankful that you are such a good and gracious God that you don't treat us according to our iniquities, that you don't respond to us according to our sinfulness, but according to grace. We're thankful that we're forgiven, not because we pursued you, but you pursued us in sending Christ to live the life we were supposed to live in. Take the wrath we were supposed to take. Lord, I pray this morning for Faith. Pray that by your Spirit, you would give us trust in what you've done. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief, or for those who feel the guilt of their past sin or even the sin now, help them respond in repentance but then help them to believe your word. help them to believe in your character, not only to forgive, but then to help us. You're such a kind father, may we respond with obedience? May we live lives that are marked by the gospel that we've been transformed? Do we submit to your work? Or maybe we do so urgently? God, I don't know who you we don't know who you've brought here this morning that doesn't know you that needs to receive forgiveness, but in your kindness, you have warned them about the wrath to come. We pray even this morning as your son has been lifted up, that you address sinners to yourself. We pray these things in Your Son's name. Amen.